A difficult but extremely effective method of exposing a certain kind of perjurer is to lead him gradually to a point in his story, where--in his answer to the final question "Which?"--he will have to choose either one or the other of the only two explanations left to him, either of which would degrade if not entirely discredit him in the eyes of the jury.
The writer once heard the Hon. Joseph H. Choate make very telling use of this method of examination. A stock-broker was being sued by a married woman for the return of certain bonds and securities in the broker's possession, which she alleged belonged to her. Her husband took the witness-stand and swore that he had deposited the securities with the stock-broker as collateral against his market speculations, but that they did not belong to him, and that he was acting for himself and not as agent for his wife, and had taken her securities unknown to her.
It was the contention of Mr. Choate that, even if the bonds belonged to the wife, she had either consented to her husband's use of the bonds, or else was a partner with him in the transaction. Both of these contentions were denied under oath by the husband.
_Mr. Choate._ "When you ventured into the realm of speculations in Wall Street I presume you contemplated the possibility of the market going against you, did you not?"
_Witness._ "Well, no, Mr. Choate, I went into Wall Street to make money, not to lose it."
_Mr. Choate._ "Quite so, sir; but you will admit, will you not, that sometimes the stock market goes contrary to expectations?"
_Mr. Choate._ "You say the bonds were not your own property, but your wife's?"
_Mr. Choate._ "And you say that she did not lend them to you for purposes of speculation, or even know you had possession of them?"
_Mr. Choate._ "You even admit that when you deposited the bonds with your broker as collateral against your stock speculations, you did not acquaint him with the fact that they were not your own property?"
_Witness._ "I did not mention whose property they were, sir."
_Mr. Choate_ (in his inimitable style). "Well, sir, in the event of the market going against you and your collateral being sold to meet your losses, _whom did you intend to cheat, your broker or your wife_?"