Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1909 — HIS FIRST LOVE CASE. [ARTICLE]

HIS FIRST LOVE CASE.

Myron Woodworth was an attorney just passing middle age. He was known as the lawyer who had never lost a case. Whether this , was-be-cause he would not take a case that be was not sure of or was so resourceful that his opponents could never defeat him does not appear. The fact remains that until the Yardley case was tried no judge or jury had ever brought a final decision or verdict against him. Upon that case hangs a tale. Mrs. Yardley died, leaving Borne SIO,OOO to a sister, Mrs. Hunt, who had nursed her in her last illness, cutting off her own daughter, Julia Scott, a young married woman living in a different place. Mrs. Scott undertook to break the will on the ground that her aunt had influenced her mother while under the effect of opiates to leave her property tc the aunt. No one doubted up to the last moment that Woodworth would win, for he has established every point seeded to establish his plea. The defendant’s counsel called for Margaret Hunt, and the name was repeated by the clerk with no more reverence than he would have spoken the name of a habitual criminal. There was a rustle jof woman’s dress, and a young girl—she was the daughter of the defendant —passed to the witness stand. Her very appearance begot an unconscious deference in every man in the courtroom. Woodworth at the moment of her entrance was chatting with 'a' fellow attorney. When he turned his eyes to the witness they rested upon a vision of loveliness. Not only he, but judge, jury—indeed, every one in the court—fell under the spell of her presence. In a voice low and sweet she responded to the questions put to : her by the defendant’s counsel, who elicited from her testimony which if not shaken might yet turn the case against the plaintiff. But those who know Woodworth did not fear. It was upon cross-examination that he was . especially strong. Indeed, as he listened to her evidence he saw a weak point that destroyed its value. She had repeated a conversation she had heard between her mother and the testator in which the former urged the latter to leave her property to her daughter, Julia Scott. But the witness had said that she was not inthe room and did not see those who were talking. When Woodworth took the witness for cross-examination and stood framing his first question a slight tremor passed over the girl, and she cast a quick glance at the judge as to beseech protection. Then she turned her eyes back on the lawyer, bit her lip as If to gain courage and submitted herself to be tormented. She did nc*t doubt for a moment that Woodworth would prove her a perjurer. “Miss Hunt,” he Baid, “how far was the room in which you were when you overheard the conversation you have mentioned from the room In which the conversation occurred?" A trouble look passed over the face of the witness, and she did not answer the question. The husband of the testator had been a physician, and his house—the house in which the conversation occurred—was fitted with a speaking tube between the front door and the doctor’s bedroom. His window occupied the bedroom to which the tube led, Miss Hunt, standing at the front door directly before the lower tube mouth awaiting admittance, had heard the conversation through the tube. Woodworth knew this and was prepared to make the statement appear improbably. He might force her to admit that she was not in the house at all, then deny her a chance to tell how she had overheard the conversation. He stood looking at the girl, who looked at him with all the gentle reproachfulness of a fawn regarding a hunter about to pluhg a knife into Its throat. Then her eyes filled. Woodworth’s case was lost. All he had to do to win It was to draw out the girl’s testimony so as to make it appear to the Jury a weak invention. He knew in fact, as well as by her guiltless bearing that she spoke the truth. At the moment of triumph he gave up victory gave up his client’s case which he was in duty bound to win. “Let me see,’’ he said, looking down at some notes he had made on a bit of paper. “Perhaps I can get at it In another way." The other way did not lead to the speaking tube or to anything that would compromise the witness. After asking a number of Irrelevant questions he released her from further examination. Everyone wondered. The Jury brought in a verdict for the defendant. Woodworth went from the courtroom to his office, where he wrote a note to his client informing her that the case had been lost through bis own fault and Inclosing his check for >IO,OOO. But If the attorney lost the man hoped to gain. Every man haa an ideal for ms wife. It is seldom that the Ideal Is realised, but when Woodworth saw Margaret Hunt in the. witness stand he recognise something more than he had ever pictured in his Imagination. He sought her out and eventually married her. He says that If be lost the case In which she was a witness and SIO,OOO he won a blessing that no success could equal. Besides he has made up the pecuniary loaa many times over.—Evelyn Ik Wltworth.