Aside from the satisfaction that one naturally feels in seeing any policeman bullied, I think it did me good to have my learned colored brother badger a white man. The thing was so long the other way, in every walk of life, that for the sake of the bad old times, when the sight would have been something to destroy the constitution and subvert social order, I could have wished that he might have succeeded better in browbeating his witness. But it was really a failure, as far as concerned his object.
“The question, your honor,” the lawyer added, turning to the judge, “is, what is habitual drunkenness? I should like to ask the defendant a query or two. Now, Mr. O’Ryan, how often do you indulge yourself in a social glass?”
“Sor?”
“How often do you drink?”
“Whenever I can get it, sor.”
The audience appreciated this frankness, and were silenced by a threatening foray of the cravatless officer.
“You mean,” suggested the attorney, smoothly, “that you take a drink of beer, now and then, when you are at work.”
“I mane that, sor. A horse couldn’t do widout it.”
“Very good. But you deny that you are habitually intoxicated?”