, 1882-03-11
The Legal Catechism.

anyway
LAwYER-Lawl Well, Law from one
legal point of view may be lucrative
means of defeating justice,
Glow many kinds o: law are there ;
L-Sometimes Two kinds One for the
poor and another for the rich.
C.-What do you think the best way Of
dealing with a witness who is unfavorable
to your case
MY tactics are to confuse, bewil
der, scare and mystify him OF else make
him angry. Ii woman, make her angry
by all means. Women ase especially good
subjects to operate on in this way Many
women don't know exactly what theyr
saying when they do talk, anyhow, and
they're pretty certain aot to remember
what they have SAID two minutes after,
anyway. l don't know of more aston
ished beings in the world than women
when confronted with their Own words
three minutes after the court stencgrapher
takes them down
C.-lf the witness endangers your case,
what do you Qegally) consider him.
L.-As target for abuse, inuendo and
satire An object of suspicion. A per
son to be proved bad character A be-
ing whose minor faults must be magnitied
into crimes A pe!son without prohity,
honesty or honor. A Pariah among men.
C.-Bu. if the witness testify in your
favori
Ia perfect being. An epitome Of
honesty, honor, goodness and veracIfy.
4 prosecuted being on whom most foul
aspersions are cast by opposing counsel
C.-And if in the next case this very
game witness should testify in favor OF
opposing counsel, how would yeu consider
him or her!
MY friend, circumstances alter
cases Especially legal ''cases.' Human
nature is essentially weak and defective.
Further than this We are non-committal.
Law is rigid. Law is merciless. Law
goes straight ahead after justice, looking
either 10 right nor left.
What is the best method of i'm
pusnins the character Of n witness when
| nothing tangible can he raked up against
him-or ner
1.-The tactics of 'insinuating' crime
| or bad character The inferential asser-
ton Of lies ont Of whole cloth Thus
Ask the witness about his setting his
brothers barn on fire out of revenge
OF course, there may be no brother nor
any barn, and consequently no fire That
| makes no difference. Words ana charges
with the public and the jury will often
serve just as well as facts With the com
! mon mind man charged with any Of
fense is deemed guilty until he proves his
innocence. If the man deny the char9e,
so much the worse for hun. For in de-
nying he keeps the matter stirred up anu
before public attention. The more such
matter is before the public the more are
they disposed to believe tina: there must
be some truth in it. The public read
hastily, reflect hastily, condemn hastily,
and their minds are caught by the most
prominent and suggestive words. The
mere mention Of murder" theft,
dishonesty foul crime in even dis
tant connection with any persons name is
quite enough to Influence the majority TO
deem the man so mentioned guilty. We
understand this and take advantage of it.
II | say TO witness whose reputation |
wish to destroy, Didn't you cut your
mothers throat once and split your
fathers head open with an axe, and
then set fire to the house and run away
hy the light Of the ruins r great many
people will be disposed to believe he did
all these things because | asked him If he
did Seel oh, law means something
more than Blackstone Ii means knowl-
edge Of human nature That's the plane
We play on.