1 5o
THE GREEN BAG
South Avenue, that he had come from the direction of Auburndale and not from the direction of the Page house, that it was then between twenty and twenty-five min utes past twelve, and that he fixed the time from the fact that he himself arrived at the barn at Cutter's Corner at twelve o'clock, and found his dinner waiting for him, and also that he looked at his watch a few minutes after Tucker went by and that it was then half-past twelve. This witness illustrated very interestingly the workings of the human mind when it is surrounded by a continuous discussion of some question of great importance. This man's daughter was a witness for the de fendant and testified to seeing Tucker on the bridge that day. There seemed to be little doubt but that the witness was trying to tell the truth and that he believed what he was saying. Yet it appeared from state ments made by him to credible witnesses from a deposition of his and from his sworn testimony before the grand jury, that there had been a gradual progress to this definite conclusion from a very hazy starting-point. When first interrogated by his employer shortly after the murder, he said that he had seen a young man on the day of the murder but couldn't say that it was Tucker, nor could he say when he saw him. Two weeks later, after the preliminary hearing in the case at which his daughter testified, he first came to the conclusion that he had really seen Tucker on East Newton Street, but he could not then say what direction he had come from. He then began to work out the time; his first approximation was somewhere between twelve and one; he tes tified to the grand jury that his idea of time was all an estimate, and that he did not look at his watch between five minutes of twelve and one o'clock. On the witness stand at the trial after the lapse of ten months he remembered for the first time that he looked at his watch at half-past twelve and so was able to fix the time that he saw Tucker almost to the minute. It is
not uncommon to find a witness believing after a time that he has seen things that he has heard frequently spoken about, but it is seldom that the different stages of the formation of a belief can be traced as closely as here. One of the most interesting contests in the case centered about the Canadian stick pin found in Tucker's pocket. The Gov ernment produced very positive testimony that it was the pin which had been in Miss Page's pin-cushion until just before the murder, and it was identified by certain peculiarities of the stem and point as well as by its design. The defendant claimed, however, that it was his pin and that he had owned it for several years. Clearly, if this claim of the defendant was proved to be false, and the jury was satisfied that the pin belonged to Miss Page, from these two circumstances alone, the conclusion was ir resistible that the defendant was the assas sin. Counsel for the defendant in opening their case stated that they would prove that Tucker had owned the pin for several years; that he habitually wore it in the front of a yachting cap which he used to wear when employed about the boathouses on Charles River, and then called a large number of the defendant's friends to testify that they had seen him wearing it. It was in this connection that the skill of the AttorneyGeneral as a cross-examiner was seen at its best. All of these witnesses were testifying only from casual observation several months or years previously, and those who at tempted to state positively that it was the same pin at once found themselves in great difficulties. The net result of the testi mony of the group of friends was, that several declared positively that it was not the pin that they had seen Tucker wear, and the remainder stated that it resembled a pin that Tucker had worn. But all the witnesses testified that the pin to which they referred which they had seen on Tucker was an enamelled pin in the shape of a shield with a crown on top and having some for
