sed is become the head Stone
of the corner." The good-will generated by this meagre jest stood him
later in excellent stead.

In default of any other defence, some criminal attorneys have been known
to seek to excite sympathy for their helpless clients by appearing in
court so intoxicated as to be manifestly unable to take care of the
defendant's interests, and prisoners have frequently been acquitted
simply by virtue of their lawyer's obvious incapacity. The attitude
of the jury in such cases seems to be that the defendant has not had a
"fair show" and so should be acquitted anyway. Of course, this appeals
to the juryman's sympathies and he overlooks the fact that by his action
the prosecution is given no "show" at all.

Generally speaking, the advice credited to Mr. Lincoln, as being given
by him to a young attorney who was about to defend a presumably guilty
client, is religiously followed by all criminal practitioners:

"Well, my boy, if you've got a good case, stick to the evidence; if
you've got a weak one, go for the People's witnesses; but--if you've got
no case at all, hammer the district attorney!"

As a rule, however, criminal lawyers are not in a position to "hammer"
the prosecuting officer, but endeavor instead to suggest by innuendo or
even open declaration his bias and unfairness.

"Be fair, Mr.--!" is the continual cry. "Try to be fair!"

The defendant, whether he be an ex-convict or thirty-year-old
professional thief, is always "this poor boy," and, as he is not
compelled by law to testify, and as his failure to do so must not be
weighed against him by the jury, he frequently walks out of court a free
man, because the jury believe from the lawyer's remarks that he is in
fact a mere youthful offender of hitherto good reputation and deserves
another chance.

By all odds the greatest abuse in criminal trials lies in the open
disregard of professional ethics on the part of lawyers who deliberately
supply of themselves, in their opening and closing addresses to the
jury, what incompetent bits of evidence, true or false, they have not
been able to establish by their witnesses. There is no complete cure for
this, for even if the judge rebukes the lawyer and directs the jury to
disregard what he has said as "not being in the evidence," the damage
has been done, the statement still lingering in the jury's mind without
any opportunity on the part of the prosecutor to disprove it. There is
no antidote for