“Well, Mr. Maloney, did you see that man, that individual sitting at your right hand, did you see him raise his muscular arm, and endeavor to arouse the passions and excite the fears of my client?”
“Sir?” again asked the witness.
“The Court will please note the hesitancy of the witness. Let me ask you the second time, Mr. Maloney, did you have an uninterrupted view, were your optics undimmed, when the plaintiff by your side, the individual in question, raised his muscular arm, and with malice prepense and murder aforethought, assaulted the person of my client, in violation of the laws of the country and of the State of New York?”
“Sir?” said the witness, inquiringly, for the third time.
“Would it not be well, Mr. ——,” suggested the justice upon the bench to the “learned counsel,” “to put your question to the witness in simpler and more direct terms?”
“Perhaps so, your honor. The witness is either very stupid or very designing. Well then, Mr Maloney, you see that man, the plaintiff there, don't you?”
“Sure, I sees that man plain enough foreaninst me here, but I didn't know he was a plaintiff. He might ha' been a tinker, for all I knew about it.”
“Well, Mr. Maloney, you see him now, at least. Now, sir, do you see this man, my client?” laying his hand upon the defendant's shoulder.
“Bedad I do, yer honor; I'm not a mole nor a bat, yer honor.”
“Very well, Mr. Maloney. Now, Mr. Maloney, did you see that man strike this man?”