The Red Cloud chief., 1879-04-10
. JUKYMAN's CONFESSION.

How n Certain Case Was Contested In the
Courts Of Caiifornis.
The case Of the poor man who went
msd the other day over in Jersey while
on the Smith-Bennett jury has so
wruught on me 70 tina, extent that feel
moved to arise and say n word OF my
experience as . juryman. No one as
yet in this age of many philanthropies
has taken any action towards the relief
Of these poor, prosecuted creatures. Be-
cause, in the first place, nine jurymen
out Of ten lose all track Of a ease sitter
the second days evidence. Whatever
they do know at the commencement is
often completely bemuddled, befogged
and twisted into a snarl by the lawyers.
l presume the poor man on the trial in
question was conscientious and tried to
remember the evidence. This was too
much and broke his brain down. Most
Jurors are not conscientious. They give
up the ship after the first two hours OF
evidence hearing and let the case drift.
All jurors know this to be true, but no
man likes to acknowledge it. So they
look wise in their chairs and the farce
goes on from year 70 year.
In 1861, at the commencement Of the
war, l served my country as q juror in
the great Table Mountain Tunnel case
at Sonora, Tuolumne County, Califor.
mia. 1t was Table Mountain Tunnel vs..
New York Tunnel. The opposing
claims had driftcd into opposite sides OF
the great mountain, which here describ'
ed q semi-circlc.
Table Mountain is a wall 40 miles
long, from 200 to 800 feet in height,
about 800 yards wide, and with q top a.
level As a barn door. Sides, top and
bottom are of rock and in the middle is
&eore of gold-besripg gravel. In some
clAims the tunnels bored through the
"rua rock" are l,400 feet in length
and cost years of labor. The top rock
is volcanic and spongy in appearance.
The bottom is q hard blue granite, worn
smooth by the rush of a current, for at
some period il was the bed of a river.
When the NJ York and Table Noun
tain companies hs2s took up their claims
they supposed, as very one else did,
that the pay streak Sciiowed the noun
tain. So it did everywhere else, but in
this particular casc it shot straight
across a small flat partly Enclosed by the
mountain wall. The two companies, as
they followed the lead fron1 cher end
of a horseshoe curve, found thN,sselves
tunneling towards each other AIS into
this hitherto supposed worthless 8as.
The farther they tunneled the richer
grew the streak of pay dirt. Every rod
held q small fortune. Of course both
parties claimed it. Both discovered that
for years they had known of the rich
ness of Humbug Flat. Both wanted the
entire fiat. The law was called upon to
settle the difficulty. The law was glad.
Sonora, the county town, was then full
of lawyers. The main street, three
quarters of a mile in length, a~lternated
thus-store, saloon, law-office, law
office, store, saloon, store, law-Ofiice.
The Sonora lawyers ran their tunnels
into both of these claims, and never
stopped until they had exhausted the
cream of the pay streak. The opposing
miners did the work and the lawyers
took the fees.
Year after year the Table Mountain
vs.. New York Tunnel case ceme icto
court. 1t commenced in the County
Court, a into the District Court, was
sent up to the Supreme Court and the
last decision set aside. Then the Dis
trict Court would take another shy at it,
judgment for n side or the other,
and away it would 60 to the Supreme
Court again, come back with some new
kinks in the legal twist and carom again
the District Court. So the case went
on year after year, with judgments rem
dered first for one side then for the
then appealed, then Supreme
COdrted, then sent back and District
Courted, until at last it had become so
encumbered with legal barnacles, para
sites, cobwebs, mold ~afidavits, rulings,
dry rot and counter rulings, that nobody
but the lawyers knew or pretended
TO know aught of the matters. As
for the contending miners, they SIM
ply worked, got out their dust, brought
It to Sonora and paid their attorneys.
There were about thirty men in each
,ompany, and the lawyers had these
men we'll trained and under thorough
control. They were perfectly content
work SO long as the case went on.
The s went on and the seni-annual
rial of Table Mountain vs.. New York
Tunnel Company made more excite
nent, drinking, cutting, shooting. and
eft more money in Sonora than any
'ourth-of-July celebration. The COM
'anies brought with them at each trial
n average of 50 witnesses each. These
the 60 contestants filed the hotels
nd saloons for five or six days. Morte,
aro, keno and poker fired up anew dur
" the trials of the Table Mountain VS..
lew York Companies. 1t was a regu-
" celebration. The town pcospered.
he population increased. They made
( Sonora . city with Common Coun-
Il, bought q fire-engine and built three
ew churches. The case became 3
ounty institution. Itoutlived three sets
I Judges. 1t grew dropsical with afi-
nxsfa and doouunonfarr ousdouno Alaa