Litchfield enquirer., 1872-08-22
From Harpers Magazine. A cERTLENiAN OF TasE JuIs'

f tuIcuS AlNtfktnl tkS4D11t7E WHO pEeSluES fD8E that legalize1 1otteRy by which the .gopd
 men and true, who are to serve the com rnunity in the capacity of juors, are pc
 riodieally designated Gotstha prefe1
 the stove heat cotirt-roonfs to the health fer atmosphere of my own freside; .or oth
 CT peoples public tquarrels tD my oWi
 peaceful private affairs; bntpartIy becauss am old fashioned enough to regard jur,
 duty as better done than left undone and partly because have never yet beer
 able to devise any excuse for it's neglee
 which would pass muster, either in ths forum of coneienee, or at the bar of oul
 city courts. I am quite too hale and hear ty to venture toward the Bench with { physician's certificate testifying of chron- ic maladies aggravated by long continued sitting and close mental applicatonI can not plead or ypersonate that melancholy and 'incurable deafness of which, on the first day of every term, there are so-many sad examples; r. hold no commission in any brigade, light or heavy, to compel on parade when I ought to be in court; ! run with no engine;I respect the Christ ian Sabbath, so that Saturday brings with and Presbyterian, so that neither Ash
 
 feast or fast, movable or iInmovable, evel affords me religous respite; T have nq friend at court. in the shape of judge ol counsel, to reprieve me for a week at a time, or commute my term from the full fortnight to half hour; nor have I, vel divined the secret by which all South Street and Fifth Avenue, while grumbline with united voice about the delays of the 1ox o1td f<, 7axt of modern inries. quietly shirk .tha work and leave it, like the voting. at primary elections, and other disagreeablel items oi the whole duty of . New Yorker, to be done by reputable proxies, rather than do it themselves. ----.1 .. =
 We'll there is popular. prejudice in in favor of trial by jury, and must serve. It is light work nowadays compared with those good old times, somewhere about the date of the Saxon Heptarchy, when every man on the panel was responsible for.the justice of his verdict tos the extent of his property if not of his life. Those were the times that tried the souls of iu1- TOTS as we'll as the issues joined between the parties litigant, Just think of having to hang for the fatal mistake of .having made an honest woman of Mrs. Box. when verdict the other way would have sent her reputation into the limbo of lost char acters;. or of being mIu1ct in a cool five thousand for conspiring with eleven oth- CT men to make Twist, the Wall Street broker, pay his note like an honest debt. when in fact it had been shaved. at first hand, at the unprincipled rate of three per cent. month. - u z -E-e-,4.'
 But all this is digression, by way of introduction to the personal reminiscence foreshadowed in the title to these para graphs. Am suspected by this time of being myself the gentleman there amour ced to. the public? By no means; I have a hero in waiting, and he shall be forth coming without further preliminary ' The last timeI was captured oil the coast of Nisi Prius, about the beginning of the present year, just as Twas makingmy way toward that dlngy receptacle of pub, the Park which serves in the 4dnub1e Ica- pacity of engine house and court house, encountered in the middle of the path leading hither from the Hall of.aRecords, a mass of two hundred and fifty pounds of solid Dutchman, surmounted by very striking but not very prepossessing phys iognomy, screwd up from it's ordinary level of stupidity to an indefnable' point of curiosity and perplexity. A glance re- vealed the cause of the dilemma Mein- herr was vainly endeavoring to decipher the import of one of those familiar strips of blue paper, .partly in writing, partly in print, which perceived at once was an invitatien'to the same judicial na0tiieee to which Twas making my way. In. the desperate effort to extract all idea out of this eabalistic' scroll at all hazards, he was perusing it upside down, with 6cca- sional references to the blank side. and having just about touched bottom in. his bewilderment, he caught my arm as I passed, and arrested me with the ques- tion, T. --zz-- - 4-7s-t. -ts -l
 "Mein freund,' wo. ist der; shuperior Court q" ---i'i -i4 -~ F--.--e>'-
 l pointed to the shrine of justice thus designated, and we went up.the steps to- gether. Just as we entered the court room, the stentorian voice of the clerk pronounced the name of "Hans Kraut. D whereuponmy new acquaintance responded with such consciousness ofipers6hM iden- tity and proprietorship of that 1aionosyl- 'labic appellation expressed in his tone, las to startle the whole assembly, and raise the,eyes of the Chief Justice himself s.s1tn- derneath their shaggy brows. ---1-4f
 As luck would have it, the first turn of the wheel brought out Krant's L. name and mine in close juxtaposition. We took our seats in the jury box together, and on ad- joining chairs. Kraut was evidently in an atmosphere of novelty. It was his first appearances on that stage, and he was so desirous, of administering justice with viger and promptnees, that, he was only restrainedi by lack of opportunity from rendering q verdict tinstanter, in leHery case on the calendar, before the first had actually been called on. When this was called and fairly launched, and Court, counsel and witnesses had taken one an other by the ears, after the fashion of le- gal proceedings in general, .Krapt settled himself in his chair with the gravity of a Lord Chahncellor, and looked as wise as an owl. --.,4 <. s------s--7 7s -,-,--y. s-iat ! It. was the simplest sort of case. The plaintiff was 8 merchant, who. had sold the defendant goods and taken his note. The defendant kept the goods, but did not keep his promise to pay. Then the plaintiff sued whereupon the defendant set up 8 variety of very substantial reasons why he ought not to be required to. pay. What they were I forgot, but they amount ed all together to precise1y nothing His counsei 7onered to prove . variety of facts, which had nothing more to do with the case than the Proverbs of Solomon, Sc he came very soon to the end of his brief. There was something which the iudee thought must go to the jury, and accord ingly that Something, whatever 1t was, .ss went to the jury, and the jury went tp a Kraut marched into the jury room with head erect, and eyes, nose, and mouth di- lated. Hesseated himself for second incubation on his very small egg, as it appeared to the two-and,twentY .eyyes which surveyed it in company with his two. His colleagues supposed the jury suhanimops,;; but, for forms sake. the inr quiry was put to each man, For whom do you find ?'' and as regularly as put! came the response, For plaintiff. .' until 1t lighted upon Krant, who,. to. every body's consternation, squared off with the unexpected answer. ...t..z s.--.saf.
 I finds yoE der. tefendant!' z5.1 ii.
 Isuggested that MT. Kraut sWas labor. ing under apprehension of termsli and meant plaintiff bnt, der tanie . bit ,1,I& II q ss7