Winning Over A Juryman

Winning Over a Juryman.

It is related of M. Lachaud, the most famous of French criminal lawyers of the present century, that in pleasing a certain case he perceived that one of the jurors seemed to be hostile to him and his argument. In the faces of all the other men in the box he saw with his practiced eyes signs that his oratory or his shrewdness was having its effect, but this man, in spite of all he could do, remained frowning, suspicious, obdurate. M. Lachaud kept on with his work, and presently saw that his opportunity had come.

It was a hot day, and a ray of sunlight had penetrated a crevice of the curtain and was shining upon the top of the head of this juryman, who was quite bald. The lawyer paused in his argument and addressed himself directly to the court. "If your honor would please," he said, "to order that the curtain in yonder window be lowered a trifle I am sure that the sixth juryman would appreciate it." This sign of watchful attention won the obstinate juryman's heart and M. Lachaud's case.--San Francisco Argonaut.