New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-07-05
THE STAR ROUTE TRIALS.
,,r,,v POSSIBILITIES OF FAILURE.


,,o,ryOvI WORKING HARD AND EARNESTLY.
o,, r,,v REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE r'iboNh.i
WASHINGTON, July 4.-The star "o"'o -. -
attract as little attention here az 'noS ,'.D. -
elsewhere. The dingy courtroom winch w"s
rocked every day during the trial OF uui'eau, anu
often surrounded by eager CROWDS Oh pooPiv' %
barely balf-flled nowadays with hs'ieSS s"'n1i
Inc mostly made up of the PRICELESS lawyers "no
;nsest Judiciary Square, and the negroes who sun
.honosles even in hot weather on the steps of the
Conrt Honse As there are seven defendants ana
they have eleven LAWYERS, no small proportion Oh
ihe attendance is made up of persons directly con
,octod with the case The details of Star Route
fraud have the merit, or dement, Vi 80"
profoundly uninterestng. and with 'he eNoop .ni
Of Dorsey and Brady there are no persons oh "l"
or under indictment whom inc Puono '
to care anything about They arc iol '"'
,nost mart commonplace and obscure con
.rootors and clerks and there is, therefore,
lttle Of that flavor of personal interest when mas
suallv caused other ring prosecutions TO be CLOSELY
followed nv the public OF the two noted deiehd-
ants Brady spends much the larger proportion Vi
time in the courtroom, where he usually sue WIN
his hands clasped over cane, and with his heau
down chews AT his coatsleeve or his hand III renee
five way This shows his short, thick neck HIS
head not over large and Oft bullet shape oenle soc
close TO his shoulders He is both tall and Droad
lis reddish hue and the closely cropped whskers, sug
costs General Grant Mr.. Dorsey sometimes appears
in his neat checkered spring suit among the spec
tators and sometimes he takes comfortable smoke
on the courthouse portico. His impassve, bearded
face gives no sign OF any personal interest IN Vhe
proceedings, -.
Probably many were surprised to see that the jury
in this trial was drawn just as jury wouid oe
drawn in the petiest case without any of the safe
fbroNC arnund
There is no provision in the District OF Columoia
for n "struckv Jury such made it impossible Tor
Tweed for example, to get men on the jury VINO hao
been or could be bribed. The system prevailing IN
the District is peculiar and is said to be mNIure
of the ORIGINAL District practice and that IN the
limited States courts At the beginning
of the criminal term, twenty-six names
are drawn to compose the petit jury for that
term. from which all The jures are seiec'eu'
80 that a number of men are likely to serve Ill seN
eral cases. unless the whole term should happen 10
be occupied with one. These names are puDilsheu III
the newspapers, and if men are coming up lor uln
who want TO buy Jury they will have little diihcuty
in finding out before the is called which OF these
twenty-six it would be well for them to challenge
off the Jury, which of them 1t would be well Tor
them 10 allow to go on the jury, ana
which of them, if any, they can apso-
lutely secure in advance. 1t would naturally be
supposed that in ring case, where the government
can offer juryman only the petty legal stipend ana
the consciousness of having done his duty and the
ring can make il worth a mans while TO have
donbts about the strength of the evidence. this sys
tenn of getting Jury was disagreement or acGult-
tal made easy But this is not all. Under the law
the Government has three perenptory challenges;
the defendant four. But there Is only one Govern
ment and in this case there are seven defendants
The prosecution claimed that the seven, the ndlct-
meut being for conspiracy, should be treated as one
partv and cited law which, they argued, Justlhed
this position. Judge Wylie ruled, however, that 1t
did not appy TO this case and decided that each de-
fendant was entitled to four challenges. This gave
them tvventv-eight or two more than the whole num-
her of names on the panel, while the Government
had only three Thus the defence, II they had
chosen could have challenged off the whole panel,
and compelled jury to be made up OF talesinen.
The Government, of course, did the best IL could
with its meare share of challenges while the other
side challenged off enough, usually obecung 10 the
more intelligent men, to make 1t necessary 10 cah
four talesmen, making thirty names III all lroih
which the jury was selected.
Nor WAS this all 1t would be safeguard against
improper interference with the jury if they could
be kept together. But Judge Wyhe has decided
that this cannot be done except on the trlai Oh q
felony This point is not regarded as OF great III
portance however because an attempt TO Keep the
Jury together this of the year would nave
resulted almost inevitably, it is Thought III SICK
ness among the jurors and mistrlal They go to
their homes therefore, and talk with whom they
choose 1t is be said for the jury that it seems to
he equal to the average of Washington juries.
There are about half dozen intelligent and fair
looking men on il. There seems to be larger
proportion than usual of young men. Two are
negroes. 1t must be evident, therefore, taking all
the circumstances cited into consideration, that If
the defendants in this case inclined to foul play
with the Jury the law has afforded abundant oppor-
tunity for subjecting it to temptation
Tin multitude of lawyers there is strength, the
defendants are again better off than the Gov
eminent, which has only three lawyers to eleven
on the other side-hardly more than two, in fact,
as Mr. Ker, who was brought in toframe the Indict-
ments does not take q very active share IN the
case There are some strong lawyers for the de-
fence and at least master in the art OF cracking
Jokes and smiling upon the jury jeremiah NJ Will
son, Colonel Ingersoll, Enoch Totten, the son-in-
law of the Postmaster-General, and Mr.. McSweeny,
the Ohio advocate, are among the principal ones
Every device of technicalty and every trick of the
iury-lawyer is employed by this eleven-gun bat
terv One result is already apparent-that the
trial must last much longer than expected,
owing to the necessity of allowing the battery to
deploy in full every tune there is skirmlsh Inc
pretence that the defence were to demand VIM
dicaton" on broad issues. and without resort to
,ecbuicalities WAS of coarse abandoned long ago.
Colonel Bliss and Mr.. Merrick carry on the prose-
cutron with faithful zeal, having the assistance In
court of Mr. Woodward, the special agent VINO has
been busy for a year in arranging the evidence.
They all seem TO be hopeful of good result. but
they cannot be blind 20 the many contingencies
that are against them, and that are against n Gov
pnftn