People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1893 — TO THE POINT. [ARTICLE]

TO THE POINT.

A Two-Hour Argument Killed by a Shrewd Lawyer in Two Sentences. The prosecuting attorney in the circuit court of an Illinois county some years ago was a lawyer whose early education had been defective, but who was so shrewd and “long-headed” that few more dangerous antagonists could be found at the bar at that region. At one time, says the Youth's Companion. he had procured the indictment of a well-known scamp for theft. The amount alleged to have been stolen was five dollars, and at that time the penalty for stealing five dollars or more was imprisonment at hard labor in the penitentiary. For stealing less than that the punishment was confinement in the county jail without labor. The evidence proved beyond dispute the stealing of a five-dollar bill of the State bank of Illinois, but the prisoner's counsel brought several business men to swear that it was not worth its face in gold; but all agreed that in ordinary transactions it would pass for five dollars. Over this testimony the prisoner’s counsel quibbled for two hours, while the prosecuting attorney listened in patience. When his turn came he rose quietly and in his usual nasal drawl said: “Gentlemen, I hope the learned counsel won’t get offended if I don't talk but just one minute. All I've got to say is this: The prisoner don’t pretend to deny that he stole our money, and all he asks of you is just to give him the privilege of stealing it at a discount.” He sat down, and the jury sent the thief to the penitentiary without leaving the box.