The romance of real life as revealed in the Law
Courts of London, San Francisco, and elsewhere threatens to eclipse the finest efforts of imaginative novelists. The latest instance comes from Paris, where Sir Julius Wernher is prosecuting an engineer named Lemoine for obtaining from him 266,000 on the pretence that he had discovered the secret of fabricating diamonds. The defendant has offered to carry out test experi- ments in the presence of the Magistrate and any experts he might appoint, but only on condition that he is immediately released on bail. This Sir Julius Wernher refuses to consent to. A document containing the secret was by contract between the two parties deposited in a London bank, and the question whether he can demand its production by diplomatic inter- vention is still exercising the Magistrate, though this step is vehemently opposed by Lemoine as involving the violation of a freely made contract. There is a direct conflict of evidence as to the quality of the diamonds produced by Lemoine, and the case is further complicated by compromising allegations made against him by his associates and partners.
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