"The specifications are, as follows: That, on the afternoon of May Seventh, Anno Domini 2193, the defendant here present did arm himself with a machete, said machete not being one of his normal and accustomed weapons, and did loiter in wait on the front steps of the Legislative Assembly Building in the city of New Austin, Continent of Sam Houston, and did approach the decedent, addressing him in abusive, obscene, and indecent language, and did set upon and attack him with the machete aforesaid, causing the said decedent, S. Austin Maverick, to die." The court wanted to know how the defendant would plead. Somebody, without bothering to rise, said, "Not guilty, Your Honor," from the defense table. There was a brief scraping of chairs; four of five men from the defense and the prosecution tables got up and advanced to confer in front of the bench, comparing sheets of paper. The man who had read the charges, obviously the chief prosecutor, made himself the spokesman. "Your Honor, defense and prosecution wish to enter the following stipulations: That the decedent was a practicing politician within the meaning of the Constitution, that he met his death in the manner stated in the coroner's report, and that he was killed by the defendant, Wilbur Whately." "Is that agreeable to you, Mr. Vincent?" the judge wanted to know. The defense answered affirmatively. I sat back, gaping like a fool. Why, that was practically--no, it _was_--a confession. "All right, gentlemen," the judge said. "Now we have all that out of the way, let's get on with the case." As though there were any case to get on with! I fully expected them to take it on from there in song, words by Gilbert and music by Sullivan. "Well, Your Honor, we have a number of character witnesses," the prosecution--prosecution, for God's sake!--announced. "Skip them," the defense said. "We stipulate." "But you can't stipulate character testimony," the prosecution argued. "You don't know what our witnesses are going to testify to." "Sure we do: they're going to give us a big long shaggy-dog story about the Life and Miracles of Saint Austin Maverick. We'll agree in advance to all that; this case is concerned only with his record as a politician. And as he spent the last fifteen years in the Senate, that's all a matter of public record. I assume that the prosecution is going to introduce all that, too?" "Well, naturally ..." the prosecutor began. "Including his public acts on the last day of his life?" the counsel for the defense demanded. "His actions on the morning of May seventh as chairman of the Finance and Revenue Committee? You going to introduce that as evidence for the prosecution?" "Well, now ..." the prosecutor began. "Your Honor, we ask to have a certified copy of the proceedings of the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee for the morning of May Seventh, 2193, read into the record of this court," the counsel for the defense said. "And thereafter, we rest our case."