OCR Text |
Show I SPOILED LAWYER'S FINE PLEA. , Col. Benton Overreached In Eagerness Eager-ness to Make Point. During tho f.r' hearing of tho famous fa-mous Crocker will case In the supreme su-preme court, before Judge Lathrop and a Jury, there were many interesting inter-esting and amusing tilts between tho eminent counsel engaged In tho case Robert M. Morse for the contestants of tho will, and Col. Joseph H. Benton, Ben-ton, Jr., for the executors. Perhaps at no time during the hearing, hear-ing, however, was thero any better exhibition ex-hibition of wit than In tho summing up of counsel before the Jury. At one point Col. Benton was trying to impress upon tho Jury that tho expression ex-pression "old fool," alleged to have been used by one of the Interested parties, might reasonably bo construed as a term of endearment. "For example," explained Col. Benton, Ben-ton, "King Lear called his fond daughter, daugh-ter, 'my dear pretty fool.'" Hero he waited a moment to let tho point sink into the minds of the Jury. Judge Lathrop, however, Who had been listening with intense Interest, leaned forward in his chair and dryly remarked: "But, Mr. Benton, King Lear was crazy, wasn't he?" "Well, your honor, that's a mooted question," was all that the confused attorney could reply, and even this was almost smothered by the mirthful mirth-ful outburst In the court room, in which tho opposing counsel, Mr. Morse, Joined most heartily, o |