The Red Cloud chief., 1879-04-10

rance. In this way they found me, At
thu, time dead and buried TO The outside
world, on SWEETS Bar, 3 remote corner
of The co6nty.
Twas Ummoued a a jaror. l oecy-
ed the summons, borrowed a Goa and
went TO Sonora. The great day came,
the town was full of contestants and
Witnesses. the saloons throvc, gold
clinked, and few went 70 bed tina; night.
In the morning !, vial the remaining
IL, was sworn TO try the case 70 the best
of my ability. So ] swore. felt very
ridiculous. I felt guilty; I knew I had
no ability as . Juror. Ithought then
that ability Of some sort was necessary.
The ease was called. II seemed to
me they commenced in the middle or nj
some point Of leaving off in some preyi-
Gus trial. couldn't &c. any clear idea
which WAS plaintiff and which defend
ant. II is doubtful that l understood
the exac, meaning Of those terms at that
time. The Judge Vas noted for his en-
durance as . sitter. He sat IL hours
per day. twenty-five witnesses on one
side testified to something; 25 on the
other swore il all down again. The
trial lasted five days. The opposing
counsel, the rival claimants and even
the witnesses had long, gaudily colored
maps Of the claims, which they unroll-
ed, held before us and. swung defiantly
u each other. The first two days of
testimony, involving certain ancient
mining laws and ancient boundaries
from 1850 up to 1854, were, when con
cluded, thrown ont As irrelevant to the
case. But could it be thrown out Of my
head2 II remained there and interfer-
ed with all the remaining testimony. l
had only a single fact fixed in my
memory. II was q certain large
pine tree, the initial bounda-
ry point for both claims. That
is all l ever knew of the case. When
lost and confused in mazes of contra
dictory evidence, I would mentally
come back to the shade of this tree and
rest awhile before attempting another
start. But for that tree Think IShould
have gone mad. Because being con-
scientious and simple then, l deemed it
my duty as . good citizen to try and fol-
low the case as it was chased and hunt.
ed from n thicket Of legal completely
to another by the lawyers. l thought
in my innocence that they were trying
to make it easily understood. cit
seemed TO me-" I remarked one day
during the trial to Bob G., the County
Clerk, "that l could put this matter a
great deal clearer than did Lawyer &.
in an hours talk " his objection
aSout something"
"Clear, you idiot" said he, edo you
sappose the lawyers want to make any
thing clear in this casep" This wasthe
first hint l ever received that lawyers
did not wish to make things clear. But
l did not believe the Clerk then. /
deemed him a promulgator of reckless
statement and opinion.
The summing up lasted nearly two
days. ]. kept track of opposing coun-
sells speeches for fifteen minutes. Then
l gave it up and took shelter under the
big pine tree. We were finally charged
by the Judge and sent to the jury room.
I expected something from that charge
to clear my mental sky, but was disap-
pointed. Judge Dreamer turned to-
ward ms in q friendly, confidential man
ner, which promised a great deal and
said that if from the nature of the
evidence W. deemed the ground in dis
pute belonged to the plaintiff we should.
give a verdict in his favor, but If on the
contrary we deemed from the nature of
the evidence that it belonged to the de-
fendant we must return a verdict for the
Well, l knew all this be-
fore. l think the rest of the jury did.
He would have done me more service by
me which was the plaintiff.
All this may seem very improbable in
these days of legal perspicuity and di.
r~ectness, but if you had suddenly been
snatched from years of retirement in a
gulch, where a single pair of
pants did duty for every in
habitant in his %infrequent visits to town
or when sent up as a delegate to a coun-
ty convention, would you, If suddenly
up and slung into a bowling vor-
of law, have been quite clear as to
and defendant?
/ went with the rest into the jury
room. l felt like a fool, an idiot and
criminal. 1 knew / hadn't the shadow
If an opinion or q conclusion in the
1 took my coadjutOrs all for
wise and capable jurors. l dreaded the
moment when / should be obliged to
'eveal my utter ignorance and incapac-
ty as a juror. It never came. 1t be-
ian oon to dawn upon me that three
ourths of my companions were no wiser
han myself. 4 was relieved. Igno-
ance loves company. So 500 as the
|oor was locked on US there was silence, 1
nd that peculiar silence which argues i
hat every body was waiting for some j
ody else to speak first. There were no I
hairs or benches. 1t helps jurors to
erspicuity and hastens verdicts to
make jury rooms as uncomfortable as
Ossible. Jonah first broke the ice. He E
aptured an old blanket lying on the !
COR. wrapped himself mp in it, laid '
own and said, Gentlemen, when !,
Ou'ye made M your verdict call me - q