Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-01-06
Misesllausnas 8eading.
LYING WITNESSES.
Lawyers Who Know Their Business
Can Catch Then,.

Lawyers Who Know Their Business
Can Catch Them.
How does lawyer know when q
witness is lying? And when he knows
witness Is lying, how does he &c
about. 1t to expose the perjury?
II all lawyers knew these two things
there would no longer be good lawyers
and poor lawyers, for all lawyers
would be good.
Sometimes lawyers take long
chance and guess" that a witness is
deliberately lying. A story Is told OF
Jeremiah Mason, the famous New
England lawyer Of Daniel Websters
day. Mason was cross examining a
witness whose testimony could not be
shaken. Time and again the witness
repeated his statement and 1t never
varied.
Suddenly Mason, pointing his finger
straight at the witness, said In his
high, impassioned voice:
Let's see that paper you've got In
your waistcoat pocket"
Taken completely by surprise. the
witness mechanically drew a paper
from the pocket indicated and hand
ed It to Mason. The lawyer slowly
read the exact words Of the witness
and called attention to the fact that
they were in the handwriting Of the
lawyer on the other side.
Mason, how under the sun did you
know that paper was there?" asked q
brother lawyer.
WELL" replied Mason, 81 thought ne
gave that part Of his testimony just
as II he'd heard 1t, and noticed every
tire he repeated 1t he put his hand to
Nis waistcoat pocket and then let II
fall again when he got through"
It Is a startling fact that perjury In
American: courts Is on the increase
Francis L. wellman Of the New York
bar, In book on THE Act Of Cross
Examination" declares that at the
present time scarcely a trial Is con-
lucted in which 1t does not appear in
more or less fragrant form.
It seldom happens that a witness
entire testimony is false from begin
ming to end. Perhaps the greatest part
of It is true. and that only the crucial
part-the point, however. on which the
whole case may turn-is wilfully false
Then again there Is the witness who
Is deliberately lying to shield himself
from the consequences Of his own
crime. This is the ugliest form OF per-
Jury. There is one great historic case
of the exposure Of this form OF per-
Jury, and the lawyer who exposed II
was none other than Abraham Lincoln
i'm the days when he was only a
struggling young lawyer, tall, gaunt'
and uncouth. The story Is related In
Judge ]. w. Dunovan's Tact in Court" "
and is doubly interesting because 1t
was Abraham Lincoln's first effort to
defend a man accused Of murder.
A man named Grayson was accused
of killing a man named Lockwood at
a campmeeting. A man named Sovine
claimed to have witnessed the muir
der. Sovine's story was so circum-
stantial that Grayson was indicted and
narrowly escaped being lynched.
Abraham Lincoln was employed by
Grayson's mother to defend her son.
The case came to trial. He cross ex-
amined none Of the witnesses, save
the last-the man Sovine, who swore
that he knew the parties, saw Grayson
fire the fatal shot, and saw him run
away.
The evidence of guilt and identity
was morally certain. When Soyine
was turned over to him for cross ex-
animation Lincoln stood up and eyed
the witness in silence, without books
or notes., and began the defense by
these questions:
And you were with Lockwood just
before and saw the shooting"
Yes"
And you stood very near to them?'
mo! about twenty feet away"
May It not have been ten feet?"
No, It was twenty feet, or more"
I'm the open field?"
I'm the open field?
mo; in the timber"
What kind Of TIMBER"
Beech timber"
Leaves on it are rather thick In
August?"
Rather"
And you think this pistol was the
one usedT
1T looks like It,"
You could see the defendant shoot
see how the barrel hung, and all
about it?"
Yes"
How near was this to the camp
neeting?'
"Three-quarters Of a mile away"
Where were the lights"
up by the minister's stand"
"Three-quarters of a mile away"
"Yes-I answered ye twict."
Did you not see a candle there with
Lockwood or Grayson?"
mo. What would we want a candle
for?"
How, then, did you see the shoot
ing"
by moonlight" (defiantly).
You saw this shooting at 10 o'clock
at night-in beech timber. three-quar-
tiers of a mile from the lights-saw
the pistol barrel-saw the man fire
saw It twenty feet away-saw 1t all
by moonlight? Saw 1t nearly a mile
from the camp lights?"
"Yes, / told you so before"
Then Abraham Lincoln drew from
the side pocket Of his coat a blue COW
cred almanac, opened 1t slowly. Of
fered 1t in evidence, showed 1t to the
Jury and the court, read from page
with careful deliberation that the
moon on that night was unseen, and
only arose at l o'clock the next morn
ing.
Following the climax, Lincoln moved
the arrest of the perjury witness as
the real murderer, declaring that moth
ing but a motive to clear himself could
have induced him to swear away so
falsely the life Of another man. So