262
THE GREEN BAG
THE
LIGHTER
Humor of Cross-Ezamination. — Of the famous Daniel O'Connell many interesting stories are told illustrating his resourcefulness when engaged in the cross-examination of a witness. The Sunday Magazine repeats these two, one in which he was successful in his attempt to entrap the witness, and another in which he was himself worsted. Once he was defending a prisoner indicted for murder. The principal witness against the defendant swore that the prisoner's hat had been found near the place of the murder. The hat was then produced in court, and the witness swore positively that it was the same one that was found, and that it belonged to the prisoner. "By virtue of your oath, are you positive that this is the same hat?" "Yes." "Did you examine it carefully before you swore that it was the prisoner's?" "Yes." "Now, let me see," said O'Connell, as he took up the hat and began carefully to exam ine the inside of it. He paused with a curious expression on his face, and then spelled aloud, ' J-a-m-e-s.' Now, do you mean to say that that name was in the hat when you found it?" he asked, turning to the witness. "I do." "Did you see it there?" "I did." "And this is the same hat?" "Yes." "Now, my lord," said the lawyer, turning to the judge, " there's an end to this case. There is no name whatever within this hat." The prisoner was instantly acquitted. An amusing incident is told of a victory over O'Connell by a witness whom he was cross-examining. The witness was for the Crown, and the case was a riot committed by a crowd of beggars. O'Connell was at that time well known, and it was after he had received his sobriquet of " the Big Beggarman." The witness finished, and O'Connell began the cross-examination. " Now tell the court just how many beggars there were," he said.
SIDE
"Indeed, I did not stop to count them, but there was a great tribe of them, your Honor." "A whole tribe of them, eh? Will you tell us to what tribe they belonged?" "Indeed, your Honor, that is more than I can do, for I never heard, but I think it must have been to the tribe of Dan." "You may go down, sir! " said O'Connell' in a rage, amid the laughter of the court. Sherry Won His Case. — Some years ago there arose in Lynn an important law case bearing upon the right of a labor union em ploying a " banner boy " to patrol at the front of Patrick Sherry's shoe factory on Munroe street. Upon the banner was printed a " warning" to workmen to keep away from the Sherry factory, as a strike was in progress. Mr. Sherry reasoned that the work of the " banner boy " was an invasion of his rights, therefore the boy was arrested. The case was appealed to the Superior Court. The Hon. John R. Baldwin was counsel for the labor union. Judge Aldrich was hearing the case. Mr. Baldwin sought to make a ludicrous point of the very diminutive " banner boy," and said to the court: "Your Honor, look upon the culprit!" The judge promptly responded: " I am looking. What of it?" Mr. Baldwin was so suddenly taken aback at the sharp response of the judge that it was some little time before he recovered his usual composure. Mr. Sherry won his case. — Bos ton Herald. Life Sentence. — She (thinking of her trous seau) : This getting married is certainly a trial. He: Well, it isn't half so bad as working out the sentence. — Philadelphia Record. Joyful. — " Maud says she loves to see jther people made happy." "Now I understand why she goes to every trial for divorce in town." Sententious. — "Bridget," said the noted judge's wife to her new cook, " my husband is a great man. He has sentenced some of the most noted criminals of our day."
