The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-01-26
oATHs AND APPROPRIATIONS.
Various Forms Used in Getting the
Testimony of Persons.

Ever since there have been courts
martial particular stress has been
placed upon the matter of administer
ing the oath to the witnesses. In order
that it may be binding and the loop
hole of informality may be as far as
possible reduced, it has been the Gus
tom to swear witnesses in the manner
considered most binding in their native
lands. The march of civilization has
in this instance tended toward accept
ing the methods for Protestants and
Roman Catholics employed in this
country as those best suited to impress
upon a witness the solemnity and sig
nificance of the OATH though there are
occasions when it became necessary to
resort to other methods.
All court martial witnesses who are
ProtestantS are sworn by laying their
right hand, ungloved, on the bible,
closed or open, while the oath is re-
cited. kissing the book is frequently
required in addition to the laying on
of the hand. Raising the right hand
and keeping it raised during the re-
cital of the oath is also a form adopt
ed by a number. There are many who
prefer to affirm rather than to swear,
and those are accommodated by say
ing, You do solemnly affirm" instead
of "solen1nly swear" the right hand
being raised or placed on the bible as
before. Formerly 1t was required to
place the right hand on the open evan.
CYCLISTS.
In swearing Roman Catholics the
Bible is closed and has marked on the
outer cover cross, generally cut out
OF white paper and pasted on. Some
| times q erucifix is placed upon it,
which the witness, after the oath is
recited, kisses when there is any sus-
picion in the mind of the president Of
the court martial or in that of any of
its members. The witness, If a Ro-
man Catholic, after kissing the cross.
is frequently directed to cross himself.
For convenience the oaths to be aG-
ministered by the president of the
court to the judge advocate of the
court and to the witnesses that are
called before it to give testimony are
often written out on paper and pasted
on one of the covers of the Bible, so
as to be at hand to refresh the MEM
DRY of him whose duty it is to admin
lister the oaths.
The Hebrews are customarily sworn
by the five books of Moses and the
great God of Israel, that the evidence
they give shall be the truth, the whole
truth and nothing but the truth. Ere
quently, however, there is no departure
in the methods used with this race
! The statutes in the time of George
~, king of England, contain several
sections in relation to the admins
tratiOn Of the oath in various cases
and among them are one or two re-
ferring to the quakers as we'll as to the
MoravianS. These statutes have been
embraced in our own methods of pro-
cedure, and they allow of the sects
named solemnly, sincerely and truly to
declare and affirm that the evidence
/ which they give shall be the truth.
the whole truth and so forth
! The Scotch cOvenanters have always
held that holding up the right hand
is sufficiently binding, consequently
they do not think it all. necessary eth
er to place the hand upon the Bible or
to kiss the holy book.
Mohammedans think the oath on1v
positively binding when thew are
sworn upon the koran, while the Hin
doc prefers to swear by touching with
his hand the foot of Brahman.
In this country tie Chinese do not
insist upon the same methods that
were once in force. Very likely the
chinaware dealers wish they did. as
they are so much more numerous than
when the following was their custom
In England, at the old Bailey prison.
Chinaman was presented as a Wit
ness in an important case, and for
some time the nature of an oath and
all that it implied could not be inn
pressed upon him. Neither could the
authorities quite make out Just what
the Monaghan did consider binding
Finally, through the aid of an inter-
prefer, it was decided to break a sau-
Ger over the head of the proposed wit
mes. When this was done the China
man appealed to the Supreme Being
whom he worshipped, praying that his
own body might be broken into as
many pieces as the saucer if the testi-
mony he was about to give should not
be the entire truth
AS a general thing i'm courts martial
held in foreign waters, where native
witnesses are required to give evidence.
and particularly where such persons
are not of the Christian faith, care is
taken to ascertain and adopt the cere-
mony of the religions of the witnesses
respectively. 1t is also considered a
wise plan, especially in important
cases. that a priest of the creed of the
witnesses be present when the oath
is administered in order to give it
greater force and sanctity.-Washing-
ton Star