They
have been justified so often; they know, in their wide
fair fields of opportunity, just what qualities will
produce what results. There is thus a complacence among
adolescent peoples which is vaguely irritating to their
elders; but the greybeards need not be over-captious; it
is only a question of time, pathetically short-lived in
the history of the race. Sanguine persons in Elgin were
freely disposed to "bet on" Lorne Murchison, and there
were none so despondent as to take the view that he would
not come out of it, somehow; with an added personal
significance. To make a spoon is a laudable achievement,
but it may be no mean business to spoil a horn.
As the Express put it, there was as little standing room
for ladies and gentlemen in the courthouse the first day
of the Spring Assizes as there was for horses in the
Court House Square. The County Crown Attorney was unusually,
oddly, reinforced by Cruickshank, of Toronto--the great
Cruickshank, K.C., probably the most distinguished criminal
lawyer in the Province. There were those who considered
that Cruickshank should not have been brought down, that
it argued undue influence on the part of the bank, and
his retainer was a fierce fan to the feeling in Moneida;
but there is no doubt that his appearance added all that
was possible to the universal interest in the case.
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