_Journalist_ (_much worried_). "NO, MY DEAR, MUCH EASIER TO BE ALWAYS
DULL AND PROSAIC EVERY EVENING."

[_He was about to add a personal illustration, but as, fortunately, he
didn't, the subject dropped._]

* * * * *

THE CROSS-EXAMINER'S VADE MECUM.

_Question_. Have you a right to ask any question in Court?

_Answer_. Certainly, and the questioning is left to my discretion.

_Ques._ What do you understand by discretion?

_Ans._ An unknown quality defined occasionally by the Press and the
Public.

_Ques._ Is the definition invariably the same?

_Ans._ No, for it depends upon the exigencies of the Press and the
frivolity and fickleness of the Public.

_Ques._ Were you to refrain from questioning a Witness anent his
antecedents, and subsequently those antecedents becoming known, his
evidence were to lose the credence of the papers, what would be said
of you?