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 (flnrtipll ICaw irlynnl ICibraty 
 
Cornell University Library 
 KF 8972.S96 
 
 Impressions of an average uryman 
 
 3 1924 020 114 322 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924020114322 
 
IMPRESSIONS 
 
 of 
 
 AN AVERAGE 
 JURYMAN 
 
 By 
 ROBERT STEWART SUTLIFFE 
 
 (Average Juryman) 
 
 Published by 
 
 HERBERT H. FOSTER 
 
 New York 
 
BG ???5 
 
 Copyrighted by 
 
 EGBERT STEWART SUTLIFFE 
 
 1922 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Foreword 5 
 
 Jury Material 9 
 
 Selecting a Jury 14 
 
 The Jurymen Swear 18 
 
 Why Is a Lawyer's Opening Address 22 
 
 Witness the Witness 25 
 
 Examinations — Cross and Otherwise 31 
 
 Some Summing Ups 36 
 
 Charging the Jury 40 
 
 Verdicts 44 
 
 In a Jury Retiring Boom 51 
 
 His Honor 57 
 
 The Foreman of the Jury 61 
 
 Evading Jury Duty 65 
 
 Trials and Tribulations of a Juryman 69 
 
 Court Clerks and Others in Author- 
 ity 72 
 
 3 
 
4 Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Delays, Lingers and Waits in Court 
 
 Eooms 76 
 
 The Fair Sex on the Jury 80 
 
 Weighing Hard and Cold Facts 84 
 
 Some Specimen Verdicts 87 
 
 The Suit That Didn't Fit 91 
 
 Mathematics Applied to Evidence ... 93 
 
 The Jury's Revenge 98 
 
 The Ambulance Chasers ' Syndicate. . 102 
 
 Undesirable Publicity 106 
 
 Cutting Remarks 108 
 
 Averting an Explosion in Court 110 
 
 Divers ' Reasons Ill 
 
 The Magic of the Law 112 
 
 Bale 'Im 113 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 The working of a juryman's mind is the 
 unknown quantity, the missing link, in the 
 trial of legal cases. Lawyers may have 
 access to magnificent libraries, may have 
 legal and other experts available for con- 
 sultation at all times, but they cannot have 
 a knowledge of who is to make up a jury 
 to pass upon the facts in a case, or how 
 counsel's efforts are to be received by a 
 jury. Long experience in jury cases may 
 give an attorney some vague idea of what 
 he may expect from the average jury, but 
 each jury has individual characteristics 
 and it is not possible to judge with even a 
 fair degree of certainty how the eat is go- 
 ing to jump. 
 
 The writer has been serving as a juror 
 in the New York civil and criminal courts 
 for about eighteen years and has heard a 
 wide variety of cases tried. It has always 
 seemed to him that a picture of the average 
 juryman, showing his weak points and his 
 strong ones, his likes and dislikes, in short 
 impressions of what goes on in court, 
 would not only be interesting reading, but 
 5 
 
6 FOBEWOBD 
 
 would be valuable material for lawyers. 
 With this in view he made it a practice to 
 get acquainted with as many jurors as pos- 
 sible and to get their views. 
 
 Jury work is most fascinating to the 
 student of humanity. The trials of the dif- 
 ferent cases show all of the various 
 emotions, passions and vicissitudes of 
 every day life — ^its tragedies and comedies. 
 If all the world is a stage, the court room 
 is the scene of many of its best produc- 
 tions. The attorneys and the witnesses are 
 the actors and the judge and jury the crit- 
 ical audience. 
 
 The impressions given in this book are 
 the impressions of the average of many 
 hundreds of jurymen who have served at 
 sessions with the writer. The scenes de- 
 scribed are actual scenes in court and the 
 stories told, with perhaps one exception, 
 are descriptions of actual occurrences. A 
 story is going the rounds of a fellow who 
 became disgusted with the vote of the peo- 
 ple upon a certain question and who said, 
 ' ' The trouble with people is that about six- 
 ty per cent of them are below the average." 
 Most students of popular government, how- 
 
FOEEWOBD 7 
 
 ever, believe that the people do a pretty 
 good job. Juries as a whole bring in fair 
 verdicts and weigh evidence in an intelli- 
 gent way. It is true that many juries do 
 not measure up to the average intelligence 
 of all of the people. This is not the fault of 
 the multitude, but of the better educated 
 and better fitted class who are unwilling to 
 make the sacrifices involved in this great 
 and necessary civic duty and obtain ex- 
 emption — in many instances through un- 
 holy methods. 
 
 Men on duty in a jury box and the same 
 men in a jury retiring room, with their 
 chairs tilted back and their feet on the 
 table, and freed from the scrutiny of the 
 public and the formalities of the court 
 room, have two distinct personalities. The 
 writer hopes to give a picture of the jury- 
 man under both conditions that will make 
 the people, particularly the lawyers, bet- 
 ter acquainted with him. The jury is just 
 Tom, Dick and Harry; human, filled with 
 sympathy and anxious to do the right thing 
 in a great majority of cases. Better work 
 could be had from juries if their work was 
 surrounded with more dignity, and in the 
 
8 FOEEWOED 
 
 New York courts, at least, if they were 
 afforded the ordinary comforts of life, 
 while they are on duty. 
 
JURY MATERIAL 
 
 An encyclopedia gives the following defi- 
 nition of a jury : 
 
 "Twelve impartial men, legally compe- 
 tent to act, who, under the sanction of their 
 oaths, determine by their unanimous ver- 
 dict the innocence or guilt of the accused 
 in a criminal trial or decide the issues of 
 fact which are contested between the plain- 
 tiff and defendant in a civil trial." 
 
 Theoretically correct, no doubt, but some 
 of the men serving on juries would hardly 
 be classed by qualified judges as either im- 
 partial or competent, if those judges could 
 have an opportunity to hear what goes on 
 in the rooms set aside for their delibera- 
 tions. A better description might be, "A 
 lot of men picked from the poll lists, who 
 have not enough political pull to get off, or 
 who are out of a job and want to pick up 
 three dollars a day. ' ' 
 
 Juries, such as they are, are composed 
 of average men; average in intelligence, 
 ability and education. The sheep are mixed 
 with the goats. Some juries measure up 
 to a higher standard than others, but gen- 
 
10 Impressions of an Aveeage Juryman 
 
 erally they make a fair average of citizen- 
 ship, a sufficient number of higher class 
 men being on hand to balance the low grade 
 material. The men with the stronger 
 minds and personalities have more than a 
 proportionate influence, and because of 
 this, fair verdicts are usually obtained. 
 The man with experience in analyzing sit- 
 uations and bringing out strong points wiU 
 be powerful in lifting the cloud from the 
 mind of his befogged brother and leading 
 him to a logical conclusion. 
 
 Juries are largely made up of middle 
 class merchants, manufacturers, brokers, 
 salesmen and the like. The per diem man, 
 if he makes over three dollars a day, evi- 
 dently has little difficulty in getting off. 
 Captains of Industry, and some other 
 classes who are not exempted by law, may 
 receive summonses, but they are as rare 
 in a jury box as a Dodo bird. 
 
 Getting men off from jury duty is one 
 of the most valuable perquisites of the 
 small politician. As a vote getter exemp- 
 tion from jury service has a high value and 
 is a bait that is freely offered to men who 
 would strike from the shoulder if a bribe 
 
Jury Mateeial 11 
 
 of another kind were offered. The writer 
 once voted at a primary election that was 
 close, and voting involved a trip uptown 
 in the middle of a business day. On leav- 
 ing the polling place a stranger introduced 
 himself as the district captain and asked 
 if he could do any little thing in the way 
 of jury duty exemption. Such action de- 
 grades juries and to that extent is a 
 menace to proper verdicts. 
 
 The wise have a whole bag of tricks to 
 be used for getting excused from jury ser- 
 vice. One man used to put his hand behind 
 his ear and say "Beg pardon?" several 
 times. Another, whose name was the same 
 as his father, would have the old gentleman 
 appear in court. He was eighty years old 
 and as deaf as a post. 
 
 Retired business men make fine jurors. 
 They do not have to worry about punching 
 the time clock or whether some important 
 letter will get off in time. They have dur- 
 ing their business career had all the excite- 
 ment one man is entitled to and do not get 
 fussed over matters before a jury that 
 often makes one who has half of his mind 
 in the jury room and the other half on his 
 
12 lMPEESSI03SrS OF AN AvEBAGE JUBYMAN 
 
 job get up and yell. The retired business 
 man commands respect and attention and 
 he can be counted upon to inject into the 
 situation some of that good old horse- 
 sense that has made him successful in the 
 business world. 
 
 The "professional" juryman is gener- 
 ally poor material. He is usually some 
 seedy individual who has lost his hold on 
 things and cannot get a job and the three 
 dollars he picks up in court is just that 
 much more than nothing in his pocket. He 
 never tries to get excused, but is "Johnny 
 on the spot" when his name is called. He 
 may take no interest in the proceedings, 
 and may be a little hard of hearing, but 
 he will be agreeable to anything and every- 
 thing that goes on and will finally vote with 
 the ones who are in the majority, in the 
 hope that he may soon get through and get 
 on another case, where he will receive 
 twenty-five or fifty cents in addition to his 
 three dollars. 
 
 Few grossly ignorant men get on juries. 
 One case developed a regular male "Mrs. 
 Malaprop, ' ' who persisted all day in talk- 
 ing about "statuary rape." He had prob- 
 
JuKT Material 13 
 
 ably never heard the word ' ' statutory. ' ' If 
 he had, he certainly did not know what it 
 meant. If it had not been for time lost and 
 a disagreement, for which he was more or 
 less responsible, he would have been pure 
 comedy. 
 
SELECTING A JUEY 
 
 Jurors spend much time in court with a 
 string tied to them, but with nothing to do. 
 One of their time-killing games is for two 
 or three to get together and make bets as to 
 which of the men called for esamination 
 will be excluded. It is surprising how many- 
 times you can hit it and yet physiognomy 
 is most misleading. The man who looks 
 like a crank of the first water or a chronic 
 hold-out, often turns out to be sane, level- 
 headed and possessed of a keen mind and 
 valuable in the retiring room in threshing 
 out disputed points. 
 
 The layman at times finds it difficult to 
 understand just the system used by the at- 
 torneys in picking their Juries. Clean-cut, 
 high-grade men of responsibility in the 
 business world will be turned down and 
 some whose faces are their misfortune se- 
 lected. Some cases of dismissal are so 
 mysterious that the jurors get the impres- 
 sion that the attorneys are looking for 
 "easy marks" to put something over. 
 
 An electrical engineer was called in one 
 of the Parts for examination as to his qual- 
 
 14 
 
Selecting a Jury 15 
 
 ifications. He was highly educated, and 
 his business for years had been the analy- 
 sis of conditions and the finding of facts. 
 "Just the right man for the job," I think 
 I hear you say. Just right by training, 
 temperament and experience. And he was 
 unquestionably honest and readily stated 
 that he had no prejudices and would bring 
 in a verdict in accordance with the facts. 
 But he was rejected. The attorney was 
 one of high standing and with long expe- 
 perience. The only possible excuse for re- 
 jecting this man was that he worked for 
 one of the big corporations. But he had 
 had nothing to do with policies or adminis- 
 tration. At any rate, excusing him from 
 the case left a bad impression upon the 
 people in the court room; it looked like a 
 clear case of "jockeying" to color the jury. 
 It is generally believed that many of the 
 attorneys try to give juries complexions 
 that seem to them favorable to their issues. 
 lOne man prefers to have a preponderance 
 of those of Jewish faith ; another, perhaps, 
 wants as many Catholics as possible. Or 
 perhaps it is a case of getting more old 
 men or more young men. Most of the 
 
16 Impeessions of an Average Juryman 
 
 judges, however, are quick to resent any- 
 such coloration and a sharp rebuke brings 
 the proceeding to a close. 
 
 Toward the end of the term there is al- 
 ways less material to choose from, owing 
 to the number of men who have been ex- 
 cused during the term, and excluding what 
 appears to be "fair" material becomes 
 dangerous. It may be a case of "Out of 
 the frying pan and into the fire." One ap- 
 pearing not over clever may be excused 
 only to be replaced with a tartar when the 
 available material has been exhausted. 
 
 The different methods used by attorneys 
 in selecting jurymen are interesting in 
 their contrast. One man finds it necessary 
 to find out all about a juryman from the 
 time of his advent into this cold world up 
 to the moment of his appearance in the 
 court room. He wants to know if he has 
 ever known any one connected with the 
 case, their sisters, cousins and their aunts, 
 and their business associates unto the third 
 and fourth generation. Some of the lawyers 
 seem to regard a juryman as especially un- 
 fitted if by experience he knows anything 
 whatever about the matters about to come 
 
Selecting a Jury 17 
 
 up in the trial. Other attorneys, after ask- 
 ing the usual formal questions, depend 
 largely upon their ability to "size up" an 
 individual. One of the greatest lawyers 
 known by the writer believed it damaged 
 his case more to excuse any man not actu- 
 ally known to be unfit than to have some 
 doubtful ones on his juries. He believed 
 they were all good gambles unless there 
 was some very strong reason to believe 
 the contrary. 
 
 2 — Oct. 22. 
 
THE JUBYMEN SWEAR 
 
 YoTi remember perhaps the figure in the 
 old-fashion square dance where a lot of 
 people join hands in the middle and circle 
 around. That is what swearing in a jury- 
 in the New York criminal courts looks like. 
 In the civil courts it has not even as much 
 dignity as that. The court clerk shouts: 
 "The jurors will rise to be sworn. Hold 
 up your right hands." Then he talks off 
 something at the rate of about three hun- 
 dred words a minute, and says : "Be seat- 
 ed." One old gentleman in the criminal 
 courts always wound up with : * ' SO HELP 
 YOUR GOD I ' ' And in the weeks that the 
 writer served in his Part no one appar- 
 ently ever thought it a joke or invited at- 
 tention to the fact that the oath in that 
 form put the responsibility upon the Deity 
 rather than upon the individual. 
 
 An Oath of OfSce for jurors is either a 
 solenm, binding obligation or it is a dan- 
 gerous procedure and a mask for the dis- 
 honest. If it is the former it has a very 
 high value ; otherwise it might well be omit- 
 ted. The little weight given by jurors to 
 
 18 
 
The Jurymen Sweae 19 
 
 their oath is one of the shocking things en- 
 countered in the service. To many it is 
 something to be lightly considered and has 
 little or no influence in their voting. 
 
 The method of swearing in jurors no 
 doubt has much to do with the lack of 
 respect for the oath. Instead of a serio- 
 comedy, this ceremony might well be at- 
 tended by great dignity. It might be 
 administered by the judge, after he had 
 invited attention to its language and the 
 responsibility for the pledge given. Every 
 juror should have called to his attention 
 the fact that the oath is taken literally and 
 that failure to observe it is detrimental to 
 justice and a violation of a sacred promise. 
 
 Jurors are commonly met who do not 
 consider their oath either a moral or legal 
 obligation, but a mere matter of form. One 
 man went so far as to remark to his neigh- 
 bor, in a statutory case, that when the law 
 governing the case was made, the Legis- 
 lature had had its turn; the lawyers were 
 about to have theirs, but it was up to the 
 jury to consider the matter "in a common 
 sense way." It is easy to imagine how 
 little respect for evidence a man would 
 
20 Impeessions op an Aveeage Juryman 
 
 have if he had no respect for his own oath. 
 If he was so thick skinned as to have no 
 compunction about violating his own prom- 
 ise, how could he be expected to believe the 
 witnesses were not telhng any story that 
 would best serve their purposes? 
 
 Sometimes the lawyers impress upon 
 jurors the obligation of their oath, but in 
 many instances no such attempt is made. 
 In a criminal case upon which the writer 
 had the misfortune to be a juror, several 
 of the jurors said in the jury retiring room 
 that they would not convict even if they 
 had seen the act committed and notwith- 
 standing the law in the case. Some of 
 them were so prompt in their indorse- 
 ment of the defendant that one could only 
 judge that they were "birds of a feather." 
 If the District Attorney had been on his 
 job in this particular case, and it was a 
 case where he should have looked for just 
 such a contingency, he would have discov- 
 ered that he had some "sea lawyers" on 
 his jury and got rid of them instead of 
 having a second disagreement, when the 
 evidence in the case was clear cut and 
 where the judge 's charge had been so clear 
 
The Jtjeymen Sweae 21 
 
 that there was no misunderstanding as to 
 the law. 
 
 Let us either not swear at all, or do it 
 right. 
 
WHY IS A LAWYER'S OPENING 
 ADDRESS? 
 
 Some of our most brilliant sayings are 
 those we leave unsaid. There are places 
 where oratory is greatly appreciated, but 
 a lawyer's opening address is not one of 
 them. One of the attorneys — ^with a smile 
 on his face if he knows his business — ^bows 
 to the jury and proceeds to explain how 
 utterly absurd it is for his opponent to 
 present the other side of the case. He 
 states in detail his program for the pres- 
 entation of facts that will convince any one 
 but a deaf man or an idiot that his case 
 is a "cinch." The opposing counsel per- 
 haps — more particularly if he is new at the 
 game — ^files a lot of objections to remarks. 
 
 Then lawyer number two has a turn. 
 After smiling in a ''You know me, old 
 man," kind of way, he tells the jury his 
 opponent has been indulging in pure ver- 
 biage ; that when he gets through with his 
 evidence, a four-year-old child will be able 
 to see how utterly fallacious are the claims 
 of the other side. Then he goes into the 
 merits of his own case in more or less de- 
 tail. When he refers to his opponent's re- 
 
 22 
 
Why Is A Lawyer's Opening Addebss? 23 
 
 marks or his opponent's case, lawyer num- 
 ber one jumps up and shouts an objection. 
 All the time a lot of witnesses have been 
 waiting for hours, perhaps days, for an 
 opportunity to tell the story itself. Prob- 
 ably the judge will instruct the jury not to 
 pay attention to anything that the law- 
 yers have said in their opening addresses, 
 but to base their conclusions exclusively 
 upon the evidence. And the people in the 
 court room ask themselves, "Why is a law- 
 yer's opening address?" 
 
 If all this oratory is without value — 
 why is it? If a salesman comes into your 
 office with something he wants to put over, 
 and he talks to you for haK an hour on 
 what he is going to show you, you naturally 
 think it strange that he doesn't show it 
 first and talk about it after. And you will 
 probably think that he must have a phony 
 proposition or he would let his article talk 
 more or less for itself. 
 
 What can be gained by making a lot of 
 statements that cannot be proven? It is 
 hard to believe that the lawyers themselves 
 believe that they can prove some of their 
 preliminary statements. Some one is tak- 
 
24 Impeessions of an Ayeeage Jueyman 
 
 ing it for granted that there are some light- 
 weights on the jury who will fall for things 
 that he does not himself believe. 
 
 Juries may have one or two members 
 who are not leaders of thought, but the 
 number of actual "bone-heads" is small, 
 and to bring up in the opening address a 
 lot of points that are not substantiated in 
 the evidence, is quite liable to have a detri- 
 mental effect. Unfulfilled promises seldom 
 create admiration. A point made in the 
 opening and not touched upon in the testi- 
 mony suggests a second consideration of 
 a weak piece of evidence, that might well 
 have been left unborn. 
 
 Some of the judges, in instructing juries 
 in regard to disputes in the opening, as- 
 sume an attitude of "Don't mind them, 
 they are only boys who have pieces to speak 
 and must get them off their chests; after 
 they have finished, the real fire-works will 
 begin." 
 
 If we must have opening addresses to 
 connect up the evidence that is to follow, 
 let us have them in brief form and have 
 them confined to a description of goods 
 that can actually be delivered. 
 
WITNESS THE WITNESS 
 
 "Gro courting in your every-day clothes," 
 attributed to Henry Ward Beecher, was 
 not intended to apply to witnesses, but law- 
 yers might well have those seven words 
 printed in large type for those who are 
 about to testify before a jury. They might 
 also well be elaborated by, "Don't put on 
 airs in court or try to 'con' the jurymen." 
 
 Honesty makes the big hit with the jury- 
 men and the witness who tries anything 
 artificial is only fooling himself. It takes 
 a great actor to successfully tell a lie in 
 court when he is cross-examined by a law- 
 yer who is awake, and it takes a genius to 
 act a lie and get away with it. Most wit- 
 nesses are poor liars and worse actors. 
 Too good a story is worse than a point 
 for the other fellow; it's a discredited wit- 
 ness. A colored woman came into court 
 one day who made everybody sit up and 
 take notice. She was accompanied by two 
 youngsters, and all three were heavily 
 draped with crepe. As a sideshow she was 
 a success, but as a picture of a bereaved 
 widow she would never have been allowed 
 in the movies. 
 
 25 
 
26 Impressions of an Average Juryman' 
 
 A truck skidded into a fat woman over 
 on the east side, turning her topsy-turvey 
 and causing great excitement in the neigh- 
 borhood. The law^yer for the defendant 
 had the case well in hand until the chauf- 
 feur got the idea that it was up to him to 
 individually win the case for his employer. 
 He painted a picture of himself that en- 
 dowed him with the skill of an Oldfleld and 
 the watchfulness of a mother hen. As a 
 picture of the chauffeur we all have to 
 dodge to get across the street, however, he 
 would not pass muster and the jury gave 
 him the benefit of the doubt and put him 
 down as a first-class liar. And his boss 
 had to pay substantial damages. 
 
 A "painted lady" may tell the truth, but 
 juries are liable to apply the principle of 
 "False in one thing, false in all things" 
 to her. They say to themselves if her com- 
 plexion is false and she has colored her 
 hair, she will probably color her testimony. 
 Two girls were witnesses in a criminal case 
 that smelled to heaven. Each had a rec- 
 ord that made the jurymen blush. Any 
 fine feelings possessed by them must have 
 been bom on the witness-stand. And yet 
 
Witness the Witness 27 
 
 each of them repeatedly fainted while giv- 
 ing testimony, and the case had to be held 
 up while restoratives were administered. 
 The jury could not believe that two such 
 hardened young sinners could be so easily 
 shocked, and their performance was put 
 down as acting, badly advised. 
 
 The "boomerang" witness is always in- 
 teresting. It is great sport to see one who 
 is being heckled take the bit in his teeth 
 and run away with the show. A contractor 
 sued the City of New York for moneys al- 
 leged to be due him for work upon one of 
 the docks, and the City called as a witness 
 an employee who gave certain testimony 
 as to the records in the case. He was a 
 red-headed Irishman, with simple manners, 
 and told his story in a straight-forward 
 way. The attorney for the plaintiff either 
 forgot the witness' nationality or got a 
 wrong impression from his apparent docil- 
 ity, for he asked his assistant in a voice 
 that could be heard by the jury, "Does he 
 know anything ? ' ' When the answer " No " 
 came along, he said, "I'll show him up." 
 He did; he showed him to be a witness of 
 the first water. He knew docks from 
 
28 Impressions of an Aveeage Jueyman 
 
 Mount Ararat to Liverpool and Chelsea 
 and all kinds from those you get for being 
 late on your job to the ones for a 40,000 
 ton liner. That showing up brought in a 
 prompt verdict for the defendant. 
 
 Another case of rushing in where a wiser 
 attorney would have feared to tread was 
 the one of a widow suing the City for in- 
 juries received through stepping into a hole 
 in a sidewalk. It developed that the hole 
 in the walk had to be at least eight inches 
 deep before it constituted negligence. 
 The plaintiff put on a witness of unimpres- 
 sive appearance, but who seemed mighty 
 sure of himself. On cross-examination 
 heckling and sarcasm had little effect upon 
 him; he stuck to his estimate of the depth 
 of that hole as though he had measured it, 
 which was not a fact for it had been filled 
 immediately after the accident. The plain- 
 tiff's attorney, who had evidently been un- 
 aware that he had an expert witness, on re- 
 direct examination brought out that he was 
 a compositor in a printing establishment 
 and that his profession developed great ac- 
 curacy in measuring short distances. Upon 
 testing him with a pocket rule he showed 
 
Witness the Witness 29 
 
 that he could pick out from an inch to 
 eight inches to a hair. 
 
 The life of the expert witness while in 
 court is not a happy one. Doctor Gotrich 
 is put upon the stand and questioned as 
 to his education and experience. He tells 
 of enough degrees that have been conferred 
 upon him to cover the walls of his office 
 with nicely framed parchments. He knows 
 bones from the one in the middle ear to the 
 one that is a small unit of his charge for 
 services. He testifies that he has treated 
 just such injuries as the one described in 
 court so many times that it would take an 
 adding machine to count them. But he has 
 qualified as an expert and even though he 
 may be the pet specialist of John D. Astor- 
 bilt, the opposing counsel finds it necessary 
 to try to show that he is unworthy of be- 
 lief; that his judgment on the minor in- 
 jury in question and its effect is so poor 
 that he wouldn't have him for a sick cat. 
 Other experts are called and testify that 
 the first said "Tweedle-dee" when he 
 should have said "Tweedledum." But if 
 he is a real "big-gun," the jurymen know 
 it, and treat his story accordingly. 
 
30 Impeessions of an Avekagb Juryman 
 
 You "wlio have not served on juries will 
 never know the strain upon a jury that has 
 to sit for several days listening to stupid 
 witnesses who cannot speak English. The 
 interpreter seems to find it necessary to 
 enter into a long discussion every time he 
 asks a simple question, and the answer 
 is then often unintelligible. The man who 
 has heard such testimony for three or four 
 days will at the end of that time have a 
 mental picture of the case that resembled 
 an old-fashion crazy quilt. 
 
EXAMINATIONS— CROSS AND 
 OTHERWISE 
 
 Possibly the reader has been in court 
 when the testimony of a witness has been 
 interlarded with a whole series of objec- 
 tions and overrulings. The case was per- 
 haps too small to be worthy of an appeal, 
 and finally the judge made the final objec- 
 tion that stopped the performance. Jurors 
 soon learn that it is necessary for the judge 
 to exclude irrelevant or improper testi- 
 mony, but some of the attorneys give the 
 impression that they are afraid to let a 
 witness tell his story in his own way, and 
 that impression may be more damaging to 
 a case than the testimony could possibly 
 have been. It requires nice judgment to 
 know just where this bad impression out- 
 weighs unfavorable testimony. A jury may 
 be expected to reason that an attorney with 
 a good case will not waste time with unim- 
 portant points. 
 
 The value of getting a witness to contra- 
 dict himself depends largely upon whether 
 the jury gets the impression that the wit- 
 ness is honest but confused. Many of the 
 
 31 
 
32 Impbessions of ak Aveeagb Jueyman 
 
 jurors have at some time or other been on 
 the witness-stand and have recollections of 
 having been heckled and perhaps abused 
 by some bulldozer, and any unfair treat- 
 ment of the man in the witness-chair will 
 be sure to have its reaction. For instance, 
 some of the lawyers invariably ask, "Have 
 you talked with any one about this case?" 
 Only a "boob" would permit his witness 
 to go on the stand without finding out what 
 he is going to testify and every one who 
 thinks about such matters knows it, and yet 
 the person on the stand is questioned at 
 length about it and, if possible, made to ap- 
 pear as if he had committed some great 
 impropriety. But, bless your heart, the 
 jury understands it all, and if the witness 
 is at all honest in his manner, no matter 
 how confused he may be, they will give him 
 a fair deal. 
 
 The suave, business-like, courteous attor- 
 ney is the one who makes the big hit with 
 the jurors and whose work carries weight 
 with them in the retiring room. Put such 
 a lawyer on a case in opposition to a bull- 
 dozer and he starts with his case half won. 
 A case in the Supreme Court presented a 
 
Examinations — Cboss and Otheewise 33 
 
 fine battle between quality and quantity in 
 court room tactics. On one side was an 
 undersized fellow with a calm demeanor 
 and a middle-keyed voice. He was a ver- 
 itable artist along Ms special line, never 
 showing the slightest excitement, but just 
 pegging away until he reached his mark. 
 The opponent was a big, thick-necked man, 
 with a roar like a bull and the manners of 
 a truck driver. The attacks of the smaller 
 one were like those of a gnat; he would 
 sting, sting, sting until his opponent roared 
 in anger and danced in anguish. Based 
 upon the impression made upon the jury, 
 the big man never had a look-in. Every 
 witness he cross-examined started out with 
 the sympathy of the men in the jury box 
 and his angry rejoiners to the attacks of 
 his opponent won only the smiles of those 
 in court. 
 
 Sarcasm is always a dangerous weapon, 
 and it is the chasm into which many an 
 attorney falls in his examinations. A prom- 
 inent engineer had been called as an ex- 
 pert witness and had made a fine impres- 
 sion with his testimony. His preliminary 
 examination showed him to be a man of 
 
34 Impressions of an Avebagb Jtjeyman 
 
 the highest standing in his profession, that 
 of mechanical engineer. Cross-examina- 
 tion failed to rattle him or to wring from 
 him an admission that he had said any- 
 thing that was either misleading or untrue, 
 by inference or as it sounded. Like a 
 thunder clap, the opposing attorney shout- 
 ed, "You get paid for coming here, don't 
 you?" and the jury smiled in anticipation 
 of a clever rejoinder, for he had shown 
 himself to be as sharp witted as he was 
 expert in a professional way. Those on 
 the jury long remembered the grin on his 
 face when he replied: "You lawyers are 
 the only ones who work for nothing." 
 
 It is difficult for the jurymen sometimes 
 to understand why testimony is not fur- 
 ther developed. It sometimes seems to 
 stop just before it hits anything. One wit- 
 ness testified that he was thrown over the 
 back of a dump car when it struck a 
 bumper at the bottom of an incline. The 
 opposing lawyer failed to bring out that 
 he would have been catapulted forward. 
 Another witness testified that an accident 
 was due to a broken tooth in a cog wheel, 
 when as a matter of fact, it could have been 
 
Examinations — Cboss and Otherwise 35 
 
 easily shown that with a wheel of the di- 
 ameter given, even if the tooth had been 
 broken, there would have been no slip, as 
 other teeth would have held. 
 
SOME SUMMINa UPS 
 
 A lawyer's opening address is properly 
 a short talk to arouse interest in a selling 
 proposition, the evidence is the sample and 
 the summing up a final effort to close the 
 sale. A favorable verdict may be likened 
 to the signature on the order blank. The 
 best points have been touched upon, and 
 the sample is shown, calling attention to 
 all of its best points and hurrying by its 
 weaknesses, and then comes the time where 
 you must clinch the whole performance 
 and show how much better it is than the 
 other fellow's goods. 
 
 What salesman would think of yelling at 
 a merchant if he had something to sell 
 him, unless perhaps the man was deaf? 
 Imagine trying to nail down an order by 
 walking up and down in front of a pros- 
 pect and shouting at the top of your lungs. 
 The buyer would either think you were 
 crazy or that you thought he was. Some 
 of the lawyers act as if the men in the 
 jury box had been brought up in convents 
 or had been inmates of the Home for the 
 Feeble Minded. The male crane and some 
 
 36 
 
Some Summing TJps 37 
 
 other birds do a weird dance when they 
 want to impress the ladies of their affec- 
 tions, and go through some other strange 
 antics, and a juror is led at times to believe 
 that some of the lawyers have read about 
 it and are trying the same scheme. They 
 amble up and down, wave their arms, tear 
 their hair or mop their brows and call up- 
 on high heaven to witness that they have 
 the only just cause. And the jurymen 
 laugh up their sleeves and say to them- 
 selves, "Rot." 
 
 A case had arrived at the sununing up 
 stage in the City court. The court room 
 was full of jurors who were not working 
 upon a case and with nothing to do but 
 wait until the judge might have pity upon 
 them and excuse them. The attorneys for 
 both sides in the case being tried were 
 large men and possessed of gymnastic 
 ability. It had been a fairly short trial and 
 the evidence seemed to the unoccupied 
 jurors to be conclusive. Two or three of 
 the idle jurors got their heads together 
 and agreed among themselves to render a 
 little verdict of their own, based upon the 
 efforts of the attorney who yelled the 
 
I 
 
 38 Impbessions of an Avebage Jtjbyman 
 
 loudest. The first one, although he stood 
 almost in bodily contact with the front row 
 of jurors, started in with a mighty volume 
 of sound, but this was nothing to what he 
 accomplished when he warmed up to his 
 work. He pleaded, he cajoled, he threat- 
 ened, until finally, after half an hour of 
 vocal pyrotechnics, he sank exhausted in 
 a chair. "Wonderful!" said the idle ju- 
 rors, "How can you beat him?" It cer- 
 tainly seemed impossible for any one to 
 reach a higher peak of verbosity. 
 
 But a surprise was in store for them. 
 The first man had been the personification 
 of noisiness, but to the second he was as a 
 subway train compared to Niagara ; a flat 
 wheel car compared to a 16-inch gun. He 
 raged and he stormed, he shouted and he 
 bellowed, and he swore by all that was good 
 and holy that he had offered the only evi- 
 dence that was worthy of consideration on 
 the part of any one who had reached ma- 
 turity. The man who had a moment before 
 looked like a champion was simply no- 
 where and the idle jurors awarded the 
 latter their unanimous verdict. But the 
 jurors actually sitting on the case, and 
 
Some Summing Ups 39 
 
 who were not trying the case on the noise 
 issue, gave the other fellow their vote. 
 
 The summing up of another attorney in 
 rather an important case in the Supreme 
 Court was in. marked contrast, the above 
 rough and tumble performance. This case 
 had consumed several days and a large 
 amount of testimony had been offered. 
 The tired jurors sat back, expecting a long 
 talk, when they were surprised to hear : 
 "Gentlemen, you have heard the 
 testimony. Nothing that I can say 
 would add to it. I believe you are in- 
 telligent men and all I ash of you is 
 that you will use your brains. Good 
 morning." 
 
 The jury took a short smoke and brought 
 in a verdict in his favor. 
 
OHARGINa THE JURY 
 
 Some of the jurors go into the retiring 
 room only half charged, and they fizzle out 
 in a few moments like an exhausted siphon. 
 And yet an agreement or disagreement 
 often depends upon a clearly understood 
 interpretation of the law in the case. Many 
 jurors have about as adequate an idea of 
 "preponderance of evidence" and "rea- 
 sonable doubt" as a small boy has of moral 
 turpitude. All of the judges in their charge 
 instruct juries as to these two vital points, 
 but many of the definitions are only lan- 
 guage. Other judges can make their inter- 
 pretations so clear that an average stenog- 
 rapher could take them down and correctly 
 transcribe her notes. 
 
 Why would it not be a good idea to have 
 definitions of "preponderance of evi- 
 dence" and "reasonable doubt" given in 
 standard language, selected by a commit- 
 tee of able lawyers and written to be di- 
 gested by the average business man? After 
 a while, at least, jurymen would have an 
 understanding of them, like the prayers in 
 a prayer book. They could then be printed 
 
 40 
 
Chaeging the Juby 41 
 
 in bold type, framed and hung up in jury- 
 rooms, where they could be readily re- 
 ferred to when some befuddled juror is off 
 the track. Time and again, after hours of 
 deliberation, when a disagreement seems 
 inevitable, it is found that the trouble is 
 that one or two men have no real idea of 
 what "contributory negligence," "reason- 
 able doubt" and "preponderance of evi- 
 dence" mean. Perhaps there will be some 
 one on the jury who can bring out the 
 point that the plaintiff is not without fault 
 or that the case has not been proven be- 
 yond any question whatever, and lo and 
 behold ! the light is seen. 
 
 The judges have a diversity of methods 
 in charging juries. Some go into the facts 
 as well as the law. Others stick more 
 closely to the law. Some judges dwell so 
 pointedly upon the facts in a case that only 
 a juror mentally blind could fail to see the 
 points in His Honor's mind, and an easy 
 way out of it is to agree with the judge. 
 One judge perhaps chews his words or is 
 minus in impressiveness or is thinking of 
 the coming election. Another has himself 
 followed the evidence and has a mental 
 
42 Impressions of an Avebage Jubyman 
 
 picture of just what the jury should have 
 to keep it within the confines of its func- 
 tions, and at the same time walk straight 
 within those boundaries. 
 
 Some jurors are in their own minds 
 natural exponents of the law, others be- 
 lieve in the law only when it does not con- 
 flict with their personal ideas. It is of 
 great importance that one and all of them 
 should have clearly implanted in his mind 
 just where the dividing line between 
 judges and jurors runs. Some jurors are 
 weighed down with assumed responsibili- 
 ties, such as responsibilities for the pun- 
 ishment of an offender in a criminal case. 
 Many a disagreement has been the result 
 of unwillingness on the part of some one 
 or two jurors to be responsible for sending 
 a man to prison or to the death penalty. 
 Perhaps a few words, explaining that such 
 responsibility is entirely upon His Honor, 
 and that even the responsibility for award- 
 ing monetary damages should not worry 
 a juryman because the judge can set aside 
 the verdict if it is an incorrect one, will 
 clear up the situation. 
 
 Most lay minds require very judicious 
 
Chaeging the Jxjby 43 
 
 and careful instruction in jury trials, other- 
 wise some individual may stand up in the 
 retiring room and give a fine illustration 
 of what the Judge did not say, or at least 
 what he certainly did not mean. 
 
VERDICTS 
 
 We often have things handed to us that 
 we are not particularly anxious to possess, 
 but after we have been told that they are 
 ours, we won't give them up without a 
 fight. Jurors are told by the judges that 
 the right to pass upon the facts in legal 
 eases is theirs exclusively and they are 
 jealous of this function. The judge in- 
 structs the jury that deciding the truth or 
 falsity of the facts as shown in the evi- 
 dence is something outside of his own juris- 
 diction, but in some cases he has a string 
 tied to it. He says, "Little jurors, here is 
 something that the people have given to 
 you; it is all yours; take it and use it as 
 you please." And when they use their au- 
 thority, as little Willie does the dollar sent 
 him by Aunt Arabella, the fatherly judge 
 gives the jurors a verbal spanking for not 
 using it with better sense. 
 
 Most of the judges will accept jury find- 
 ings as final, unless there is something 
 very "raw." In only a very small per- 
 centage of cases does His Honor set aside 
 the findings. In the eighteen years that 
 
 .44 
 
Veedicts 45 
 
 the writer has served, no judge has set 
 aside a verdict of any jury of which he has 
 been a member and in only one or two 
 cases tried in court rooms where he has 
 been have judges made comments reflect- 
 ing upon the intelligence of the jury in 
 bringing in its verdict. Jurors held in 
 court but not actually working on a case 
 will at times disagree with the findings of 
 the working jurors, but the judge himself 
 usually lets the verdict go without criti- 
 cism. In one or two cases, after the ver- 
 dict has been announced, the judge has 
 reviewed some of the evidence with the 
 jurors, but has always decided that there 
 was some foundation for their decision. 
 
 Within the last few months a case has 
 attracted much attention. The judge 
 scolded the jurors for their verdict and 
 made uncomplimentary remarks which 
 were reported in the daily papers. One 
 of the jurors, in turn, came back with 
 some caustic remarks about judges who 
 try to control jury verdicts. The whole 
 thing, however, soon blew over, and ap- 
 parently the old spirit of co-operation has 
 been re-established. 
 
46 Impressions of an Aveeage Juryman 
 
 Improper verdicts are due to one of two 
 things, or both, viz: poor material on the 
 jury and weak instruction from the judge. 
 As a remedy, a restriction of the esempt 
 list has been suggested. Such a restric- 
 tion would go a long way in curing the 
 trouble. As indicated in another chapter, 
 the available jury material is restricted by 
 the practice of the court clerks of manipu- 
 lating the jurors' cards so that the men 
 may serve more or less in rotation. It is 
 most desirable that the maximum of ser- 
 vice shall be had from the best of the ma- 
 terial available. 
 
 In the minds of jurors verdicts are some- 
 times brought in, in spite of an attorney's 
 efforts, rather than because of them. 
 Many a conviction in a criminal case is 
 voted with an expression of regret that the 
 defendant was so poorly defended. The 
 jurymen cannot be blamed for this when 
 the judge himself at times, in their pres- 
 ence, expresses the same sentiment. In 
 one case on which the writer was a juror, 
 the judge expressed the opinion in open 
 court that the plaintiff should get a compe- 
 tent lawyer. 
 
Veedicts 47 
 
 The question of whether majority votes 
 of juries should not supersede unanimous 
 verdicts has been widely discussed. Any 
 man who has sat a few hours on a hope- 
 lessly split jury will be in favor of almost 
 anything that will make for a remedy. One 
 or two men whose unfamiliarity with hu- 
 manity generally is marked and who know 
 even less about business matters, will 
 stand out for hours and sometimes be so 
 wrapped in admiration of their own supe- 
 rior minds that they will cause a disagree- 
 ment. They are unwilling to acknowledge 
 that the agreement of ten or eleven of their 
 brethren is any basis for changing their 
 vote. In such cases, a ten to two control, 
 for instance, would greatly help business. 
 A generally applied majority vote, how- 
 ever, would be a dangerous esperiment. 
 Where the death penalty applies, or a con- 
 siderable amount of money is involved, 
 a unanimous verdict seems necessary. If 
 you can get twelve average men to vote 
 unanimously that a thing is proven beyond 
 a reasonable doubt, supported by a pre- 
 ponderance of evidence, you can feel pretty 
 sure that the verdict is a just one. The 
 
48 Impressions op an Aveeage Jueyman 
 
 people are entitled to this supreme test be- 
 fore they are sentenced to death or to pay- 
 heavy monetary damages. 
 
 Compromise verdicts have been con- 
 demned, but seem to be a necessary evil. 
 Without them the courts would be clogged 
 with retrial cases. The compromise affords 
 a sop to the egotistical person who would 
 not otherwise come to an agreement. Acci- 
 dent cases predominate in the New York 
 courts. Mary Jones starts to get into a 
 street ear. The car starts before she is in, 
 and she is thrown, breaking her leg. She 
 says the conductor gave the signal to start 
 before she got on the platform, and sues 
 for $10,000, as she will be permanently 
 lame. The company says its employee is 
 the most careful of conductors; but that 
 Mary wore a three-inch heel on her shoe 
 which caught on the top step. A dozen 
 witnesses may be called to show expense 
 involved in her recovery, value of loss of 
 time, a monetary equivalent of her suffer- 
 ings, loss of earning power, etc. And then 
 there are a lot of witnesses to contradict 
 the first lot. The jury talk it over; all 
 finally agree that Mary should have dam- 
 
Vekdicts 49 
 
 ages for her injury, but they have some 
 doubt as to the permanency of her injuries 
 and as to her sufferings, etc. iDne man 
 says, "I'll not give her a cent or I'll give 
 her the whole amount," and things look 
 promising for a new trial. 
 
 On every jury there are usually one or 
 two who know the cash value of services 
 and who know how to equate other things 
 into money. They know that $10,000 is 
 absurd in this case and suggest that some 
 one get a pencil and do a little figuring. 
 They put down the doctor's bills, Mary's 
 wages for the time involved, and the other 
 items and offer them as an argument. 
 Pretty soon the $10,000 juror comes down 
 to $5,000 and some fellow who has been 
 sticking out for $500 comes up to $1,000 
 and there they stick. Finally, when both 
 see that the other will not give in, they get 
 together in a spirit of conciliation, and 
 each agrees to partly give in if the other 
 will and Mary gets $2,500, which probably 
 is about what she should have. Some of 
 the judges have declared against compro- 
 mise cases. An indorsement of this prac- 
 tice would lead to its abuse, but it is more 
 
50 Impbessions of an Avebage Jubyman 
 
 or less of a common practice and one that 
 goes a long way in coming to agreements, 
 particularly in suits for small amounts. 
 
 Another kind of a verdict which is less 
 legitimate is that of averaging. The only 
 possible justification for such a verdict is 
 to get a verdict where an agreement other- 
 wise is utterly hopeless and where a re- 
 trial would cost more than the amount in- 
 volved. The jury seems wide apart in its 
 ideas and unable to come to an agreement. 
 If not too far apart, the amount of dam- 
 ages thought just by each juror is put 
 down, the total obtained and divided by 
 twelve. 
 
 Take it all in all, jury verdicts are fair. 
 The situations in the moving pictures 
 where the hero is convicted contrary to all 
 evidence, and where the counsel is nothing 
 short of an ass, is a travesty of jury trials. 
 The scenario writers should serve on the 
 jury and learn something at least approx- 
 imating the true situation. 
 
IN A JURY RETIRINa ROOM 
 
 Have you ever been near a menagerie 
 when something has happened to excite the 
 animals ? If so, you heard a heterogeneous 
 volume of sound made up of everything 
 from the roar of the lion and the grunt of 
 the hippo to the squeal of the guinea pigs. 
 That is about what you would hear if you 
 stood outside of a jury room while they 
 are deliberating, for they deliberate out 
 loud — ^with the accent on the loud. And if 
 there is not a foreman present who can 
 control excited men, they act pretty much 
 as do the inhabitants of the menagerie. 
 All twelve try to talk at once and some- 
 times eleven of them will try to drive home 
 an argument, at the same time, with an 
 obstinate twelfth. Acrimonious conversa- 
 tion, to be polite in my description, is com- 
 mon, and even a fistic encounter is prom- 
 ised. Remarks of a personal nature pass 
 freely and one standing within hearing, 
 and not familiar with jury room perform- 
 ances would think that a general rough 
 and tumble fight was under way. 
 
 But, bless your heart, that is only their 
 51 
 
52 Impeessions of an Average Jubyman 
 
 way of arriving at a verdict. Animal activ- 
 ities soon wear themselves out. The lion 
 and the lamb lie down together; offensive 
 remarks are forgotten; the punches fall 
 short; and they file into the court room 
 with their verdict, in perfect harmony. 
 Perhaps the judge compliments them upon 
 their expertness in handling the business 
 in hand. 
 
 In New York, twelve men are crowded 
 into a jury retiring room, with just space 
 enough for them to sit around a large table. 
 Other than the table and twelve chairs, the 
 room is bare, shabby and dirty. It seldom 
 has more than one window, and as there 
 are usually one or two old gentlemen who 
 have been brought up with the idea that 
 fresh air is harmful, the window is kept 
 shut, or nearly so. Then every one lights 
 up and every one damns the quarters. No 
 writing paper is provided, and if anything 
 is needed for the work, some one raps on 
 the door and a court attendant appears 
 and produces. 
 
 The door of the jury room is locked on 
 the outside, presumably with the knowl- 
 edge that things often get so bad in that 
 
In a Juey Eetiking Eoom 53 
 
 room that some one would run away if 
 he could and upset the proceedings. The 
 jurors feel like a lot of bad little boys 
 locked up until they have done their les- 
 sons. No wonder they get irritable. In 
 one ease after the jurors had been locked 
 up all night, it was reported that one man 
 had said that he would vote any old way to 
 get loose ; that the sin was on the heads of 
 those responsible for such quarters. 
 
 The Socialist is a hard man to handle 
 in a jury room. He has perhaps been look- 
 ing for just such a chance to show his con- 
 tempt for the law as it is. He is like 
 the Long Island politician who believed in 
 Civil Service examinations — easy ones for 
 his friends and hard ones for his enemies. 
 Employers and big business are his ene- 
 mies and the employed his hobby. In the 
 jury box he was meekness personified, but 
 when he gets behind closed doors, he is 
 against the rich and the interests once and 
 for all. But he comes around in the end, 
 because he is generally a theorist and after 
 he has been tied up for a few hours, per- 
 sonal comfort takes paramount impor- 
 tance. Then some one tips the court peo- 
 
54 Impeessions op an Avebage Jueyman 
 
 pie that he is a bad actor, and one day his 
 name disappears from the jury list. 
 
 The supersympathetic person makes a 
 poor juryman. He wants to help the un- 
 fortunate in spite of the law. Where a 
 poor man sues a rich corporation, even 
 though injuries may have been largely due 
 to his own carelessness, he always votes 
 to "give him something." After he has 
 been shown that his attitude is profitless, 
 he will come around and vote with the 
 majority. 
 
 The deaf man is often met in the jury 
 room. He is too sensitive to ask to be 
 excused because of his infirmity, but goes 
 into the jury room with only a hazy idea 
 of what has been said. He is surprised to 
 learn what a lot of evidence escaped him, 
 but will take the word of others that it 
 got in and votes accordingly. 
 
 The man of low intelligence bobs up 
 once in a while and makes a nuisance of 
 himself. Generally, however, things are 
 over his head and he will be led in the 
 proper direction by the superior minds 
 present. Sometimes men of this grade are 
 sufficiently intelligent to know what they 
 do not know. 
 
In a Jury Eetieing Eoom 55 
 
 The self-sufficient fellow soon is noted. 
 He announces positively that his mind is 
 made up and that he will not argue with 
 any one. He perhaps edges into a corner 
 and snubs any one who tries to win him 
 over. If the foreman is a wise one, he 
 will have been sizing up the jury with a 
 view of getting just the right man to ap- 
 proach Mr. Self Sufficiency in a diplomatic 
 way. The one selected will start talking 
 to him about his game of golf or how nice 
 it is to meet men possessed of great minds,. 
 and soon the reserve is broken down and 
 the hold-out will be convinced that there 
 is another side to the question. 
 
 Some men hold out through pure stub- 
 bornness. Some square-jawed chap will 
 hold out against the other eleven. Says 
 he won't change his mind if they lock him 
 up in the jury room for a year. Knows all 
 the fine points in the case and his mind is 
 made up, but a deadlock of three or four 
 hours will make him more receptive. A 
 case tried in the city court involved only 
 a few hundred dollars. The evidence was 
 largely contradictory. The first vote was 
 nine to three, the second eleven to one, and 
 
56 Impeessions of an Avekage Jubyman 
 
 there it stuck for three solid hours. The 
 hold-out would not only not vote with the 
 majority, but he made sarcastic remarks 
 about the two who had so quickly deserted 
 him. Dinner hour passed and one man 
 who had a dinner engagement with his best 
 girl suggested that there was one man in 
 the room who needed his head punched. 
 The stubborn one finally voted with the 
 eleven, but he had a mighty slow mind and 
 a mighty stubborn disposition. 
 
HIS HONOR 
 
 Judicial temperament would be a difficult 
 thing to understand if its definition were 
 based upon a composite picture of the 
 judges in the New York civil and criminal 
 courts. Judge X may be a learned, even- 
 tempered, dignified man, discreet in the use 
 of language and always in complete con- 
 trol of what is going on when he is pres- 
 ent. He not only demands respect for his 
 high office, but warrants it. And every one 
 knows it and acts accordingly. His mind 
 is on his work all of the time; he follows 
 the evidence, and if an attorney tries to 
 slip something over, is prompt to realize 
 the situation. 
 
 Judge Y, on the other hand, may be a 
 politician-judge, with visitors whispering 
 in his ear during the proceedings and dis- 
 tracting his attention. In case of a dis- 
 pute, he has to have the stenographer's 
 minutes read before he can make a ruling. 
 One New York judge was frequently afflict- 
 ed with sleepiness during the sessions. 
 It seemed to be "the morning after the 
 night before ' ' with him. His eyelids would 
 
 57 
 
58 Impbessions or an Aveeage Jukyman 
 
 close, his head drop forward and the jury 
 would speculate upon whether or not they 
 were to have an "upright" judge presid- 
 ing, or one under the influence of some- 
 thing other than the evidence. 
 
 The attorneys evidently know just how 
 far they can safely go with the different 
 judges. With some, latitude is as far-reach- 
 ing as that of a meridian. While working 
 with a judge who gives his whole attention 
 to the trial, jurors undoubtedly do their 
 best work. They cannot fail to be influenced 
 by the attitude of His Honor. Some of 
 the judges take pains to have the evidence 
 presented so that the jury may have a fair 
 opportunity to get the pertinent facts; 
 others give the impression of merely try- 
 ing to get the evidence upon the record, 
 and there is a decided difference in the 
 results obtained by these two methods. 
 
 Some of the judges take pains to impress 
 upon the jurors that their job is an impor- 
 tant one and a word to the jury now and 
 then during the proceedings has the effect 
 of holding their attention and perhaps of 
 directing attention to important points as 
 they come out in the evidence. When 
 
His Honoe 59 
 
 passing upon disputed points of law dur- 
 ing a trial some of the judges explain to 
 the jury, even although the question is 
 entirely one of law and therefore not within 
 the scope of the jury's functions. 
 
 Some of the judges go much further than 
 others in developing the testimony, to give 
 the jurors every opportunity to get the 
 testimony so that they can understand it. 
 It is a great comfort for jurors to feel that 
 they are working with His Honor and that 
 he is working with them. In too many 
 cases are the jurors allowed to feel that 
 they are simply a necessary evil existing 
 because of a law of doubtful value. So 
 much has been printed about the adequacy 
 of the present jury system that jurors are 
 beginning to feel that they occupy a ridicu- 
 lous position — one in which they serve 
 against their will only to be regarded as 
 a substitute for a better system. 
 
 In rare instances His Honor shows such 
 an irritable disposition that it seems a good 
 truck driver has been spoiled to make a 
 poor judge. In one case the court room 
 atmosphere was highly charged. Every 
 one was on edge, for no one knew who 
 
60 Impeessions of an Avebage Juryman 
 
 would get it next. The court room attend- 
 ants walked on tiptoes; the clerks held 
 their respective breaths and the attorneys 
 who were unfortuate enough to have cases 
 on trial in that Part, kept themselves under 
 a double wrap. The jurors were scolded 
 and the poor wretch who came up for sen- 
 tence was given to understand that he 
 ought to be ashamed for having lived. The 
 jurors were glad that they were not attor- 
 neys where they had to take such wither- 
 ing comment without being able to "sass" 
 back. 
 
THE FOREMAN OF THE JURY 
 
 Let the attorneys serve on one or two 
 jury cases and they will give much more 
 attention to the man who occupies No. 1 
 in the box. Oftentimes he means order 
 or chaos, thoroughness or hit and miss in 
 bringing out the essential facts. It is often 
 rather amazing what poor material is ac- 
 cepted for No. 1 — particularly in civil 
 suits. The foreman, if competent, has 
 much to do with proper or improper ver- 
 dicts. Often the first statement of a fore- 
 man is that he knows nothing about pre- 
 siding and would prefer that some one else 
 should take his place. The working of a 
 body without a head of course follows. 
 
 A weak foreman means long drawn out 
 arguments and a lot of wrangling. The 
 person generally inoffensive and meek is 
 liable to be demonstrative in a jury room 
 and one who needs repressing. The igno- 
 ramus shows up with his poor logic and 
 needs leading. Perhaps the anarchist de- 
 velops and needs to be shot. A compe- 
 tent foreman recognizes them all and by 
 showing that he is boss of the situation 
 
 61 
 
62 Impbessions of an Avbbage Jxjeyman 
 
 and intends to run things in an orderly- 
 way, will get concerted action and good 
 results. 
 
 Most juries start their proceedings in 
 the retiring room by taking a vote for the 
 plaintiff or defendant, with the idea of first 
 finding out what is in their respective 
 minds. One foreman who happened to be 
 vice-president of a large manufacturing 
 concern, had an idea that many jurors were 
 reluctant to change their vote after going 
 on record ; that long drawn out arguments 
 and even disagreements resulted from this 
 reluctance. He felt that a few secret bal- 
 lots would permit men who were not alto- 
 gether sure of their position to get a bet- 
 ter line on the situation without embarrass- 
 ment. The proposition to take secret bal- 
 lots was put before the jury and while at 
 first there was considerable opposition, it 
 was finally agreed to, and a verdict reached 
 in a reasonable time without the bitterness 
 that is so common in jury deliberations. 
 
 A foreman who was a natural leader, 
 with long business experience and who was 
 a man of large affairs, showed his value 
 in a criminal case that at the time of its 
 
The Fobeman of the Jury 63 
 
 trial received columns of space in the daily 
 papers. 
 
 A little Italian woman had been tried for 
 murder in the first degree. She had been 
 married to a human brute and her whole 
 married life, it was shown in the evidence, 
 had been but a hell on earth. Her hus- 
 band had tortured her with fiendish inge- 
 nuity and then one day, unable to longer 
 bear her humility and suffering, she re- 
 pelled his attack with a pistol-shot that 
 snuffed out his miserable life — and made it 
 necessary to place her on trial for murder. 
 The proceedings dragged along for days. 
 She heard the sordid tale of her life, with 
 all of its horrible details, rehearsed, until it 
 seemed her mind could no longer stand the 
 strain. The soul-trying cross-examination 
 had been finished, the District Attorney 
 had condemned her action, as the law re- 
 quired him to do, the judge had charged 
 the jury and it had filed out with solemn 
 faces, leaving in her mind a terrible uncer- 
 tainty as to what further punishment life 
 had in store for her. 
 
 The twelve men were locked in the jury 
 room, and true to form, some one said, 
 
64 Impressions op an Avbbage Jueyman 
 
 "Let's smoke." But the foreman was 
 filled with humanity, and, with the sorrow- 
 ing face of the defendant in his mind, re- 
 plied: "Wait a minute, gentlemen. There's 
 a little woman downstairs who is awaiting 
 with a lot of anxiety to hear from us. Per- 
 haps she won't have to wait long. Let's 
 vote first and smoke afterwards. Perhaps 
 it will taste better." 
 
 And in ten minutes that poor, abused 
 little woman smiled, perhaps for the first 
 time in years. For she had been found 
 "Not Guilty" in the hearts of those men 
 and in the eyes of the law. . 
 
EVADING JURY DUTY 
 
 The large number of men of affairs who 
 do not serve on juries is impressive. Occa- 
 sionally a man of prominence appears to 
 answer a jury summons, but this is so un- 
 common as to excite comment. A promi- 
 nent jurist has said that next to the duty 
 of a soldier fighting for his country, the 
 most important duty of a citizen is to per- 
 form the functions of a juryman. Yet the 
 top-notcliers are conspicuous by their ab- 
 sence. In the criminal courts a juror is 
 fighting the enemies of law and order; in 
 the civil courts he is fighting for justice, 
 good government and a proper application 
 of the law. 
 
 The busy man argues that his prominence 
 in the business world and the many calls 
 upon his time constitute a good reason why 
 he should be excused from jury duty. As 
 a matter of fact, the very conditions that 
 he cites are the best reasons why he should 
 serve. Successful men, with broad busi- 
 ness experience, are badly needed. These 
 men express an interest in the work, 
 acknowledge its importance and express 
 
 65 
 
66 Impressions op ak Avebage Juryman 
 
 regret that the pressure of business inter- 
 feres with their acting, but if in some liti- 
 gation of their own an apparent or claimed 
 miscarriage of justice occurs, they shout to 
 heaven in condemnation of juries and the 
 jury system. They and their kind are the 
 greatest single obstacle to success of the 
 system. It makes a great difference whose 
 ox is gored. They will not give their own 
 time, but when a case is on trial in which 
 they have a personal interest, they demand 
 that it be tried before men who are com- 
 petent to digest evidence in complex cases. 
 Mr. Merchant sits in his office wonder- 
 ing how in the world he is going to meet 
 all of his business and social engagements. 
 Every moment for the next sixty days 
 seemed assigned to something that cannot 
 be postponed. He has trips to make, buy- 
 ers to see, repairs to be arranged and 
 friend wife has him booked up for week 
 ends. He is about to give it up in despair, 
 when the office boy announces that a man 
 outside wishes to see him. Pretty soon a 
 neat little slip is in his hand, notifying him 
 to appear in Part XXX of the Supreme 
 Court one week from the following Mon- 
 
Evading Juey Duty 67 
 
 day. It seems like the "last straw" and 
 lie damns the whole jury system. Maybe 
 he can get excused? But he has no political 
 pull and the unsuccessful efforts of two 
 years ago come to his mind. Monday rolls 
 around and he rushes to court in despera- 
 tion. He tries to enlist the clerk to help 
 him get off, but is told to appeal to the 
 judge, and finally the clerk announces that 
 the judge will hear all those who have legal 
 excuses. He sees His Honor meet similar 
 requests with a stony glare, talking with 
 those on the long line one after another, 
 while they tell of pressing business. Then 
 his turn arrives and the judge informs him 
 that no business excuses will he accepted. 
 There is a shortage of jurors and he is 
 needed. So he realizes that he is in for 
 two weeks of discomfort and close confine- 
 ment. If he had been summoned to the 
 criminal courts, it would have been four 
 or five weeks. 
 
 But Mr. Merchant recollects that the 
 cloud has its silver lining; that in the times 
 that he has served he met some good fel- 
 lows and learned some business tricks of 
 value ; that he had the chance of his life to 
 
68 Impeessions of an Average Jubyman 
 
 study character and personality. He re- 
 solves that he will make the best of the 
 situation, cancel his social engagements, 
 and viTork evenings if necessary in an at- 
 tempt to keep things moving. 
 
TRIALS AND TEIBULATIONS OF 
 A JUEYMAN 
 
 The court rooms of the New York civil 
 courts have been a scandal for years, and 
 one of the great wrongs in them is the 
 lack of provision for the decent housing 
 of jurymen. When the ancient buildings 
 were designed, the architects must have 
 had a grudge against jurors, for the only 
 space provided solely for jurymen is the 
 retiring room. The judge is provided with 
 a seat upon a dais, with draperies and 
 other surroundings, at least in a measure 
 appropriate to his office. One would logi- 
 cally suppose the jury would be provided 
 with comfortable chairs in the court room, 
 reserved for their use, and where they 
 might spend their unemployed hours. Per- 
 haps from fifty to one hundred business 
 men are tied up in a court room every busi- 
 ness day, not employed upon any case, but 
 compelled to wait until excused by the 
 judge. The least that should be done for 
 them is to insure them a place to sit down 
 where they can hear what is going on. They 
 are entitled to whatever little entertain- 
 
 69 
 
70 Impbessions op an Aveeage Juryman 
 
 ment the court proceedings may give. But 
 a juryman has but little standing and often 
 times no sitting in court rooms. If he is 
 lucky he may find a vacant chair; if not, 
 he will have to spend his time upon a hard 
 wooden settee, where he will mix with Tom, 
 Dick or Harry, who may or may not have 
 good reasons for being there, and whose 
 ideas about fastidiousness oftentimes for- 
 bid being chosen as a close companion for 
 several hours. 
 
 It is an old story, the one of the big dog 
 with the small kennel, where he had to back 
 in because there was not room enough in- 
 side to turn around. Multiply that by 
 twelve and you have a jury retiring room. 
 It suggests the thought that it was made 
 that way so that the jurors would want to 
 get through as soon as possible and accord- 
 ingly speed up verdicts. 
 
 The lack of personal comfort and of lack 
 of dignity in the treatment of jurors 
 has its reaction upon verdicts, and more 
 directly upon the class of men who are wil- 
 ling to serve upon juries. Most men, when 
 they have been through it once will shy 
 across the street at a jury notice. The 
 
Tribulations of a Jubyman 71 
 
 court rooms with their faulty ventilation, 
 or lack of ventilation, are very bad, but the 
 retiring rooms are a veritable "chamber 
 of horrors." The greatest brain in the 
 world would fail to function 100% if it was 
 confined to some of our court rooms a few 
 days and then subjected to the smoke cure 
 of a retiring room, with twelve men smok- 
 ing everything from a jimmy pipe to a 
 bad cigarette, and the door and window 
 closed. Make the juror's job a real one 
 and give him quarters that the job war- 
 rants and there will be a marked improve- 
 ment in the material available for trying 
 our cases. 
 
 Men who are serving on our juries are 
 practically unanimous, in the belief that 
 jurors are not receiving fair treatment and 
 that the work is something to be evaded 
 if it can possibly be arranged. It is about 
 as agreeable to most of them as an ulcer- 
 ated tooth, not necessarily alarming, but 
 inconvenient and uncomfortable. 
 
COURT CLEEK8 AND OTHERS IN 
 AUTHORITY 
 
 Court clerks in their dealings mtli ju- 
 rors range from pompous to chatty. If in 
 the former class, they treat jurors as if 
 they were a great nuisance, but something 
 that has to be tolerated. Some of them 
 surround themselves with an air of official 
 grandeur that is spectacular, to say the 
 least. One old tyrant placed himself upon 
 such a high plane of importance that mere 
 man approached him with fear and trem- 
 bling. "Woe to the one not familiar with 
 court customs, he was sure to be squelched 
 in no gentle way. 
 
 A juror sitting on a case in one Part of 
 the Supreme Court was subpcenaed as a 
 witness in another Part and not being 
 twins could not see just how it could be 
 done. Clerk No. 1, on being asked for ad- 
 vice, said, "Go in and see the judge in 
 Part Y, and ask him what you shall do." 
 Into Part Y went the unsuspecting juror, 
 only to run into a tartar. When the case 
 was explained to him, he yelled "Go and 
 
 72 
 
COTJBT ClEBKS in AUTHORITY 73 
 
 sit down." "But," timidly replied tlie 
 juror, "I am at work on a jury in Part X." 
 "Go and sit down" came in louder tones, 
 and the juror did, unable to decide whether 
 it were better to default as a witness or a 
 juror. Fortunately the judge came in in 
 time to explain matters and later the rude- 
 ness of his clerk was described to him in a 
 letter. The juror has reason to believe 
 that that man had a much better idea of 
 his own job and to what others are en- 
 titled in the way of courtesy after the 
 judge talked with him. 
 
 The work of such a clerk has its direct 
 effect upon juries. Any man who had been 
 subjected to his bulldozing tactics would 
 have had a dread of serving upon a jury 
 where he would of necessity have come in 
 contact with such a clerk. But the clerk 
 was not altogether responsible; he had 
 seen juries neglected and snubbed for so 
 many years that he had acquired the habit 
 of doing likewise. 
 
 In most of the courts the clerks are cour- 
 teous and helpful. If they do not take jury- 
 men seriously, at least they treat them as if 
 they are human and entitled to what little 
 
74 Impbessions of an Avebage Jubyman 
 
 comfort can be afforded. In return for 
 courtesies on the part of the clerks, some 
 of the jurors divide their fees with them. 
 This is not an altogether commendable 
 practice ; the only real harm, however, that 
 results from it is the cheapening of the 
 clerk's position. A man who will accept 
 a few dollars collected by him to pay jury 
 fees, can not be classed as either one of 
 high ideals or of great self-respect. 
 
 In one of the criminal courts a few 
 years ago, an attendant had the job of 
 calling off the records of those before the 
 bar for sentence. His enunciation was 
 none too good, because of a generous sup- 
 ply of loose chewing in his capacious jowl, 
 but he was great on punctuation. He al- 
 ways had a cuspidor handy and would 
 proceed along the following lines: "John 
 Smith (and a mouthful of juice would be 
 shot into the waiting receptacle) ; age 
 twenty-five, born in America (bull's-eye 
 No. 2) ; first offense (ditto);" and so on 
 through the examination. The writer 
 watched him, fascinated. He never made 
 a poor shot. Many stories have been writ- 
 ten of champion long-distance spitters, but 
 
CouET Clerks in Attthokity 75 
 
 this man could give them all a handicap 
 and beat them hands down. 
 
 The manipulation of the names that go 
 into the wheel used in drawing jurors is 
 of questionable propriety and legality. 
 When a jury has finished its work on a 
 case, the names of those jurors are manip- 
 ulated so that they will not be again drawn 
 from the wheel until other jurors who have 
 not worked so recently have been given 
 work. While this practice is undoubtedly 
 done without evil intent, it makes jury 
 fixing a possibility and prevents selections 
 from all of the available jurors all of the 
 time. It prevents the maximum use of the 
 best material on a panel and makes for 
 cliques and combinations in jury delibera- 
 tions. Through this practice jurors serve 
 in more or less fixed groups. 
 
DELIAYS, LINaEES AND WAITS 
 IN COUET 
 
 To a man called away from his busy 
 office and with a thousand and one things 
 on his mind that need his attention, the 
 waste of time in court is something shock- 
 ing. His mental condition magnifies it a 
 hundred fold and comparison with his own 
 hustling methods adds another hundred. 
 It seems to him that business in court is 
 just one unnecessary delay after another. 
 When a man is actually working on a case 
 he is at least using his time for some 
 worthy purpose, but while he is hanging 
 around waiting for action, "Time is 
 money" is blazed upon his brain. 
 
 For every man who is busy in court 
 there are dozens who are detained there 
 just killing time. The court never seems 
 entirely ready to go into action. Calling 
 the calendar, talking over some hangover 
 of a previous trial, or something else, 
 nearly always comes up to delay the case 
 on trial. Some relief has been obtained by 
 having the calendars all called in one court 
 and the cases for trial distributed from 
 
 76 
 
Delays, Lingers and Waits in Couet 77 
 
 there. It seems to jurors that much of the 
 preliminary work might be done before the 
 jurors are required to be present. Jurors 
 must appear not later than ten o'clock in 
 the morning, and oftentimes it is well 
 after eleven before they do any real work. 
 It is generally eleven-thirty before the 
 judge can see his way clear to excuse the 
 idle men for the morning, and in the after- 
 noon it is the same process, the men being 
 compelled to loaf around until it is too late 
 to do anything with their own business 
 affairs. 
 
 If these delays were altogether unavoid- 
 able they would be philosophically ac- 
 cepted, but the fact is that the jurors who 
 serve with Judge J are excused much 
 earlier when they are not working on a ease 
 than do the ones in Judge K's court and 
 they otherwise have more free time. The 
 former manages his court to much better 
 advantage so far as time is concerned, and 
 Judge J's court is a favorite one with 
 jurors. 
 
 In one term of two weeks in the city 
 court, the entire panel was idle during 
 practically all of the time. Session after 
 
78 Impeessions of an Average Jueyman 
 
 session the clerk reported no cases ready 
 for trial. The jurymen were compelled to 
 report twice each day and what they said 
 about that court from a business stand- 
 point could hardly be called "judicial" 
 language. Some of the jurors are tax- 
 payers and delays to them mean dollars 
 and cents in taxes, for which the people 
 get nothing. One judge in the criminal 
 courts when there was a tendency to waste 
 time would flash upon the multitude the 
 fact that his court cost the people $1,000 a 
 day and that he would tolerate no waste of 
 time at that cost. 
 
 Needless repetitions in bringing out 
 evidence waste much time. If His Honor 
 has his mind on the job, he will save hours 
 in a fairly long case. With a lax judge, 
 there are endless bickerings and the whole 
 proceeding is slowed down. Counsel does 
 not hesitate to be a half hour late in court 
 and His Honor himself, perhaps, gets in 
 late in the morning. 
 
 In addition to the actual money loss, the 
 waste of time in courts has a direct effect 
 upon the reluctance of busy men to serve. 
 A man who might be willing to make the 
 
Delays, Lingers and Waits in Coubt 79 
 
 sacrifice if he is to do real constructive 
 work, cannot see it if he is to give a con- 
 siderable part of his time to loafing 
 around with nothing to do. Restrict the 
 exemption lists, make the juryman's job 
 one of dignity, make him comfortable, and 
 keep him busy, or let him go to his place 
 of business when he is not working, and a 
 much higher grade of jury work will re- 
 sult. 
 
THE FAIR SEX ON THE JUBY 
 
 Our mothers' ideas of what was proper 
 for a "perfect lady" and the ideas of the 
 women of the present time are miles apart. 
 Mother used to say that no lady would be 
 seen in public sitting with her legs crossed, 
 and that any girl who smoked a cigarette 
 was dangerous society for Eebecca. Now 
 good form permits a much greater diver- 
 sity in how a young woman may display 
 her underpinning and if a fellow finds his 
 cigarette case empty, he borrows from 
 friend wife, as a matter of course. 
 
 But are we ready for mixed juries? 
 President Eoosevelt once said, when a 
 woman insisted in breaking into the pro- 
 ceedings of a gathering of men: "Women, 
 once our superiors ; now our equals. " It is 
 hard for a man who has served on juries 
 of the old kind, but not on mixed juries, to 
 understand what kind of a performance a 
 mixed jury would put up. Not that the 
 woman is not perfectly capable, but we 
 can't see just how she can mix with that 
 miscellaneous assortment that we have 
 served with, in the consideration of the 
 
 80 
 
The Faie Sex on the Jury 81 
 
 grossness and filth that comes before a 
 jury, particularly in the criminal courts. 
 
 Women know women better than men do, 
 but most of them are as ignorant of the 
 conditions and influences that surround the 
 life of a man as a wooden Indian. We 
 just cannot picture refined women sitting 
 in the company of men of assorted degrees 
 of refinement and arguing with them the 
 debasing material that has to be gone over. 
 When a fellow thinks of his mother listen- 
 ing to the evidence of some of the cases 
 that are tried it seems simply an impos- 
 sibihty and a bad dream. 
 
 We are willing to concede that women 
 are competent in every way, mentally and 
 physically, to be jurors ; some women much 
 better jurors than the average man; but 
 most of us feel that she is too fine for jury 
 work, unless it were confined to women's 
 cases and with juries made up wholly of 
 women. 
 
 The presence of women in the jury de- 
 liberating rooms it seems would interfere 
 with the free discussion of evidence, and 
 it is entirely possible that some of the male 
 jurors would not have their minds on their 
 
82 Impressions op an Avebage Juryman 
 
 work. Men generally smoke when they 
 think deeply. About the first thing done 
 in a jury retiring room when the twelve 
 convene is to light up. The surroundings 
 of the room are unsanitary and depressing. 
 About the only cheerful thing is a smoke 
 and the friendly offer of a cigar or a ciga- 
 rette will often go a long way to getting 
 two minds with two different thoughts in 
 harmony. When we have the ladies on the 
 jury, shall the men give up their smokes 
 or shall the women join the party? 
 
 The writer has talked with a lot of in- 
 telligent women regarding a murder case 
 where a young woman died amidst sur- 
 roundings attended by gross immorality, 
 and where a disagreement of a mixed jury 
 was caused by failure of one or two women 
 to vote with a strong majority. The ladies 
 consulted were interested in public affairs 
 and appeared to be excellent jury material 
 excepting for two things : they had an ab- 
 normal amount of sympathy; in short, 
 the sympathy one expects to find in a 
 normal woman, and they were more con- 
 cerned about punishing the defendant for 
 his alleged improprieties than they were 
 
The Fair Sex on the Jury 83 
 
 about whether or not he should be legally 
 convicted of murder in the first degree. 
 
 An uncompromising attitude is a most 
 undesirable element on a jury. Most 
 women are too good for the work — too 
 womanly. For which we may be thankful. 
 The day may come when all women are 
 only "our equals," but here's hoping it 
 may be distant. 
 
WEiaHING HAED AND COLD FACTS 
 
 The writer has an obsession. He has 
 tried to reason it out with himself — to con- 
 vict himself of a mental weakness, but he 
 has never been able to make himself .be- 
 lieve that any man with a normal brain 
 should not be able to fairly pass upon the 
 merits of a case basing his conclusions up- 
 on the evidence alone, without any regard 
 to what has happened to him or any one 
 else before that time or to happen there- 
 after. This must be an obsession, for 
 ninety-nine men out of every hundred are 
 haunted by a belief that it is not possible 
 for them to pass upon facts without taking 
 into consideration what happened to them, 
 within the past forty years, if they have 
 lived that long, or to Aunt Maria or Cousin 
 Will's second wife. 
 
 To have become acquainted with any one 
 in any way connected with the case on 
 trial, either directly or indirectly, tiven 
 unto the third and fourth generation, is 
 fatal to the equanimity of most of the jury 
 material — so much so that the writer has 
 been led at times to believe that such ex- 
 
 84 
 
Weighing Haed and Cold Facts 85 
 
 quisite sensibilities were closely related to 
 a desire to escape serving on some par- 
 ticular case. 
 
 In one case the writer had to acknowl- 
 edge that some years before he had a job 
 where there were relations with the law 
 department of a street railway company. 
 Many attorneys would have challenged 
 forthwith, but the one on this particular 
 case decided that knowing someone who 
 worked for the Street Railway Company 
 ten years before did not constitute dis- 
 ability to think. In another case, after the 
 jury had been agreed to by a subordinate 
 of a law firm, who should appear as the 
 trial lawyer but an old schoolmate. He 
 would have passed unknown but for his 
 unusual name. As the last contact with 
 him had been about twenty-five years 
 theretofore, the writer, after debating with 
 himself, decided it was not worth while to 
 claim acquaintance and muss things up in 
 court. 
 
 There is without doubt a real inability 
 on the part of a large number of people to 
 divorce their minds from their own affairs 
 and from irrelevant things in weighing 
 
86 Impeessiows of an Average Jxjeyman 
 
 evidence. This is one of the striking 
 things in court that shows itself to a 
 man serving for the first time. It crops 
 out in the examination of jurors and in the 
 jury room. In some cases it is probably 
 imaginary; in others, it is purely a dodge 
 to get excused. The finding of the line 
 where it is safer to take a chance on preju- 
 dice than to take a chance on getting other 
 material whose weaknesses are more haz- 
 ardous to a case, is one of the matters 
 that test the skill of the attorney. The 
 judge of personality will win out in the 
 contest. 
 
SOME SPECIMEN VERDICTS 
 
 In the absence of instructions, juries at 
 times make their own law in reaching 
 verdicts. This was the case in a suit 
 brought by a young working woman who 
 was in the habit of taking a train to her 
 place of business at the Fifty-ninth Street 
 station of the elevated road. At the time 
 of day she went to work, the cars were al- 
 ways filled when they arrived at her sta- 
 tion, and it was almost always impossible 
 to get within the body of the car. One 
 morning, while riding on a platform, the 
 train took the Fifty-third Street curve at 
 a little more than the ordinary speed 
 throwing several other persons against 
 her, forcing her off her balance and caus- 
 ing one of her feet to slip between the 
 bumpers where it was injured so as to lay 
 her up for two or three weeks, with inci- 
 dental loss of pay and expense. The jury 
 gave her a verdict on the ground that when 
 the company permitted her to ride on the 
 platform without protest they became a 
 party to the violation of the rules and be- 
 came responsible for the safety of the peo- 
 
 87 
 
88 Impbessions of an Average Juryman 
 
 pie who were carried there and were negli- 
 gent in not providing devices to prevent 
 the accident that happened. 
 
 The owners of an automobile sued an 
 insurance company for the amount of a 
 policy issued by it upon a car that was 
 burned up while on the public highway. 
 The policy had been issued upon the appli- 
 cation of an agency telephoned to the in- 
 surers and payment was refused because 
 the car was a second-hand one, a fact 
 which had not been stated in the applica- 
 tion. While all of the facts brought out 
 gave the appearance of an old car well 
 insured, there was no evidence whatever of 
 arson. The jury, in the absence of any in- 
 structions to the contrary, brought in a 
 verdict for the defendant on the ground 
 that in taking an application by telephone 
 and failing to use even ordinary precaution 
 in verifying the facts the insurance com- 
 pany should pay the policy. The insurance 
 company had urged the agency to send it 
 business and was apparently so desirous of 
 getting new business that it was willing to 
 insure anybody or everybody without any 
 effort to investigate the facts. The writer 
 
Some Specimen Vebdicts 89 
 
 understands that the law has decided that 
 an agency is the agent of the insured and 
 not the insurance company, but the jury 
 had no such instructions and held the in- 
 surance company morally liable for its own 
 neglect and believed that the insured was 
 entitled to the amount for which he sued. 
 
 How a jury at times fails to be im- 
 pressed with a judge's charge is illustrated 
 in a landlord and tenant case in one of the 
 courts. The landlord, a saloonkeeper, had 
 begun dispossess proceedings against his 
 tenant, a lunch-counter man, on the ground 
 that the latter had defaulted on three 
 months' rent. The tenant demanded a jury 
 trial, during which it developed that dur-. 
 ing the first of the three months in question 
 the two principals in the affair had in- 
 dulged in a rough and tumble fight. The 
 saloonkeeper had been haled to court, 
 where he was released on a suspended sen- 
 tence. 
 
 During the dispossess case testimony was 
 introduced regarding this fight, but it was 
 promptly ruled out and later the judge 
 instructed the jury that they should ex- 
 clude it from the evidence in their delib- 
 
90 Impeessions of an Average Juetmak 
 
 erations. The lunch man testified that he 
 had regularly paid his rent but could pro- 
 duce no receipts or other evidences of pay- 
 ment. As there was no evidence whatever 
 of the payments, which were denied by the 
 landlord, it seemed a clear case of a ver- 
 dict for the saloonkeeper, but the jury 
 brought in one for the lunch man. Later, 
 in the corridors, several of the jurymen 
 stated that their verdict had been based 
 upon the belief that any saloonkeeper 
 who had had a physical encounter with a 
 defaulting tenant the first month of his 
 default would throw him out that month 
 and not allow him to go for three months 
 before dispossessing him. 
 
THE SUIT THAT DIDN'T FIT- 
 ONE ON THE LAWYEES 
 
 The jury had been selected, after the 
 usual examinations, for a damage case in 
 the Supreme Court ; the attorneys for both 
 sides had made their appeals for justice at 
 the hands of the jury and several witnesses 
 had described at length the scene of the 
 accident. The court room was filled with 
 the usual number of witnesses, many of 
 whom had spent days awaiting the trial of 
 the case. The plaintiff was on the stand. 
 She had described her fall because of a 
 hole in the pavement, her injuries because 
 of the defendant's alleged neghgence, her 
 monetary losses and her sufferings tem- 
 porary and permanent, when a photograph 
 was produced and she was asked to show 
 just where the alleged hole was located. 
 
 She took the picture in her hands and 
 examined it closely and in detail. She hesi- 
 tated and embarrassment took possession 
 of the witness and the court. No hole could 
 be found. She stammered and her counsel 
 rushed to her assistance but no hole could 
 be shown. ' The court room was hushed and 
 
 91 
 
92 Impebssions of an Average Juryman 
 
 the jurymen turned to each other with a 
 look of "What next?" on their counte- 
 nances. The location shown in the photo- 
 graph checked with the one in the pleadings 
 and both attorneys appeared to be stunned 
 at this discrepancy at a vital point in the 
 case. "What streets are those in the pic- 
 ture?" finally asked the witness, and when 
 the information was forthcoming she re- 
 marked, "No wonder I couldn't find the 
 hole, it didn't occur there at all." 
 
 The plaintiff's case had been prepared 
 for the wrong street ; all the pleadings and 
 moving papers had described a hole that 
 didn't exist, and the defendant's case had 
 been based on the fact that the hole didn't 
 exist. It was probably the surest defense 
 ever presented in court. So they talked it 
 over with the judge, who happened to have 
 a sense of humor, a juror was withdrawn 
 and a mistrial was decla:red in the suit 
 that didn't fit. "Try all over again," said 
 His Honor, "and see if you two lawyers 
 cannot set your stage for the right place. ' ' 
 
MATHEMATICS APPLIED TO 
 EVIDENCE 
 
 In tlie case of the Wisconsin lumber- 
 jack the application of the "Theory of 
 Probabilities" had much to do with the 
 rendering of a verdict of guilty in the sec- 
 ond trial, the first jury having disagreed. 
 A Swiss lumberman had worked for many 
 years in the woods of the Northwest and 
 had saved enough of his earnings to visit 
 his home. He was a huge fellow, raw- 
 boned and rugged but with honesty written 
 all over him; also gullibility. He had pur- 
 chased a ticket for France and having 
 time on his hands was strolling about the 
 big city to see something of its attractions 
 before sailing. The "powers that prey" 
 had, however, selected him as promising 
 material and when he had reached Seventh 
 Avenue and Twenty-seventh Street he was 
 approached by a courteous person who 
 asked, "Parlez vous Francais?" De- 
 lighted at the sound of his mother tongue 
 he responded, "Qui," whereupon his new 
 friend suggested that they take a walk to- 
 gether and see the sights, which proved 
 agreeable. 
 
 93 
 
94 Impeessions of an Avebage Juryman 
 
 It afterwards developed that the 
 stranger was one of a team of well-known 
 confidence men and that two Central Office 
 detectives had spotted them. The detec- 
 tives had also noticed a third party, sta- 
 tioned diagonally across the street, and 
 who seemed much interested in what was 
 going on. The lumherman and his new 
 friend walked up Seventh Avenue and 
 about a block north were accosted by a 
 third person who inquired if he had heard 
 them speaking in French. Upon being 
 assured that it was so, he expressed his 
 delight and said it would warm his heart 
 if he might be allowed to walk with them 
 and converse in his own dear language. 
 The three then went north to Thirty-third 
 Street, then east to Broadway, up Broad- 
 way to Thirty-fourth Street, over Thirty- 
 fourth Street to Fifth Avenue and so zig- 
 zagged until a small park at Seventy- 
 eighth Street and First Avenue was 
 reached. In the meantime the man across 
 the street had followed, keeping his dis- 
 tance; and, trailing the whole party, the 
 two Central Office men. 
 
 The testimony showed that soon after 
 
Mathematics Applied to Evidence 95 
 
 they had met the two Frenchmen had in- 
 formed their new friend that each of them 
 was worried over having in his possession 
 a considerable sum of money; it also de- 
 veloped, most wonderfully, that all of 
 them were to sail on the same boat for 
 France, or that was their story. As the 
 Swiss was much the oldest man, it would 
 be a fine thing if he would care for their 
 money, and under pressure he agreed to 
 accept the trust and knotted handker- 
 chiefs, each said to contain several thou- 
 sand dollars, were handed over to him. 
 
 By the time the park was reached all 
 were in a confidential mood. The Swiss 
 was asked how he protected his own money 
 and he replied that he carried it in his 
 inside waistcoat pocket. They suggested 
 that he let them show how it could be done 
 in a safer way and when he had handed 
 over his money, a roll of newspaper with a 
 ten dollar bill on the outside and dyed 
 green on the edges was deftly substituted 
 and tied up in his handkerchief. The time 
 seemed ripe for the detectives and they 
 arrested the two Frenchmen and also the 
 man who had followed diagonally across 
 
96 Impeessions of an Average Jubyman 
 
 the street, and it was the man across the 
 street who was on trial as an accomplice. 
 
 The only direct evidence against the ac- 
 complice was the fact that one of the 
 crooks had excused himself and had gone 
 into a corner saloon at a time that the one 
 on trial had entered that place and the two 
 had been seen in conversation. The two 
 Frenchmen, caught red handed, pleaded 
 guilty, but testified that they did not know 
 the third party. The case seemed in a fair 
 way for a second disagreement when one 
 of the jurors suggested the Theory of 
 Probabilities, arguing that it was alto- 
 gether improbable that three men would 
 meet at an obscure point by chance and go 
 by a circuitous route by chance to an un- 
 important point. A conviction resulted. 
 
 After the jury had been discharged the 
 territory covered by the journey was 
 mapped by one of the jurors and an engi- 
 neer asked to figure the number of possible 
 ways to travel from one of the points to 
 the other, all equal in distance and all 
 equally reasonable, and the application of 
 a well-known formula showed that there 
 were over nineteen thousand ways they 
 
Mathematics Applied to Evidence 97 
 
 might have gone, each varying from the 
 other more or less. That is, they might 
 have gone up one block, over two, then up 
 one and over three and so on; or say up 
 two blocks, over one, up two and so on. 
 Taking into consideration other factors 
 commonly used by engineers for determin- 
 ing, the probabilities of such matters, it 
 was easy to show that the chances were 
 several million to one that the thing did 
 not happen by chance. 
 
THE JURY'S REVENGE 
 
 Back in the eighties the main streets of 
 New York displayed on either side tall 
 lines of poles carrying telephone, tele- 
 graph and electric light wires. The wire- 
 men had to do much climbing within the 
 city in those days and because of the great 
 height of the cross-arms, the density of 
 the wires and the proximity of high and 
 low potential currents, their work was haz- 
 ardous and productive of accidents that 
 are now less frequently reported. The 
 functions and vagaries of the electric cur- 
 rent were known to a far smaller propor- 
 tion of the people than now and an elec- 
 trician was looked upon as more or less of 
 a wizard. 
 
 Small wonder was it, therefore, when a 
 climber was killed by coming in contact 
 with a high potential current upon a tele- 
 phone pole, that the coroner should be 
 stumped for material from which to select 
 a jury who could pass intelligently upon 
 the technical questions involved. But he 
 was struck with a brilliant idea; the tele- 
 phone company, whose service even at 
 
 98 
 
The Juby's Eevenge 99 
 
 that day had become vital to the city's 
 business, had expert electricians ; why not 
 make up a jury from those intelligent and 
 well trained young men? 
 
 Today, when men called for jury duty 
 are cross-examined at length regarding 
 their business to ascertain if they have ac- 
 quaintance with any one directly or indi- 
 rectly interested in the case at issue, it 
 sounds strange to hear of picking a jury of 
 employees of one of the parties directly 
 concerned, but that is just what the coro- 
 ner did. He summoned the electrician of 
 the local telephone company and asked him 
 to bring up to the court room twelve men 
 from his office who were trained in the 
 mysteries of electricity and who would 
 therefore be qualified to give fair and 
 learned judgment in the case in question, 
 in which liability for the accident was to 
 be fixed. 
 
 When the electrician of the telephone 
 company appeared in court with his flock 
 but nine noses could be counted, which, 
 however, was entirely satisfactory to the 
 coroner and the case proceeded with nine 
 tried and true citizens on the jury, all em- 
 
100 Impressions of an Average Jtjbyman 
 
 ployees of one of the parties in interest. 
 The electric light company, being the pur- 
 veyor of the high potential current, was 
 naturally the party most concerned in the 
 verdict and its principal witness, the 
 superintendent, took the stand with an ap- 
 parent determination that no testimony 
 should be wrung from him that would be 
 detrimental to his employer. He had not 
 been advised of the fact that the jury was 
 made up of nine practical electricians and 
 when any of the jurors sought to question 
 him upon technical points he resented the 
 questions as an intrusion of a layman upon 
 his field. 
 
 The testimony developed that there had 
 been an element of carelessness on the part 
 of the deceased, thereby releasing the 
 electric light company from responsibility, 
 but that jury of electricians decided that 
 the superintendent should be taught a les- 
 son and a plot along this line was hatched. 
 When the jury went to its room for de- 
 liberation, it was agreed between the mem- 
 bers that while a verdict favorable to the 
 electric light company must be found, the 
 superintendent should not learn of that 
 
The Juby's Revenge 101 
 
 verdict until he had paid a proper penalty 
 for his impertinence. Cigars were smug- 
 gled into the retiring room and, after the 
 real business had been finished, an hour or 
 two was spent in smokes and swapping 
 stories. 
 
 At favorable moments formal requests 
 were made for information from the 
 superintendent; various technical ques- 
 tions, his full name and address, the cor- 
 porate title of his company, etc. When it 
 was believed that this procedure had ex- 
 tended a sufficient length of time, the jury 
 solemnly filed in and announced its verdict 
 favorable to the electric light company. 
 But the superintendent had been in an 
 agony of suspense, the perspiration was 
 running down his pale face and, a picture 
 of woe, he seemed on the verge of collapse, 
 believing that he personally was to be 
 held responsible for the death of the line- 
 man. 
 
 Whether or not the superintendent ever 
 found out that the jury in the case was 
 made up of employees of the telephone 
 company has not been told. 
 
THE AMBULANCE CHASERS' 
 SYNDICATE 
 
 In the case of Eebekka Polduski versus 
 The John H. CoUins Co. suit for $10,000 
 damages for accident caused by defend- 
 ant's automobile truck colliding with 
 plaintiff's husband's push cart and injur- 
 ing the plaintiff. 
 
 Solomon Polduski, husband of Eebekka, 
 on the witness stand. Jacob Abrams, at- 
 torney for the plaintiff. 
 
 Q. Tell the jury, Mr. Polduski, what 
 you know about the accident to your wife 
 here. 
 
 A. I was in mine house, right by der 
 push cart, gedding dinner. Pretty soon a 
 man, Mr. Marx here, came running into 
 mine place and says, "Your wife is in- 
 jured." Eebekka was down by der push 
 cart selling der chrockery ven I was ged- 
 ding my dinner. 
 
 Q. What did Mr. Marx say to you? 
 
 A. He said, "Shall I ged you a dok- 
 tor?" 
 
 Q. What did you say? 
 
 102 
 
The Ambulance Chasees' Syndicate 103 
 
 A. I say, "My wife, Eebekka, she is 
 hurt; yes ged me der doktor." 
 
 Q. Did the doctor come? 
 
 A. Yes. Doktor Mayer. 
 
 Q. What did you do when he went for 
 the doctor? 
 
 A. I wendt down der stairs. Two men 
 were carrying up Eebekka ; she was much 
 hurt. 
 
 Q. What happened then? 
 
 A. They took her up and put her on der 
 bed. She was much hurt. She stayed on 
 der bed one, two weeks. The doktor called 
 many times. 
 
 Q. Could she do her housework? 
 
 A. No, she was much hurt on der leg. 
 I had to care for her. I lose much busi- 
 ness. 
 
 Ceoss-Examination 
 
 Q. Did you know Mr. Marx before the 
 accident? 
 
 A. No, sir. 
 
 Q. And Dr. Mayer; you say Mr. Marx 
 fetched him? 
 
 A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. Your attorney, Mr. Abrams, did Mr. 
 Marx also fetch him to you? 
 
104 Impbessions of an Average Jubyman 
 
 A. Yes, sir. He say he is good lawyer. 
 
 Testimony of Solomon Marx, witness 
 for defendant: 
 
 Q. Mr. Marx, did you see the accident? 
 
 A. No, sir. I hear some one had been 
 hurt and ran to the place. 
 
 Q. What did you do then? 
 
 A. I hear some one say a lady had been 
 injured, and her husband was up in the 
 house. I ran up the stairs and told him 
 his wife had been hurt. 
 
 Q. Then what did you do? 
 
 A. I got the names of witnesses. 
 
 Q. Did you know the Polduskis before 
 the accident? 
 
 A. No, sir. 
 
 Q. ' Then why did you show such an in- 
 terest in the case, getting a doctor, wit- 
 nesses, etc? 
 
 A. A poor lady had been hurt. 
 
 And so the story came out. The ambu- 
 lance-chasers' syndicate had been on the 
 job. The case had been scented out by 
 the scout Marx, who provided the lawsuit, 
 the testifying doctor, the handy witnesses, 
 and he no doubt had an undertaker handy 
 
The Ambulance Chasees' Syndicate 105 
 
 should one be needed. These hounds are 
 well organized and the courts of New York 
 are overflowing with suits due to their 
 operations. An accident to them is like 
 manna from heaven. A verdict of a few 
 hundred dollars is a godsend; for the 
 people pay the expense. 
 
IMDESIEABLE PUBLICITY 
 
 In one of the municipal courts Cohen 
 was suing Marx for one hundred good 
 American dollars which he alleged he had 
 loaned the latter but had been unable to 
 collect as per agreement. The plaintiff 
 had told at length how they had been 
 friends for twenty-five years ; how his for- 
 mer friend had come to him with a tale of 
 temporary financial embarrassment, and 
 out of the kindness of his heart he had 
 handed him the hundred, but which now, 
 contrary to good fellowship and justice, he 
 refused to return. Then it became Marx's 
 turn and he promptly repudiated the debt ; 
 he defied Cohen to show any evidence of 
 the indebtedness and ridiculed the idea 
 that any one with Cohen's reputation as 
 a close-fisted business man would hand out 
 one hundred dollars without receiving 
 legal evidence of the indebtedness. 
 
 The judge could only dismiss the com- 
 plaint, and the two parties at law departed 
 from the court room. Shortly, however, 
 they were seen in close conversation in one 
 of the corridors, and the following dialogue 
 took place : 
 
 106 
 
Undesieable Publicity 107 
 
 Cohen: "Not that I should care for the 
 hundred dollars, but to think that you are 
 such a liar." 
 
 Marx : ' ' Well, you know I got the money 
 ain't it? And I know it. What's the use 
 of telling a lot of people in a court room?" 
 
CUTTING- EEMAEKS 
 
 A janitor in an up-town apartment house 
 had for a long time been at war with the 
 driver of a milk wagon, who owing to the 
 practice of making deliveries very early 
 in the morning, had disturbed the janitor's 
 slumbers. The feud had arrived at a stage 
 where physical argument might be expect- 
 ed when one morning the janitor, when he 
 stuck his head out of ihe door of his dom- 
 icile, was promptly crowned with a bottle 
 of Grade B, and it required the services 
 of a surgeon to put him in presentable 
 shape. The case got into a magistrate's 
 court in a few days, and several tenants 
 were called as witnesses as to the bad 
 blood between the czar of the house and 
 the distributer of lacteals. The janitor 
 exhibited his damaged head, and the sur- 
 geon testified to his narrow escape from 
 a fractured skull. Then one of the ten- 
 ants gave his evidence to the effect that 
 the bottle was full of milk. The attorney 
 for the defendant loudly proclaimed, "It 
 cuts no ice whether it was full or empty," 
 
 108 
 
Cutting Remarks 109 
 
 and the witness came back with, "Yes; 
 but it cut his head." 
 
 A pained expression came over the 
 judge's face. ''Young man," said he, 
 "don't you get off any more gags of that 
 kind in this court." 
 
AVERTING AN EXPLOSION IN 
 COURT 
 
 The attorneys were crowding the court 
 room during the calling of the calendar. 
 The usual string of "Not ready's" had 
 been reported and sundry postponements 
 or admonitions given out by the judge 
 when the case of The Ignition Specialty 
 Company against Jones was announced. 
 The Ignition Company, dealers in automo- 
 bile specialties, had a little bill of $1,500 
 against Jones for goods alleged to have 
 been sold to him, but which amoimt, for 
 various reasons the latter thought he 
 should not pay. A stocky man jumped up 
 and shouted, "Ready for Ignition," while 
 a lanky, red-headed man announced him- 
 self as for the defense. "Your name, 
 sir?" queries the clerk. "Sparks — ^J. C. 
 Sparks," he answered. 
 
 The judge fairly jumped in his chair, 
 and with a smile playing upon his face, 
 remarked: "Ignition! Sparks! You two 
 gentlemen had better not get too close 
 while you are in the court room." 
 
 110 
 
DIVERS' REASONS 
 
 A case was tried in one of the New York 
 courts for breach of contract. The con- 
 tractor had agreed to perform certain 
 work in connection with the removal of the 
 wreck of the Granite State, which burned 
 at one of the city docks. His work had 
 not been done within the prescribed time; 
 hence the suit. 
 
 The defense of the contractor was a com- 
 mon one, but its application was exceed- 
 ingly novel, and it is doubtful if such a 
 plea has ever before been introduced in 
 the courts. The contract contained the 
 usual provisions that the contractor should 
 not be held responsible for delays occa- 
 sioned by God or the elements, and in sup- 
 port of placing the blame upon the ele- 
 ments he testified that he had employed 
 for the work professional divers; that his 
 employees had worked faithfully as long 
 as the weather was pleasant, but that a 
 rainy spell had come along and the divers 
 had refused to work in the rain. 
 
 Ill 
 
THE MAQia OF THE LAW 
 
 The case of The Coaxem Credit Com- 
 pany against Ellen Clancy was called for 
 trial in one of the municipal courts. Mrs. 
 Clancy was visibly perturbed. "The case 
 can't go on, Your Honor," she said. "Me 
 lawyer ain't showed up." 
 
 "Do you owe the money?" asked the 
 judge. 
 
 "Sure," said Mrs. Clancy, with never a 
 doubt indicated by her prompt and posi- 
 tive response. 
 
 "Then why do you want a lawyer?" 
 asked His Honor. 
 
 "If I had a good lawyer," said Mrs. 
 Clancy, "maybe he could prove that I 
 didn't owe it." 
 
 And the art of the efficient counsellor 
 was once more prominently brought to the 
 attention of the people. 
 
 112 
 
BALE 'IM 
 
 No book on jury matters would be com- 
 plete without what is known as "The 
 father of jury stories." 
 
 A case had been on trial for several days 
 and fairly early in the morning session, 
 after a large amount of convincing evi- 
 dence and a masterly charge on the part 
 of His Honor, the jury had retired. It 
 soon developed that most of the members 
 were agreed upon a verdict and after a few 
 votes a count showed 11 to 1. It was a 
 warm, sticky spring day, one of the kind 
 that makes even a comfortable, airy room 
 oppressive, and the eleven had singly and 
 collectively undertaken to convince their 
 brother juryman that he had not taken into 
 consideration all of the evidence. He list- 
 ened patiently for a while, then sulked and 
 finally remarked that he would stick out 
 until "hell froze over." 
 
 So the day dragged on, the united eleven 
 not hesitating to inform their disagreeing 
 brother that he had the mind of a sheep 
 and the intellect of a caterpillar. The 
 judge had informed the twelve that he 
 
 113 
 
114 Impressions op an Atbragb Juryman 
 
 would not consider a disagreement, but 
 that they would be locked up for the night 
 if necessary. At 6 P. M. one of the attend- 
 ants opened the door and asked the wilting 
 foreman if the jury would not like to have 
 their dinners sent in. 
 
 "Yes," he responded; "send in eleven 
 dinners and a bale of hay."