"Do you admit that you were on Forty-second Street at
midnight?"
"Yes. But it was in response to a message sent by the
defendant through his cousin."
What is commonly known as "silent cross-examination" is
generally the most effective. The jury realize the
difficulties of the situation for the lawyer, and are not
unlikely to sympathize with him, unless he makes bold to
attack the witness, when they quickly chance their attitude.
One question, and that as to the witness's means of
livelihood, is often sufficient.
"How do you support yourself?"
"I am a lady of leisure!" replies the witness (arrayed in
flamboyant colors) snappishly.
"That will do, thank you," remarks the lawyer with a smile.
"You may step down."
The writer remembers being nicely hoisted by his own petard on
a similar occasion:
"What do you do for a living?" he asked.
The witness, a rather deceptively arrayed woman, turned upon
him with a glance of contempt:
"I am a respectable married woman, with seven children," she
retorted.
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