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Show "There are times," said a lawyer,' "when, despite all the legal rules that surround it, one touch of nature makes the whole world kin and then look out for a surprising verdict. I was on a jury myself once. ' A haggard, hag-gard, starved-looking woman was. on trial for shoplifting. When she was brought into court her two little children ran to her in tears. 'Oh, mamma, mamma!' they cried and threw themselves upon her lap. "There was on the Jury an old Irishman, a shrewd-looking fellow, with hair of fiery hue. As a the trial dragged and droned along he seemed to be paying less attention to the evidence evi-dence than to the prisoner's children, especially to one of them, a. pretty little eight-year-old girl. "When we retired there was a hurried hur-ried attempt made to come to a verdict, ver-dict, anxious as we were to get home to our dinners. Guilty, of course, was the prevailing opinion. The old Irish man stood apart, gazing out of the window, until we asked him for his opinion. Then he turned and spoke with emphasis: "Not guilty, of course! We have no fair evidence ag'ln that unfortunate, parsecuted creature. The judge towld us that we were to be the Judges of the credibility of the witnesses, and, shure, I wouldn't believe one of thim divils of flurewalkers undher oath, for they know they might lose their jobs if they didn't swear what was expected of them." "So to our amazement and amusement amuse-ment he harangued us. Somehow a verdict was brought in that gave the defendant her liberty. " 'It's a quare, thing, a very quare thing," chuckled the old Irishman as we filed out of the courtroom, 'but I think it was lucky for that woman that that eight-year-old girl of hers is Just the picture of my little granddaughter, grand-daughter, Mary Ann.' " |