The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1902-10-04
Court Stenogr
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They Become Good Judges Of the
: Veracity Of Witnesses.
2. VeraCtty OF Wltnesses.

: r.t e 'grr.E q -. -
ANY shorthand man who has been do
ing court reporting for a long time can
tell almost infalliblyo by his sense of hear
ing whether a prisoner or witness is
!ington court -stenographer, p. who has,
grown gray in making and transcribngI
,pothooks in civil and criminal cases. .It|
comes. from experience, combined with
which all first-rate court and parliament
tary stenographers possess.
,,a; You know know how = ,abner 39 the re-
oped, particularly their senSe of hear
ing. Well, it's the same way with the
court shorthand stenographer after he's
many years. His ears ears Become "a" as SEN en-
sitive to the slightest infections and in
tcnations OF the human voice as phono-
graph roller There's certain tremulous
quaVer IN the tone OF a man or woman
who's lying in a court room that the
stenOgrapher catches when the shrewd7
est Judges. lawyers Or jurors quite fail
to catch it. When he has his head bent
over his notebook he feels the EARRING
false note in the voice OF the liar every
time, no matter how plausible or. convinc-
cling the testimony inIitself may sound.
So frequently have I tested this idea in
the last~ffteen years that 1 have come
to accept it as certain, when that almost
tndistinguishable false tremolo is absent
ress' voice that the testimony is true
"A few years ago, before left Chicago
for Washington, L reported the trial of a
young chap who was accused of having
Esandbagged a South side jeNeler in his
store, and of lOoting the establishment.
The. young fellow was good-looking and
intelligent, with 4 face as frank as an
eight-day clock, and an easy, candid, win
ming manner s I looked him over before
the trial began, and decided that the
accusation against him was outr ageous.
When witnesses testified that they's seen
him coming g out Of the robbed jswelEry
alse intonation in their voices. but it
wasn't there When the defense opened
the young man was permitted to go on
the stand in his own behalf.
II was stupetied to find that his voice
had the lying quaver in 1t right from the
beginning of his story. His words vastly
Impressed the jury and as vastly cha
grined the prosecution. But I knew he
WAS lying, nevertheless. He undertook to
prove an alibi. In confederation his mar
RED sister testified that her brother had
been at her apartment before 8 o'clock in
the. afternoon Until 10 o'clock at night of
the day Of the crime, taking dinner with
her and keeping her b in the 1b
ing, too. She had that tell-tale, false ring
in her voice that c0l.V WINGED me of this, de-
spite her fine, frank face and her obvious
respecta bflity.
9TH, court adjourned Tor luncheon at
the conclusion Of her testimony. I took
luncasn OF with the attorney for the prose
cution. So. -..~ .-s, -.
case?' ne asked me when we sat down. I
guess we won't land him. emf
:" He's guilty, 4 replied briefly. HI
was lying and so was his sister,
The attorney for the prosecution looked
ne over out Of the Sits of his eyes, but
didn't say any more.I When court re-
convened he asked for an adjournment
:. until the Eext day. and the judge granted
It. On the c5ilowing morning the prose-
outing attorney. had in court the janitor
TIE apartment house in which the pris-
hat the prisoners sister had not been in,
her apartment from noon until late at