"
The plaintiff's lawyer now takes the floor, the jury shift their feet
and glance at the clock. "Gentlemen of the jury," he begins. He
probably leaves out the judge. The plaintiff now having the attack is
more direct. It is rather significant of the change in all procedure
that the language of all court addresses is becoming more and more
simple. The old days when the lawyers delivered homilies of Latin have
disappeared. No longer does the lawyer refer to _nunc pro tunc_, or
make facetious jokes in a language the layman and probably the court
does not understand. If a lawyer makes too many Latin quotations, the
court thinks him affected. He must be simple, direct, and to the point
at issue.
His art in presenting his case consists in drawing the picture of the
facts so vividly that they will remain in the jurors' minds. Employing
his imagination in forming the concept, he gets it across the rail to
the jury by the fine gift of selecting words and incidents. No one, it
is said, is ever convinced by argument, but any one can realize a
visualized picture of words.
The counsel starts to storm and abuse his opponents and his opponents'
client, and in his wrath also forgetting that persuasion is not
accomplished by denunciation.
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