[bowman] fundamental PROCESSES IN HISTORICAL SCIENCE 533 



where one or the other must be guilty of perjury and direct evidence 

 to decide between them was not available, sometimes a straw showed 

 how the wind blew, and the erased date might be such a straw. His 

 charge otherwise was so strongly against the plaintiff that the defence, 

 after the verdict was rendered, made a request, though without suc- 

 cess, that the judge in view of his own charge should allow Jones no 

 costs." 



(No. 7): "Probably the judge was wrong and the majority of the jury 

 right, because litigation under any circumstances is so expensive and uncertain 

 that men even with considerable means dread the courts, and it seems unlikely 

 that Jones would risk a lawsuit in the midst of his financial difficulties unless 

 spurred by some such grievous wrong as he ascribed to Smith." 



(Part 8) : "Jones, after his second assignment, withdrew from 

 commercial life but lived in very fair style. Presently Black, an 

 elderly man without much business acumen, assigned to him a val- 

 uable property which was mortgaged only to half its value; and 

 practically the only consideration given for it by Jones was an under- 

 taking to pay off this mortgage. The property was all that the old 

 man possessed. He always maintained that he was deceived in the 

 transaction; but notwithstanding Black's protests, Jones established 

 himself in possession; then by his own slackness he lost the property 

 to others. Jones, in his efforts to regain possession, entered so many 

 expensive and unsuccessful lawsuits against the new owners that his 

 name became a by-word for reckless litigiousness in the community; 

 insomuch that on moving elsewhere and re-appearing subsequently 

 in its courts, he was twitted by an opposing attorney who remarked 

 that his removal from town was a "loss to the legal profession." 

 Jones gave a smiling assent. 



Smith, meanwhile, who had been promoted to a larger and more 



important branch of his bank on the eve of the trial with Jones, was 



left in that post notwithstanding the verdict and filled the place 



successfully." 



(No. 8) : "So far from being in financial difficulties and afraid of litigation 

 at the time of the trial with Smith, Jones apparently, notwithstanding his two 

 assignments, must have set aside considerable means which he was ready enough 

 to use on any semi-favorable opportunity in the courts. In view of these devel- 

 opments and of the difference in the careers of the two men after the trial, it 

 appeared likely that the judge, who was a much abler and more penetrating man 

 than any of the jurors, estimated correctly the characters of the plaintiff and of 

 the defendant before him; and probably he and the bank officials were right in 

 sustaining Smith, and the majority of the jury wrong in their decision." 



(Part 9): "The banker, after serving at his new post " satisfac- 

 torily for several years, lost it suddenly by running away with another 

 man's wife." 



(No. 9): "By this act he showed such an utter want of character that it 

 seemed probable that the judge was mistaken in sustaining him at the trial and 

 that the jury, though not with a proper motive, arrived at a correct verdict." 



