Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 22.pdf/613

 Personal Reminiscences of the Walhalla Bar

583

dent. Whar you goin' to get a precedent back 0’ that, eh?” In the forty-ﬁve years, off and on, Mr. Reynolds has served as a circuit court juror he has acquired considerable philosophy which might be of proﬁt to

found one way, but was made to switch around on the other side just because of what had seemed to it to be unfair dealing at the trial. “Lots of folks think a jury swallows all those high-falutin’ orations of the

attorneys.

lawyers.

“You read in the papers a good deal about what the lawyers say as to ‘im pressions’ on the jury," said "Uncle

guess.

Ebe."

“I want to say this: The jury is

generally with the fellow who is the most frank and honest about putting on

his

case.

When

it

sees

a

lawyer

struggling with all his might to keep something from coming before the jury —claiming it ain't legal evidence-the jury gets curious to know what it was,

and thinks he’s trying to hide some thing he’s afraid of.

The jury can tell

That's where they got another We know what all that talk

means, and if there ain't logic mixed up

with it it don't go. Here's a thing that ought to be brought out: The courts ought to encourage jurymen in the ask ing of questions. Sometimes the lawyers ask their questions in such a roundabout way that you can't tell what the answer

really means.

I once heard a lawyer

ask a witness what he knew about Mr. So-and-so’s character for running after bad women. The witness said, ‘I never knew anything to the contrary,’ and the

awful quick when a lawyer acts smart and tries to bamboozle a witness, and it sympathizes with the witness. I've been

lawyer let it go at that.

on cases where the jury would have

run after badiwomenior not."

In the jury

room there was a free-for-all ﬁght as to whether the witness said Mr. So-and-so

Macon, M0.

Personal Rcminiscences of the .Walhalla Bar II.

A SENSIBLE COUNTER-CHARGE

By R. T. JAYNES, ATTORNEY-AT-LAW, WALHALLA, S. C. FEW years ago, exact date imma terial,one of the members of our

bar occasionally imbibed too freely. Once he was taken to task by one of his brethren with a view of reforming him. In order to avoid giving offense we use ﬁctitious names. Boon Camp, being very much under the inﬂuence of too much drink, is reclining on the edge of the sidewalk on Main street, apparently oblivious of his surroundings. His chum, Joe Smith, who is strictly

sober and reckons temperance as one of his shining virtues, walks up to Boon,

takes him by the hand, and, attempting to raise him from a level to a. perpen

dicular, says :— “Boon, I am so sorry to see you in this ﬁx. Can't you quit drinking?” Boon replies: “Oh (hic) Joe, go away (hic) from me (hic) and let me alone (hie); I am drunk now (hic), and I will get over that; (hic) but you are a fool (bio), and you will never get over that

(hic)."1 ‘ [Reformers may well take this lesson to heart, and try to avoid placing themselves in a position 0 en to similar criticism from conservatives. For tli’ere can be no doubt that for every ninet and nine sinners who reform, there is only one re ormer who truly repents.—Ed.].