on for
the lawyer, and are not unlikely to sympathize with him, unless he makes
bold to attack the witness, when they quickly chance their attitude.

One question, and that as to the witness's means of livelihood, is often
sufficient.

"How do you support yourself?"

"I am a lady of leisure!" replies the witness (arrayed in flamboyant
colors) snappishly.

"That will do, thank you," remarks the lawyer with a smile. "You may
step down."

The writer remembers being nicely hoisted by his own petard on a similar
occasion:

"What do you do for a living?" he asked.

The witness, a rather deceptively arrayed woman, turned upon him with a
glance of contempt:

"I am a respectable married woman, with seven children," she retorted.
"I do nothing for a living except cook, wash, scrub, make beds, clean
windows, mend my children's clothes, mind the baby, teach the four
oldest their lessons, take care of my husband, and try to get enough
sleep to be up by five in the morning. I guess if some lawyers worked
as hard as I do they would have sense enough not to ask impertinent
questions."

An amusing incident is recorded of how a feminine witness turned the
laugh upon Mr. Francis L. Wellman, the noted cross-examiner. In his
book he takes the opportunity to advise his lawyer readers to "avoid the
mistake, so common among the inexperienced, of making much of trifling
discrepancies. It has been aptly said," he continues, "that 'juries
have no respect for small triumphs over a witness's self-possession or
memory!' Allow the loquacious witness to talk on; he will be sure
to involve himself in difficulties from which he can never extricate
himself. Some witnesses prove altogether too much; encourage them and
lead them by degrees into exaggerations that will conflict with the
common-sense of the jury."

Mr. Wellman is famous for following this precept himself and, with one
eye significantly cast upon the jury, is likely to lead his witness
a merry dance until the latter is finally "bogged" in a quagmire of
absurdities. Not long ago, shortly after the publication of his book,
the lawyer had occasion to cross-examine a modest-looking young woman as
to the speed of an electric car. The witness seemed conscious that she
was about to undergo a severe ordeal, and Mr. Wellman, feeling himself
complete master of the situation, began in his most winsome and
deprecating manner:

"And how fast, Miss, would you say the car was going?"

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