Almost a month later the discussion was resumed with Kern departing radically from his custom of not interrupting senators. Time and again he challenged senators speaking for the majority report with the evidence and seldom without disclosing the weakness of the speaker’s contention. It is not surprising in view of the important part he played in the development of the case against Lorimer and Lorimerism that the anonymous attacks that had been made upon him should find open expression on the floor of the senate. This attack came in the course of Lorimer’s speech in his own defense. This speech was in many respects a remarkable one; not remarkable in that it was convincing, for the speaker made no attempt to discuss the evidence, but in its eloquence and human appeal. It was a masterly appeal to the emotions from a consummate criminal lawyer conscious of a desperate cause and bent on diverting the jury from the irresistible facts to the non-essentials. The manner of the delivery would have rejoiced the heart of a Belasco. It was dramatic, intensely so. No one listening to Lorimer as he spoke that day to a packed gallery and with the floor of the senate thronged with attaches and members of the house would have been surprised had he been told that the speaker was one of the greatest jury orators in the country. It was in the course of this speech that Lorimer entered upon a bitter attack upon Kern which indicated unmistakably the object of his special animus. At the time he began this attack Senator Kern, who had been ill for a month, but able to attend the sessions of the senate, was lying down in his room in the senate office building asleep. As soon as the attack began one of his friends sent word of the trend of the Lorimer speech and Kern immediately started for the capitol. He was met in the subway under the capitol and told of the nature of the attack. It was then and there decided that unless the attack became too virulent Kern should utterly ignore it. Those participating in the conference were agreed that such an incident as a personal exchange between Kern and Lorimer could only tend to divert attention from the real issue and to possibly postpone the hour of voting. With this understanding Kern proceeded to the senate chamber and finding a chair within a few feet of Lorimer turned it so as to face the speaker, and in that position remained through the remainder of the speech. He found no occasion to interrupt. VII