Page:The Art of Cross-Examination.djvu/282

 or limb.' Did that accord when you read it with your then present recollection?"

Mr. Sage. "No, sir, it did not. This is the third time you have read those articles to the jury in this case; it is like the Fourth of July oration or the Declaration of Independence."

(Mr. Choate continued and was allowed to read from this newspaper article, although his questions were constantly and urgently objected to on the part of the defence, and although Mr. Sage said that he did not read half the article "because it was an exaggerated statement from beginning to end, as most paper interviews are." Mr. Choate here went into an exhaustive examination as to the details of the accident, comparing the witness's statements at previous trials with the statements at this trial, and then continued:—

Mr. Choate. "Everything you did after you once appreciated the danger you were in, having read the threat contained in the letter the stranger handed you, was to gain time, was it not?"

Mr. Sage. "Yes, sir."

Mr. Choate. "You knew at that time, did you not, that Laidlaw and Norcross were in the room? Why did you not tell them to step into your private room?"

Mr. Sage. "I will tell you very frankly it would have been almost certain death to six or seven men. There were three other men in that room with only board partitions between. It would have infuriated the stranger,