The Art of Cross-Examination Part 26

_Attorney-General._ "Of course! Didn't she refuse to do it--didn't you bring it back?"

_Smith._ "I brought it back as I had no instructions to leave it."

_Attorney-General._ "Didn't she say that she understood from her husband that the insurance was for 10,000?"

_Mr. Serjeant Shee_ objected to this question. What pa.s.sed between the widow and witness could be no evidence against the prisoner.

The _Attorney-General_ said that the question was intended to affect the credit of the witness, and with that view it was most important.

The court ruled that the question could not be put.

_Attorney-General._ "Do you know that Walter Palmer obtained nothing for making that a.s.signment?"

_Smith._ "I believe that he ultimately did get something for it."

_Attorney-General._ "Don't you know that what he got was a bill for 200?"

_Smith._ "Yes; and he had a house furnished for him."

_Attorney-General._ "Don't you know that he got a bill for 200?"

_Smith._ "Yes."

_Attorney-General._ "And don't you know that that bill was never paid?"

_Smith._ "No, I do not."

_Attorney-General._ "Now, I'll refresh your memory a little with regard to those proposals [handing witness a doc.u.ment]. Look at that, and tell me whether it is in your handwriting."

_Smith._ "It is."

_Attorney-General._ "Refres.h.i.+ng your memory with that, I ask you were you not applied to by William Palmer in December, 1854, to attest a proposal on the life of his brother, Walter, for 13,000 in the Solicitors and General Insurance Office?"

_Smith._ "I might have been."

_Attorney-General._ "Were you or were you not, sir? Look at that doc.u.ment, and say have you any doubt upon the subject?"

_Smith._ "I do not like to speak from memory with reference to such matters."

_Attorney-General._ "No; but not speaking from memory in an abstract sense, but having your memory refreshed by a perusal of that doc.u.ment, have you any doubt that you were applied to?"

_Smith._ "I have no doubt that I might have been applied to."

_Attorney-General._ "Have you any doubt that in January, 1855, you were called on by William Palmer to attest another proposal for 13,000 on his brother's life in another office? Look at that doc.u.ment and tell me."

_Smith._ "I see the paper, but I don't know; I might have signed it in blank."

_Attorney-General._ "Do you usually sign attestations of this nature in blank?"

_Smith._ "I have some doubt whether I did not sign several of them in blank."

_Attorney-General._ "On your oath, looking at that doc.u.ment, don't you know that William Palmer applied to you to attest that proposal upon his brother's life for 13,000?"

_Smith._ "He did apply to me to attest proposals in some offices."

_Attorney-General._ "Were they for large amounts?"

_Smith._ "One was for 13,000."

_Attorney-General._ "Were you applied to to attest another for the like sum in the Universal Office?"

_Smith._ "I might be."

_Attorney-General._ "They were made much about the same time, were they not? You did not wait for the answers to come back to the first application before you made the second?"

_Smith._ "I do not know that any answers were returned at all."

_Attorney-General._ "Will you swear that you were not present when Walter Palmer executed the deed a.s.signing the policy upon his life to his brother, William Palmer? Now, be careful, Mr. Smith, for depend upon it you shall hear of this again if you are not."

_Smith._ "I will not swear that I was, I think I was not. I am not quite positive."

(Very few of the answers to these questions of the Attorney-General were given without considerable hesitation, and the witness appeared to labor under a sense of embarra.s.sment which left a decidedly unfavorable impression upon the minds of the audience.)

_Attorney-General._ "Do you know that the 200 bill was given for the purpose of enabling William Palmer to make up a sum of 500?"

_Smith._ "I believe it was not; for Cook received absolutely from me 200. If I am not mistaken, he took it with him to Shrewsbury races--not the last races."

_Attorney-General._ "In whose favor was the bill drawn?"

_Smith._ "I think in favor of William Palmer. I don't know what became of it. I have never seen it since. I cannot state with certainty who saw me on the Monday; but I called at the Talbot Arms, and went into Cook's room. One of the servants gave me a candle. As well as I can remember, the servant who did so was either Bond, Mills, or Lavinia Barnes, I can't say which."

CHAPTER XV

THE CROSS-EXAMINATION OF RUSSELL SAGE BY MR. JOSEPH H. CHOATE IN THE LAIDLAW-SAGE CASE

One of the most recent cross-examinations to be made the subject of appeal to the Supreme Court General Term and the New York Court of Appeals was the cross-examination of Russell Sage by Mr. Joseph H.

Choate, in the famous suit brought against the former by William R.

Laidlaw. Sage was defended by the late Edwin C. James, and Mr. Choate appeared for the plaintiff, Mr. Laidlaw.

On the fourth day of December, 1891, a stranger by the name of Norcross came to Russell Sage's New York office and sent a message to him that he wanted to see him on important business, and that he had a letter of introduction from Mr. John Rockefeller. Mr. Sage left his private office, and going up to Norcross, was handed an open letter which read, "This carpet-bag I hold in my hand contains ten pounds of dynamite, and if I drop this bag on the floor it will destroy this building in ruins and kill every human being in it. I demand twelve hundred thousand dollars, or I will drop it. Will you give it? Yes or no?"

Mr. Sage read the letter, handed it back to Norcross, and suggested that he had a gentleman waiting for him in his private office, and could be through his business in a couple of minutes when he would give the matter his attention.

Norcross responded: "Then you decline my proposition? Will you give it to me? Yes or no?" Sage explained again why he would have to postpone giving it to him for two or three minutes to get rid of some one in his private office, and just at this juncture Mr. Laidlaw entered the office, saw Norcross and Sage without hearing the conversation, and waited in the anteroom until Sage should be disengaged. As he waited, Sage edged toward him and partly seating himself upon the table near Mr.

Laidlaw, and without addressing him, took him by the left hand as if to shake hands with him, but with both his own hands, and drew Mr. Laidlaw almost imperceptibly around between him and Norcross. As he did so, he said to Norcross, "If you cannot trust me, how can you expect me to trust you?"