Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1881-07-27
THE GRAVEL ON THE PANE.

Mining SuttS-bOW jurors Beh-
anced the scales OF Justice In
Early Days.
Carson Appeal, July "a.
Last night q number OF men were sit
ting in front OF the Ormsby House discuss
ing the big mining suit in Eureka between
the Richmond and Albion. Gen. Kittrell,
W. W. Bishop, Sine. Barnes. Johnny
Moore and others were interesting the
crowd with ~recitals OF the various suits
they had seen. Bishop and Kittrell in
sisted that OF late years the atmosphere Of
the Courts had been purer than in the
early days.
"That u.s." said Barnes, thinner and
weaker; in other words, jurors cost less
than in early days."
Both the lawyers agreed that coin had q
potent influence. When the law was all
on their side and the jury on the other,
they could only explain it on a coin
hypothesis.
THE OLD ~PRosPEcToR.
At this point an old grizzly bearded
man who had been listening slid up to the
group and remarked:
mining suits amt what they used to
be; there's been no real live litigation to
speak Of since the RAYMOND & Ely suit
with the Hermes in Pioche."
"Were you in town 2"
"Well, rather; I travelled 400 miles or
a mule to get to the jury box. l struck
the town about 6 O'Clock at night, and
walking into the leading bar room inquired
if the suit had begun. Inside Of half IN
hour a man came up and asked me what
my name was. He wrote it down on his
shirt cuff, and then he said, 'Pard, II you
want to stay and see the suit let me see
you through on your expenses and he
handed me $500, remarking that he
thought the r. d e. had the bulge on the
law. l said that / thought that myself
and then / sauntered off. In about a
hour a man came to me and told me ! was
drawn on the jury. I said I didn't mind
and agreed to stand in. About 8 o'clock
a man tapped me on the arm and handed
me five hundred, remarking that the
Hermes had about all the law and facts on
their side that was necessary. He thought
/ might need o little money for expenses.
OF course / took the money, he seemed SO
anxious to get rid Of it, and then I slipped
into a back room, put ON q pair OF false
side whiskers, q thin silk duster I had
been carrying under my coat and l was Q
changed man. By 10 o'clock l was on q
good horse that l paid $500 for and started
off on q prospecting trip. l couldn't bear
the idea Of holding the scales Of justice
in a case like that. / was fearful Of fur
Their corruption, you see. But at the trial
l was represented by a proxy. On the
and discouraged. / put him on the lay
and ha ufartad d0phla NufaE fAY ptNnhn
He struck the ledge rich, l guess, for when
/ next heard Of him he was drivin' q
double team and enjoying life.
ON THE JURY.
All hands were buried in deep thought
for a few moments, when q little man in
clothes who had been an attentive lis
tener cleared his throat and said that re-
minded him Of a similar experience.
ut was a Virginia City case q good
many years ago. Several hundred feet
were involved and I was one of the jury. I
was handed three hundred by one side and
seven hundred by the other, and saw an
other juror pretty well heeled. We talked
the matter over, and l told him I guessed
wouldn't see any more money. ooh,
you WILL he said ; this is only the patter-
ing drops Of the rain that foretells Of the
bbOt ltli NC d uItuCutTy Auu
we'll all get wet through / had to laugh
at the big lawyers tearing themselves in
two making speeches that didn't have any
more effect on us than so much wind.
When the evidence was all in and the
speeches concluded / couldn't recollect o
point in the case. In fact, l was busy |
wondering where the next outside money |
was coming from and trying to calculate, |
from studying the faces OF my pals, how |
each had got. Well, we finally went |
to the jury room to get a verdict. I'VE
can't form q hasty verdict in & case like
said the foreman; we must pause |
and reflect Then all hands laughed and
We sat about fifteen minutes rejecting. |
Presently some gravel struck the back
and the foreman leaned out and
said: What do you want?'
Throw down a rope said the voice, and
the foreman, who seemed to have Q rope
all ready, lowered it down. Up came o
OF champagne, and as he looked at |
the tag he said: This is from the defend
So we drank their health, and in
about an hour we got another bite on the
line, and pulled up an old gum boot with
fifteen hundred dollars in it. This, he
said, was plaintiffs contribution. We di-
vided the money and played poker for it.
By midnight three of us had all the swag,
and then a sack with four thousand dollars
in it came up, and we divided and started |
fresh game. Whenever the gravel struck
the window we pulled up something. 1t
was an interesting case, and by 4 o'clock
in the morning the gravel and coin gave
out, and we figured on q verdict. The de-
PENDANTS evidence, as it laid there on the
table, preponderated by q thousand dol
ln~a arnavaptlu anl NJ "a aha.,f 20 And
we saw that there was fifteen hun |
dred more that had to be counted. All
hands were SO full that we couldn't tell to
rave US which side of the column TO put
that money on, and things got SO mixed
up that we concluded to do the fair thing
all round and say that we couldn't agree.
it was suggested to stay out an
day, which we did, and more evil
dence coming up the rope settled the bus
and we found for the defendants.
Some of the legal points sprung on us were
very complicated things to wrestle with,
and three dollars q day didn't begin TO pay
us, you see.
DRAWING THE JURY.
drawing the jury ia the main thing"
said a man in striped pants, edging up. In
Z" In the famous case Of - versus -,
county officers. The County Clerk got 9
fat figure for drawing the jury. Oh. he
was cunning as q monkey, and could get
any twelve names out Of fifty you wanted.
and he'd be lookin' all over the Courtroom
all the time. He could nail the right
names Just az certain as DEATH"
The listeners expressed some desire to
understand the modus operandi, which
the communicative gentleman proceeded
to explain
You see, he took twelve ballots and
rolled EN- up in q piece Of paper. with the
ends slightly pasted together. He had
them up his sleeve. and when he went into
the box he made a big show Of stirring up
things, and held the package In his hand
all the while. Then he tore open the
package and proceeded to draw. always