The L'Anse sentinel., 1908-04-04

count Il II my conviction, hswever,
that women will. generally speaking,
be more likely than men to tell the
truth In court. She has q fear of the
weapon called the law. It. is prac-
tically an unknown force to her. II
is with her. therefore, potential. for
the truth.
THAT there -is too much falsehood
in human life is distressingly appar-
ent. 1t is all too much part Of our
social existence. To some extent we
may say 1t Is enforced by conditions,
but 1t is also all too much due to a
lack of proper moral training. 1t is
the natural bent of the child mind to
evade the truth when the act has
been naughty and by concealing, the
truth to evade reproof and possible
punishment. That is the basic work
Of the lack of moral obligation In re-
gard to the truth in all society. l
believe that good, sound spanking,
administered intelligently, with proper
spirit, at the proper time, with kindly
and proper explanation wopld vastly
lessen the evasions, lies and perjqries
of all phases of life. Prpper discipline
in his early youth would probably
have had such effect upon Mr.. Taylor
that he would have never thought of
the. statements so antipodal to truth
which he made in regard to women
as compared with men,"
Women Truthful Witnesses.
Miss Suzanne Beatty, yattorney-at-
law, gives an, emphatic negative to the
assertion that women are More than
men inclined to !evade the truth on
the witness stand. .
II have been close student of
this matter" said Miss Beatty, "and
it is my positive judgment that wom-
en- are quite as dependable as men
when testifying .ebefore law court.
When l was athome, mere child,
one of the dear friends of our family
was Judge Campbell, then the presid-
ing Judge of the Clarion district. 1t Is
possible that even at that time had
In me the latent germ of the pursuit
OF the law as a profession, for all that
pertained to the courts was Of the
deepest interest to me. was much
impressed with the remarks of Judge
Campbell, often iterated. that he
would as general proposition believe
woman witness sooner than he
would a man. Even in those childish
days the remark from one who was
so deeply venerated by me aroused
my pride Of sex and when l came to
practice you can imagine that my at
tention was naturally directed to this
subject.
All Swayed by Sentiment.
Il want to say, and to put it as
strongly as words can make 1t, that
/ have found women witnesses, to say
the least, no less truthful than those
of the other sex. 1t is well-known
fact that all witnesses are to some
extent swayed by sentiment in favor
of the person in whose interests they
are testifying. Allowance must be
made for that, but that women are
more powerfully Influenced by such
considerations than men l do not be-
lieve. l have known women to testify
the truth in great stress of circum-
stances, when to conceal the truth
would have been much to their ad-
vantage, and when cautioned by the
judge that their testimony was to
their own prejudice have heard
them say with tears that 1t was the
truth and that the truth must be told.
Il have never known but one case
Of deliberate perjury by a woman,
and that was exceedingly curious.
The girls lover was under trial for
burglary. The testimony was vaguely
circumstantial. The girl produced
diary which she had kept for the en-
tire year, including the time Of the
alleged burglary. That diary showed
that the alleged burglar had been in
her company at time when it would