He tries to catch their eye, there is no gleam
of interest. Perhaps he has rather a hopeless feeling that the art of
oratory is not what it is reputed to be. The jury look particularly
unresponsive. Even that one little juror, with the clever, smart face,
who is leaning forward with such an expression of enjoyment may not be
altogether trustworthy. The lawyer has seen that kind before and the
one juror who seemed the most interested in the last case he argued
was the very one who held out against him in the jury-room as he found
afterwards. It seems a difficult matter to stir the jury and the men
in the box are not at all a warm or enthusiastic audience.
The jury are not particularly keen about the oratory of the lawyer,
they look upon him as paid to do his part. It is the portion of the
trial they can understand; they have not clearly comprehended what
went before. When the objections were being made and there were the
cross-examination and badgering of witnesses, they could not separate
in their minds the functions of the lawyer and the personality of the
lawyer. It seemed as though he were doing a good many unfair things
and not acting quite up to the mark, but now the atmosphere has
cleared.
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