He

man, and the more he looked the more he doubted. asked a few leading questions and the answers strengthened his doubts. At last he said, "I know how to settle it-it just occurs to me that Colonel Watterson himself is back in the Pullman. I just took up his pass a while ago. Come with me and if you are a reporter on his paper as you say, he can identify you."

The young man began to wish the train would run off the track, but he had to go along. The conductor led him up to a distinguished-looking gentleman with white hair and said, "Colonel Watterson, this young fellow is traveling on a pass as a reporter on the Louisville Courier, so I brought him in for you to identify." The young man waited for the lightning to strike, but to his amazement the colonel shook him cordially by the hand and said:

"How are you, Jim! Yes, this is one of the best reporters I have on my staff." The conductor apologetically withdrew, while the young man wondered. After a few minutes' conversation with the colonel he attempted to thank him.

"Colonel Watterson," he said, "I can't begin to thank you for helping me out of such a hole, and I a total stranger to you. Of course you knew all the time that you had never laid eyes on me before and that I was only bluffing."

Don't mention it, my boy, don't mention it," was the genial response. "I was glad you had the presence of mind to keep still-nothing like adapting yourself to the situation, my boy-adjusting yourself to the emergency of the hour. I was glad to help you out, in fact it rather helped me out-you see I'm traveling on a pass, too—but as it happens, I'm not Colonel Watterson."

THE AMBITIOUS MOUSE

A timid mouse that lived in a cellar was in mortal fear of the huge house cat. One day the mouse chanced upon

a wine barrel, leaking at the bung. She cautiously dipped one paw in the rich fluid, licked it, and then began to take notice. She dipped in the other paw, licked it, and felt more enthusiastic. After several more samples she rolled over and over in the pool of wine and licked herself off happily. Then suddenly she started up the cellar stairs, saying, "Now-bring on that D

cat."

-WRITING FOR THE MAGAZINES.

COD LIVER OIL

Eva: "Mother, Tillie gets a dime every time she takes cod liver oil."

Mother: "And what does she do with the money?" Eva: "Well, she puts it in a box until she gets 50 cents; then her mother uses it to buy more cod liver oil." -PUTNAM.

CHAPTER XXV

FORENSIC SPEAKING

"I hope you will from the start cultivate public speaking. The power of speaking with grace and energy, the power of using aright the best words of our noble language, is itself a fortune and a reputation if it is associated and enriched by knowledge and sense."

-RUFUS CHOATE in a letter to his son, at Amherst College.

THERE is a popular, though erroneous, belief that all lawyers are good speakers. Some of them are. All should be, as effective speaking is an important part of their work. The lawyer has a field which requires a great amount of speaking-probably more than any other calling outside of the field of the professional lecturer.

There are so many practical ways in which a lawyer may use his speaking ability to advantage-that it is a wonder that more lawyers do not develop a high degree of efficiency in speech. The fact remains, however, that the majority do not, and that only the few become strong and fluent speakers. These outstanding few become the leaders in their profession, in politics, and in public affairs. But whether he aspires to become a leader or not, certainly every lawyer owes it to himself and to his clients to develop sufficient speaking ability so that he can at least do justice to the cases which are entrusted to his care. Every day, good cases are lost because of inexcusable weakness in the presentation. There ought to be a law

prohibiting any lawyer from practising until he has developed a reasonable degree of speaking ability. Public speaking should be made an important part of his law course and regular practise in debate and forensic speaking made compulsory, as an essential part of his preparatory legal training. Too many half-baked young lawyers are admitted to the Bar and turned loose to practise on an unsuspecting public.

SCARCITY OF GOOD COURT LAWYERS

It is an admitted fact that there is a growing scarcity of good court lawyers. The tendency seems to be to develop a multitude of "office lawyers," or "backroom diplomats " rather than outstanding figures who are able to plead a case effectively in court. Strong court lawyers are hard to find and great jury lawyers are rare. Those who have this forensic ability have all the big cases they can handle and are generally the leaders in the legal profession. It would seem that this distinction and the consequent large fees offered as remuneration to attorneys with an established reputation as trial lawyers who win their cases, would be sufficient incentive to master the Art of Forensic Speaking.

It is not enough to know the law. Efficiency demands that you must be able to deliver the law. Just here is where the mediocre lawyer falls short. He fails to take this advance step which would so greatly add to his effectiveness, and remains content to be an office lawyer," utterly inefficient on his feet before judge or jury.

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Realizing, then, the need, let us proceed to the consideration of those factors which will make better

speakers in the legal profession. Even if this subject was neglected in his preparatory course it is not too late for any lawyer greatly to improve his speaking ability.

Given the same amount of material, facts of equal value, evidence of equal importance, citations of equal weight, on opposite sides of a case, the winning side is often determined by the way in which the facts are used, the order in which the evidence is arranged. It makes all the difference in the world whether the material is arranged in logical sequence or jumbled together in hit or miss fashion. Elihu Root, by a skillful and logical rearrangement of the same evidence, was able to reverse a decision of the Supreme Court.

INFLUENCING BY ARGUMENT

While there are many ways of securing conviction, none are so worthy as sound reasoning in support of a contention. There are many ways of influencing an audience, but none is so potent or practical for the lawyer as influencing by argument. He must be able to build up his own argument in a constructive, logical way, and to attack his opponent's argument, to discover its weakness and tear it down. He must be able to weigh the evidence and analyze the argument on both sides of the case. To do this, he must understand thoroughly the different forms of proof as well as defects of argument. He must be able to define and be familiar with syllogism, fallacy, premise, rejoinder, induction, and deduction.

In analyzing the replies to the Lawyer's Questionnaire, you will note that all agree that the lawyer should give more attention to logical sequence.