"YES OR NO."

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume I, Issue 44, 15 October 1892, Page 10

"YES OR NO."

" Do you think, then, that the defendant was in the right?" asked ft jouug lawyer of an elderly and cautious iwirnaw* at a cowt-h(»u*e once. •' Well, if it were not that " "Come, come," interrupted the lawyer, "we hay* h«d enough of •well*' and 'buts.'' I nsked ybu a plain question, and I w nt a plain answer Wns be right ? Yes or no V* " I really cannot reply 'yes' or 'no'" to such a question. Either answer would be misleading. You foo, I—!' - " Do you mean to say, sir," stormed the lawyer, working himself' info a great state of indignation, " that you could frame a question to which I could not reply yes or no ?" -i " Certainly I could/ replied the old gentleman, quietly. . . , < " Then lee us hear it," replied the man of law, turning a smile of in* , credulity to,the judge and jury ;;"'by all means let us hear it." - " ■ Calmly the old gentleman settled his eye-glasses on bis nose, and,-leaning on the edge of the witness-box, he re* garded the lawyer for a secondortwo. •« Will you tell us," he asked, fery , deliberately, " whether in your own opinion—in your own opinion, mind you—l cannot conceive anyone, dice entertaining the ali^hteat doubt what-* soever on the matter—whether you are , as big a fool as you look ?", ; - ; When the roar of laughter from « bench, bar, jury, and spectators at $he ;■ young lawyer's dilemma had di«d.. away, the latter was heard to faintly intimate tb»t be bad finialj#d with tbe ,