ctrified by the force of her personality. Without a
previous introduction, however, we might be so lacking in discernment
as to find her, in appearance and voice, no more unusual than the
average witness who goes on the stand.

Thackeray not only created Becky Sharp; he also created our interest
in her. Similarly the lawyer may create an interest in his witnesses,
some of whom may be personally every bit as extraordinary as any
character in a novel. If a witness be actually commonplace, there is
all the more need for making him vividly human; if he be so colorless
that nothing could be made of him personally, he may acquire interest
through the class to which he belongs, for classes have a personable
color more deep than the almost colorless individual.

To induce the jury to visualize the story and the characters, the
highest literary gift may be brought into play. The lawyer is limited
as to time and the description he may employ. He has, however, his
voice and expression: an actor's tools. But again the rule of
simplicity and naturalness should apply.

The opening speech is a prologue and it does not argue. Counsel will
not be permitted to argue his case in his opening, for his opponent
will object and the Court will often say, warningly, "Counselor, you
are summing up." This limitation, however, is in reality an advantage,
not merely because it applies to both sides, but for the reason that
no lawyer with any sense of dramatic values would anticipate his
_denouement_. Argument is apt to be chilling unless the decision
sought for can be discerned, however dimly, without it. And how are
the jury to frame their decision before the evidence has been
presented? The jury should be interested in Miss Becky Sharp and
prepared to understand her testimony, but, before they have heard her
story from witnesses who know, they will not be favorably impressed by
urgings that she was wronged or badly treated.

There is usually leniency in regard to the length of the opening,
because it is well recognized that few witnesses can tell a connected
story, or tell it well. From the old French story of the lawyer who
began _avant le creation du monde_, and the judge who asked him to
pass on _au deluge_, down to the usual modern method of nagging the
lawyer into stating only the skeleton of the action, there are various
degrees of eloquence, varying naturally according to the importance of
the case.

A wonderful thing the prologue ma