“What religion do you profess?”
“Christianity,” respectfully replied C. B.
“Yes, but what sect, branch, or denomination of Christianity do you belong to?” snapped the judge.
“I do not know of any,” calmly replied C. B.
“Come, come,” the judge went on, growing irritable, “we must have no paltering with the time of the Court. If you are a Christian you must take the oath, unless you have any conscientious objections. Why do you object to swear?”
A bright ray of intelligence lit up C. B.’s face as he realized the question, and he gravely answered—
“I was taught in the Bible to swear not at all, but to let my yea be yea and my nay nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”
“I see,” sneered the judge, and, turning to the Clerk of the Court, “let him affirm. He’s only a new kind of crank after all.” So C. B. was allowed to make his affirmation to tell the truth, Miss Stewart gazing at him with wonder-filled eyes as she realized how immeasurably above these keen-faced unscrupulous men of the world and of law was this quiet young man with the peaceful face standing among them like a visitor from some other world.
The preliminaries being completed he was asked for his story of the “Hold up,” and gave it in a manner that impressed every one in Court, especially the judge, for it was clear, succinct and unbiassed, not a needless word or repetition. When he had concluded he was asked if he identified the men before him as the intending robbers, and unhesitatingly answered yes. Then the prisoner’s counsel took him in hand, a man with a great reputation for compelling the most innocent of witnesses to contradict themselves and look like perjurers, a master of that vile practice of making witnesses suffer more than the criminal. But for once he had met his match. To his thundering invective, abuse, sarcasm, and crafty suggestions C. B. presented his unconscious integrity and perfect innocence. He could not be terrified or made contradict himself, and his past life, that bug-bear of so many witnesses who are perfectly honest and truthful as well as desirous of aiding justice, had no dark corners in it. And after a few minutes the loud-voiced advocate retired discomfited, not having been able to shake C. B.’s evidence in the least, but having conclusively directed the attention of the public to the wonderful sincerity of the witness.
Mr. Stewart’s evidence was taken more briefly, as it was in effect but a repetition of C. B.’s, and Miss Stewart, in accordance with the chivalric American custom, was spared as much as possible. In these later days I see that woman is no longer immune from insult and contumely as a witness, even in America, but at the time of which I write it would have fared ill there with any lawyer who should have dared to browbeat a woman in a witness box. So that the trial really took very little time. The addresses of counsel were brief, for indeed the abominable gang, of which the three men in the dock formed the principal part, had for long terrorized the district where at last they were caught, and except among their own class, which, however, is a very numerous one in Chicago, they had no sympathizers.