The author has tried to show the point of view of the ordinary man in a law court, as the various proceedings of a trial take shape before him. To the initiated, the whole book may seem too obvious; but it has not been written for them, but for those to whom these proceedings are unfamiliar. There are many who have a certain curiosity about the courts, and at the same time a real respect for justice, mingled with amusement at the panoplies and antiquated forms of legal procedure.

F. DeW. W.

NEW YORK,

January, 1917.

CONTENTS

Page
Introduction[iii]
I.—A Night Court[3]
II.—The Civil Court[21]
III.—The Judge[39]
IV.—The Anxious Jury[57]
V.—The Strenuous Lawyer[75]
VI.—The Worried Client[93]
VII.—Programs and Pleadings[111]
VIII.—Picking the Jury[129]
IX.—Opening the Case[149]
X.—The Confused Witness[165]
XI.—Those Technical Objections[183]
XII.—The Movements in Court[201]
XIII.—Elocution[219]
XIV.—The Heavy Charge[235]
XV.—The True Verdict[251]
XVI.—Looking Backward[265]