The Art of Cross-Examination Part 19

_Counsel_ (quietly). "That is to say, there was some truth in it?"

_Witness._ "Yes, sir."

_Counsel._ "When in that article you said that Charcot taught you to stand pain, was there any truth in that?"

_Witness._ "No."

_Counsel._ "Did you as a matter of fact learn to stand pain?"

_Witness._ "No."

_Counsel._ "When you said in this article that Charcot began by sticking pins and knives into you little by little, so as to accustom you to standing pain, was that all fiction?"

_Witness._ "Yes, sir."

_Counsel._ "When you wrote that Charcot taught you to reduce your respirations to two a minute, so as to make your body insensible to pain, was that fiction?"

_Witness._ "Purely imagination."

_Court_ (interrupting). "Counsellor, I will not allow you to go further in this line of inquiry. The witness himself says his article was almost entirely fiction, some of it founded upon fact. I will allow you the greatest lat.i.tude in a proper way, but not in this direction."

_Counsel._ "Your Honor does not catch the point."

_Court._ "I do not think I do."

_Counsel._ "This prosecution was started by a newspaper article written by the witness, and published in the morning _Journal_. It is the claim of the defence that the newspaper article was a mixture of fact and fiction, mostly fiction. The witness has already admitted that the history of his life, published but a few months ago, and written and signed by himself and sold as a history of his life, was a mixture of fact and fiction, mostly fiction. Would it not be instructive to the jury to learn from the lips of the witness himself how far he dressed up the pretended history of his own life, that they may draw from it some inference as to how far he has likewise dressed up the article which was the origin of this prosecution?"

_Court._ "I shall grant you the greatest lat.i.tude in examination of the witness in regard to the newspaper article which he published in regard to this case, but I exclude all questions relating to the witness's newspaper history of his own life."

_Counsel._ "Did you not have yourself photographed and published in the newspapers in connection with the history of your life, with your mouth and lips and ears sewed up, while you were insensible to pain?"

_Court._ "Question excluded."

_Counsel._ "Did you not publish a picture of yourself in connection with the pretended history of your life, representing yourself upon a cross, spiked hand and foot, but insensible to pain, in consequence of the instruction you had received from Professor Charcot?"

_Court._ "Question excluded."

_Counsel._ "I offer these pictures and articles in evidence."

_Court_ (roughly). "Excluded."

_Counsel._ "In the article you published in the _New York Journal_, wherein you described the occurrences in the present case, which you have just now related upon the witness-stand, did you there have yourself represented as in the position of the insane patient, with a sheet twisted around your neck, and held by the hands of the hospital nurse who was strangling you to death?"

_Witness._ "I wrote the article, but I did not pose for the picture. The picture was posed for by some one else who looked like me."

_Counsel_ (stepping up to the witness and handing him the newspaper article). "Are not these words under your picture, 'This is how I saw it done, Thomas J. Minnock,' a facsimile of your handwriting?"

_Witness._ "Yes, sir, it is my handwriting."

_Counsel._ "Referring to the history of your life again how many imaginary articles on the subject have you written for the newspapers throughout the country?"

_Witness._ "One."

_Counsel._ "You have put several articles in New York papers, have you not?"

_Witness._ "It was only the original story. It has since been redressed, that's all."

_Counsel._ "Each time you signed the article and sold it to the newspaper for money, did you not?"

_Court._ "Excluded."

_Counsel_ (with a sudden change of manner, and in a loud voice, turning to the audience). "Is the chief of police of Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the court room? (Turning to the witness.) Mr. Minnock, do you know this gentleman?"

_Witness._ "I do."

_Counsel._ "Tell the jury when you first made his acquaintance."

_Witness._ "It was when I was arrested in the Atlantic Hotel, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with my wife."

_Counsel._ "Was she your wife at the time?"

_Witness._ "Yes, sir."

_Counsel._ "She was but sixteen years old?"

_Witness._ "Seventeen, I guess."

_Counsel._ "You were arrested on the ground that you were trying to drug this sixteen-year-old girl and kidnap her to New York. Do you deny it?"

_Witness_ (doggedly). "I was arrested."

_Counsel_ (sharply). "You know the cause of the arrest to be as I have stated? Answer yes or no!"

_Witness_ (hesitating). "Yes, sir."

_Counsel._ "You were permitted by the prosecuting attorney, F. A.

Bartlett, to be discharged without trial on your promise to leave the state, were you not?"

_Witness._ "I don't remember anything of that."

_Counsel._ "Do you deny it?"

_Witness._ "I do."

_Counsel._ "Did you have another young man with you upon that occasion?"

_Witness._ "I did. A college chum."