The Opelousas courier., 1893-02-11
OLA PODRIDA.

SOME REMARKABLE FEATs.-A traveller
vho made a tour of the Orient, and who,
" the wav, is something of a magician
.imself, tells the following wonderful
tory of his experience with some of the
wizards of the far East: "* y One
# these was begun by the largest man in
he group, who threw a great coil of rib
,ons far toward the sky. AS it uneoiled
n midair, a small hawk seemed to be lib
rated from it. He circled around a few
lines, seized the ends of the ribbons in
his beak, and then made off toward a
mall, white cloud which apparently
iormed before our eyes. From this
cloud there now slid to the ground a
make, a frog and a smiling native baby,
which one of the wizards "wives' caught
n her arms and held out for the
wondering crowd to inspect. Next, all
If the magicians save the larger "a per
iect giant in s~tature), now left the place.
The giant then satdown upon the ground.
He Thea spread a large colored umbrella
n such a manner as to wholly conceal
himself from u party. Calling me to
ais side he exacted a promise from me to
remove the umbrella after the expiration
Of exactly five minutes by the watch. l
did as he directed and wa unspeakably
surprised to find that the giant had dis
appeaEed, though the earth where he had
been sitting was perfectly solid. Re
turning to the hotel we found our mir
scle-working giant sitting serenely on
The porch. When I handed him his UNI
brella he opened it with a quick jerk,
disclosing my watch and chain hanging
in a slip-noose from n of the ribs"
TEST FOR PERJURY.--A method of
ascertaining when a witness is commit
ting perjury is greatly needed by prac-
%titioners. A hint toward the scientific
treatment of testimony so as to obtain a
knowledge of its value is given in a re-
Gently published statement of a CONVEX
sation between three Kentucky judges.
They all agreed to the statement that a
person who yawns while on the witness
stand is committing perjury. Another
rule sometimes given is that a witness
who repeats the lawyers question before
answering it is presumably lying. A
Judge recently rewarded a wit
ness who had answered all
his counsel's questions glibly,
but repeated carefully every question of
the cross examination before answering
it: Don't repeat the questions, or the
jury may come to the conclusion that
you are making up your answers. | do
not say they would be justified in doing
so, but you should remember that there
is such a notion prevalent" The hesita-
ton of q witness and any device to gain
time before answering are frequently as
signed as reasons for believing that a
witness is not telling the truth. An over
glib witness is, however, also suspected,
and all rules thus far assigned have ex-
ceptions. The science of weighing human
testimony is still far from exact, and the
LAWYER who believes a witness is commit
ting perjury can Only pursue the ola
methods of examination in the hope that
some slip o fdthe witnesses memory may
betray him.
How TO FOLD AN UMBRELLA.-"No,
not that way! never knew Il man in
a hundred to do it right" said the clerk
in the umbrella store. His remarks were
directed at a customer who had proceed
ed to roll up a recently purchased UNI
Drella to return it to It's case. He had
done what 90 per cent. of persons who
handle umbrellas do when they attempt
to gather the folds of clcth in o neat roll
around the stick. He had grasped the
handle with his right hand and was
twisting the silk through with his left
hand. "That will spoil the umbrella
when you have repeated the operation
half a dozen times" the clerk continued
land then gou will be coming here and
complaining that that Sc umbrella wasn't
worth fifty cents. Now see what you
were doing! You were making a
pretty roll, but did you notice that you
were twisting the ribs and braces in 6
spiral around hat stick as well as the
cloth? You may have noticed that YOU
umbrella sticks and catches when 20,
try to raise it. That's because you don't
know how to roll it. You twist thu
Joints of the ribs and braces all out O.
shape" There, you see, you have twisted
the ends of those ribs all around In
bunch on one side of the handle. Nov
let me show you how an umbrella shoult
be rolled" The clerk took the maltrsatet
article. shook out the folds of silk, ane
worked the spiral out of the ribs, ant
proceeded to demonstrate the prope'
| methods of umbrella rolling. Graspinl
the handle in his right hand, he eneirclee
the silk at the tip with his left, which h
slipped down about half way Of tht
cloth, pressing the ribs and braces firml!.
against the stick. The right hand wat
then shifted to the tips of the ribs
which were held firmly against the stick
while the left hand adjusted the roll o
cloth around them. By this method the
ribs were kept straight along the stick
and not partly twisted around it, as thu
customers roll.-Sum.