mpensation of them, nor, in view of the
facts, will any sum that you do give her seem excessive. I shall show
you, gentlemen, that Mrs. Stiles, a widow, left almost penniless by her
husband, who has by her own efforts brought up and educated four
children, two of whom are still entirely dependent upon her, was, on the
ninth day of April last, through the negligence of the defendant,
injured in such a way as to give her seven weeks of the most painful
suffering and to render her unable for the rest of her life to do the
work upon which she has hitherto mainly depended for the support of
herself and her family. I shall show you that Mrs. Stiles attempted to
get on one of the defendant's cars; that while she was so doing the car
was started and she thrown off; that she sustained a sprain of the right
ankle and a fracture of the fibula; that the accident has resulted in
laming her for life and incapacitating her for the use of a
sewing-machine; and that it was by her sewing-machine that she supported
herself. Mrs. Stiles will now tell you her own story."

With this Mrs. Tarbell sat down. She had not the keen penetration which
years of practice give to a finished advocate, but she had feminine
instinct, which served her in quite as good stead; and, short as was the
time she had been addressing that jury, she felt that she could answer
for it as certainly as fifteen years before she could have answered for
one of her admirers. If Mr. Juddson had only been another woman she
could have told him this, but a glance would have been wasted on him: so
she kept her triumph to herself. She looked at the bullet-headed young
juror, at the benignant old juror, at the fat-faced and dropsical juror,
at the preternaturally-solemn negro juror, at the lantern-jawed foreman
with the black moustache; she was on a perfectly good understanding with
them, and knew what to say to each one of them. She felt that she could
have afforded to be a little less brief. However, Mrs. Stiles would
not-- By the way, where was Mrs. Stiles?

"Mrs. Stiles!" cried Mrs. Tarbell, half rising. "Mrs. Stiles, will you
please take the stand?"

Mrs. Stiles rose from her seat against the railing, and, after confiding
her second daughter to the care of Miss Celandine,--a ceremony which was
performed by her with evident anxiety,--hobbled to the witness-stand on
the arm of Mr. Mecutchen, who had been sitting beside her.

Mrs. Stiles on the witness-stand was a very differ