PREFACE. A humble lawyer, an East Side lawyer, giving advice to the mighty and those on high and touching on such important subjects as JUSTICE and its guardian angels, will, perhaps, be regarded as impudent. But it is the belief of the writer that it is the man that reflects honor on the place and not the place on the man, and that a truth remains a truth irrespective where uttered and by whom uttered, The Decalogue was proclaimed through a shepherd in a lonely desert on a humble mount. That the perusal of these pages will be of interest to both lawyers and laymen is the hope of THE AUTHOR. N. B.-Criticism will be appreciated and proper recognition given in a future edition. But it is expected that the critic, before passing judgment, will read the book from cover to cover, so that the criticism shall not be merely the pleasure of malignity, the pretext of envy, or the wit of fools. M. S. JUSTICE. The emblem of justice is a blind Goddess with a pair of scales in her hand. The idea is that the judge who is trying a cause before him should be impartial, as if the litigating parties were utter strangers to him, as if he were blind and never saw or knew the parties, and should carefully weigh the evidence as if in a balance and decide accordingly. In reality JUSTICE is blind, and the balance of evidence is overlooked because the judge is blindfolded. Relying on justice is as much as relying on a blind guide. The Bible tells us that two women had a lawsuit before King Solomon in reference to the ownership of a child. Each claimed that the child was hers. Solomon ordered that the child be divided into two and each woman to get one-half. The real mother began to cry and supplicate the king not to cut the child but rather to give it over to her opponent. The other woman was satisfied with the decision. All saw that the child belonged to the woman who was willing to forego her right and give it up to the other woman. Are such methods used in our Courts? Do judges take pains to unearth the truth, do they try that the truth be seen, that all present at a trial should come to the same conclusion as the trial justice? If, after all the evidence is in, a vote be taken from the audience or even from those learned in the law, you will find a divided opinion, and very often the majority will reach a different conclusion from that reached by the trial justice. On the other hand, is it always possible to use such methods as used by King Solomon so that the truth should come out, and nothing but the truth? In most cases the truth can be gathered only from mere statements of witnesses, and it is left to the judge to decide who is telling the truth. What a poor method! HONEST WITNESSES. However honest a witness should be, he may give false testimony from mistake, misapprehension or forgetfulness. Two people may see or hear the same thing and their impressions may be diametrically opposed to each other. Should the impression even be the same at the time of the occurrence of the event, at the trial the eye-witnesses will disagree. One has forgotten some important facts. One has tried to recall certain facts and believes he did recall them, but he is entirely mistaken. But are all witnesses honest, do they at least try to tell the truth? Do not most of the witnesses perjure themselves deliberately or otherwise? DELIBERATE PERJURY. False testimony is a commodity; it can be bought in the market for a consideration. It is a |