HIS ONLY CLIENT.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIX, Issue X, 28 August 1897, Page 315

HIS ONLY CLIENT.

An old-time Californian astonished a circle of New Zealand acquaintances not long ago by remarking that he had never tried but one case in court. * I never knew that you bad studied law !* exclaimed one of his friends. * I had neither studied law nor anything else,’ rejoined the successful business man; ■but I had a flexible tongue, and that secured me my first and only client. ‘Those were pioneering days,* he continued, * when the new settlements were filled with adventurers from all sections of the country, and when political arguments and business wrangles were adjusted with bowie- knives and six-shooters. One Fourth of July two men in our camp were drawn into a political discussion, and one of them was shot at close range and fatally wounded. The assailant was arrested, and a police magistrate set down the preliminary examination for the next week. * The prisoner’s friends asked me to defend him. When I pleaded ignorance of the law they told me that a slick tongue was what was needed. They also advised me not to confer with my client because knowledge of the facte might embarrass me. I bad what might be called a free hand, and was alike independent of issues of law and of fact.

* The case came on before a rough-and-ready jury impanelled by the magistrate, and with a pioneer audience in attendance. The facte of the homicide were related by several witnesses. The prosecution rested. The defence opened. *My first plea fell flat, it related to the previous good character of the prisoner. The magistrate fidgeted about in his chair, and finally declared that everybody in California had a good reputation, and would not be there If be had anything else. It reminded me that I was not engaged in a libel case, but in a murder trial.

* Then I made a second attempt. I argued that the shooting was accidental, and that my client did not know that the weapon was loaded. I treated it as an unfortunate incident of pioneering times, when everybody bad to carry arms, and asserted that similar accidents were occurring in all sections of California. The audience murmured and the court warned me that I was not helping my client’s case by pleading the baby act. * I made a final effort. I reminded the jury that the shooting occurred on the 4th July; enlarged upon the heroism of Washington and the fathers of the republic; waxed eloquent over the debt of gratitude which every lover of bis country owed to those patriots ; asserted that neglect to observe the national holiday would imply a decadence of republician institutions ; and finally brought in the prisoner at the bar as an enthusiastic citizen who was seeking to celebrate the day heartily, and in his excitement had become uncontrollable and irresponsible. The audience warmly applauded my spreadeagle speech. The prisoner was acquitted. * After that remarkable achievement,’ said the pioneer, with a twinkle in his eye, * I retired permanently from practice ; and I have never ceased to regret my conduct in the affair, and that my client escaped a well-merited hanging.* The defence, however, shows how, by skill in appealing to sentiment in men, and by diverting their minds from the real issue, a lawyer can lead a jury to overlook right, and do under impulse an absolute injustice.