Bart Ridgeley: A Story of Northern OhioRiddle, A. G. (Albert Gallatin)
General
Bart Ridgeley: A Story of Northern Ohio
Riddle, A. G. (Albert Gallatin)
Ohio -- Fiction
After brief consultation the court appointed the fathers of the
defendants their guardians, when Bart remarked that his learned and
very polite opponent having found nurses for his babies, he would
proceed with the case, and called his witnesses.
Against two or three of the ringleaders, the evidence was doubtful.
When Bart moved to discharge three of the younger of the defendants,
Brace opposed this. Bart asked him if he was there to oppose a
judgment in favor of his own clients? The court granted his motion;
when Bart put the young men on the stand as witnesses, and proved his
case conclusively against all the rest.
What wonderful strategy this all seemed to be to the gaping crowd; and
all in spite of Brace, whom they had supposed to be the most adroit
and skilful man in the world; and who, although he objected, and
blustered, and blowed, really appeared to be a man without resources
of any sort.
Barton rested his case.
Brace called his witnesses, made ready to meet a case not made by
the plaintiff, and Bart quietly dissmissed them one after the other
without a word. Then Ward, who had kept in the background, was called,
in the hope to save one of the defendants. Him Bart cross-examined,
and it was observed that after a question or two he arose and turned
upon him, and plied him with questions rapid and unexpected, until
he was embarrassed and confused. Brace, by objections and argument,
intended as instructions to the witness, only increased his
perplexity, and he finally sat down with the impression that he had
made a bad exhibition of himself, and had damaged the case.
It was now midnight, when the evidence was closed, and Barton proposed
to submit the case without argument. Brace objected. He wanted
to explain the case, and clear up the mistakes, and expose the
rascalities of the plaintiff's witnesses; and the trial was adjourned
until the next morning.
When the case was resumed the following day, Bart, in a clear, simple
way, stated his case, and the evidence in support of it, making two or
three playful allusions to his profound and accomplished opponent.
Brace followed on full preparation for the defence. Of course it was
obvious, even to him, that he was hopelessly beaten; and mortified and
enraged, he emptied all the vials of his wrath and vituperation upon
the head of Bart, his client and witnesses, and sat down, at the end
of an hour, exhausted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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