Hypothetical Questions

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXX, Issue XIX, 9 May 1903, Page 1295

Hypothetical Questions

Somebody has defined a hypothetical question, a favourite legal device for confusing witnesses, as “two hundred words of technical dictionary tied up in a bow knot.” Others besides lawyers can tie such knots, however. Sometimes a harassing cross-examiner finds himself entangled. A correspondent of the New York “World” says that on a train from an interior county seat, crowded with lawyers, witnesses, jurors and litigants, a sedate-looking man approached a young attorney from Syracuse. “I am one of the talesmen you pitched into pretty hard yesterday,” the man said, as an introduction, “and I have been a little curious about you ever since.” The passengers were all interested, and the sedate man continued: “You seem to be a person of superior intelligence, and there are one or two little matters I want to ask you about. Now if I were to say to you that the three faces which include a triedal angle of a prism are equal in all their parts to the three faces which include a triedal angle of a second prism, each to each, and are similarly placed in all their parts, what would you understand by it?” “Why, really, sir—um—or—” “Don’t mean to tell me you’re stumped by a little one like that ? Well, never mind, here’s something easier. If 1 were to suggest to you that a certain object is a polyhedron in which two of the faces are polygons, equal in all thenparts and having their homologous sides parallel, what would be the impression conveyed to your mind?” “Well, the subject—er—^is—-er—one I’ve never looked into deeply!” gasped the young lawyer. “Mean to own up that you wouldn’t know it was just a plain every-day prism? I’ve got a boy who isn’t through high school yet, and he could have answered those questions without stopping to think. I feel better now.”