“Let that be noted by the stenographer,” remarked the lawyer.  “Now, if your Honors please,” he continued, addressing the three judges of the Special Sessions, “you all know how interested I am to see these young lawyers growing up.  I like to help ’em along—­give ’em a chance—­teach ’em a thing or two.  I trust it may not be out of place for me to say that I like my young friend here and think he tried his case very well.  But he has a great deal to learn.  I’m always glad, as I said, to give the boys a chance—­to give ’em a little experience.  I shall not put my client upon the stand.  It is not necessary.  The fact is,” turning suddenly to the unfortunate assistant district attorney—­“my client has a license.”  He drew from his pocket a folded paper and handed it to the paralyzed young attorney with the harsh demand:  “What do you say to that?”

The assistant took the paper in trembling fingers and perused it as well as he could in his unnerved condition.

“Mr. District Attorney,” remarked the presiding justice dryly (which did not lessen the confusion of the young lawyer), “is this a fact?  Has the defendant a license?”

“Yes, your Honors,” replied the assistant; “this paper seems to be a license.”

“Defendant discharged!” remarked the court briefly.

The prisoner stepped from the bar and rapidly disappeared though the door of the court-room.  After enough time had elapsed to give him a good start and while another case was being called, the old lawyer leaned over to the assistant and remarked with a chuckle

“I am always glad to give the boys a chance—­help ’em along —­teach ’em a little.  That license was a beer license!”

BEFORE TRIAL

To begin at the beginning, whenever a person has been arrested, charged with crime, and has secured a criminal lawyer to defend him, the first move of the latter is naturally to try and nip the case in the bud by inducing the complaining witness to abandon the prosecution.  In a vast number of cases he is successful.  He appeals to the charity of the injured party, quotes a little of the Scriptures and the “Golden Rule,” pictures the destitute condition of the defendant’s family should he be cast into prison, and the dragging of an honored name in the gutter if he should be convicted.  Few complainants have ever before appeared in a police court, and are filled with repugnance at the rough treatment of prisoners and the suffering which they observe upon every side.  After they have seen the prisoner emerge from the cells, pale, hollow-eyed, bedraggled, and have beheld the tears of his wife and children as they crowd around the husband and father, they begin to realize the horrible consequences of a criminal prosecution and to regret that they ever took the steps which have brought the wrong-doer where he is.  The district attorney hag not yet taken up the case; the prosecution up to this point is of a private character; there are loud promises of “restitution” and future good behavior from the defendant, and the occasion is ripe for the lawyer to urge the complainant to “temper justice with mercy” and withdraw “before it be too late and the poor man be ruined forever.”