CASES CLEVERLY WON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 231, 4 February 1911, Page 8

CASES CLEVERLY WON.

SOME RUSES OF ADROIT LAWYERS. An acute lawyer does not always depend entirely on the logic of his case or his mastery of the art of persuasion to bring a jury round to his way of thinking. He nas an eye to the individual peculiarities of the jurymen, and does not let an opportunity pass to impress them favorably. It is related of Lachaud, one of the most famous of French criminal lawyers, tliat in pleading a certain case he perceived that one of the jurors seemed to be hostile to his argument. In the faces of all the other men in the box he saw with his practised eyes that his oratory or his shrewdness was having its effect; but this man, in spite of all Lachaud could do, remained frowning, suspicious, obdurate. Lachaud continued with his work, however, and presently saw that his opportunity had come. It was a hot day, and a ray of sunshine had penetrated a crevice on the curtain, and was shining on top of the head of this juryman, who was quite bald. The lawyer paused in his argument, and addressed himself directly to the Court. "If your Honor would please," he said, "to order that the curtain in yonder window be lowered a trifle, I am sure that the sixth juryman would appreciate it." This sign of watchful attention won the obstinate juryman's heart, and Lachaud's case. Jeremiah Mason, a celebrated American lawyer, possessed to a marked degree the instinct for finding the weak point. He was once cross-examining a witness who had previously testified to having heard Mason's client make a certain statement, and so important was this statement that the adversary's case was based on it alone. Several questions were asked by .Mason, all of which the witness answered with more or less hesitation. Then he was asked to repeat once more the statement he had heard made. Without hesitation he gave it word for word as he had given it in tlie direct examination. A third time Mason led the witness round to this statement, and again it was repeated verbatim.

Then without warning he walked to the witness stand, and, pointing straight at the witness, said in a perfectly unirapassioned voice: "Let's see that paper you have in your waistcoat pocket." Taken completely by surprise, the witness mechanically took a paper from the pocket indicated, and handed it to the lawyer. There was profound silence in the court-room as the lawyer slowly read, in a cold, calm voice, the exact words of the witness in regard to the statement, and called attention to the fact that they were in the handwriting of counsel on the other side. He then gathered up his papers with great deliberation, remarked that there seemed to be no further need for his services, and departed from the court-room. Mason was asked how he knew that the paper was in the witness' pocket. '■Well," explained Mason, "it seemed to me that he gave that part of his testimony more as if he had learned if than as if he had heard it. Then, too, [ noticed that at each repetition of his testimony he put his hand to his waistcoat pocket, and then let it fall again when he got through.