The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-07-18
FRONTIER
The Man Who Found Glory Serving On a
Coroner's Jury.

Coroner's Jury.
From the New York Press.
Possibly with the single exception of
being n survivor from some dire calamity,
the distinction OF being called To sit on a
%coroner's jury is the proudest in the life
of the everyday c~lodhopper. This was
excmplifled The other day the case of an
illiterate laborer who had been called to
''sit upon a corpse" i'm a Southern Cali
fornia town.
A q adj man was found on a hillside
rear the village, and a jury was called to
sit upon the corpse to determine whether
the man was really and truly dead, and If
so, how il happened. As idle men were
scarce the coroner called on the porter of
a store to serve on the jury. The mar,
arrayed i'm his best suit of Sunday clothes,
took his new duty as a serious matter.
After the case had been duly disposed of
and the potter's field enriched by the adj
dition of another tenant the porter pro-
cecding to fill himself up with beer, and
put i'm a full day in walking up and down
the street to let all his a-cquaintances
know that he was one of the coroner's
Jury in the case OF the unknown dead
man. His employer met him and in
quired what developments they had dis
covered in the case.
"wall," he said. "we, the jury. went m
there and sat upon the dead corpus and
found tina he was dead. We also further
found a vcrdick that the fellow had COM
mitted suicide to himself, and that no
other pusson had done il but hlsself. Thar
want nobody tn blame for il but jist his
own self"
Next in importance To the juryman is
the country Justice of the peace. When
in the course of events n blacksmith Is
called upon by the free and untrammeled
sulrraces Of his fellow citizens to leave his
anvil aud dispense Justice, 10 adjust the
neigbborhood chickering's and uphold the
majesty of the law, he at once becomes an
important parsonage.
Many genuine comedies are enacted i'm
Justices courts and il they ever reach the
public eye via the copy hook they go far
To alleviate the careworn and tired brains
OF those 81 the community who mind their
own business n nave no occasion to
witness the many farces played in the
name OF Justice. In one of the frontier
settlements i'm the wild West n German
cobbler was elected police justice. His
reputation as an honest toiler was well
established but his legal knowledge and
sense OF humor were, so far, of unknown
quantities.
One of his first cases was that of a
tough citizen, who was duly arraiRned for
a breach Of the peace. The Justice heard
the evidence in the case and pronounced
VI Nv " w ltis ~
cnraged the defendant that he ended a
vigorous abuse of the court by promising
to call on him promptly that day three
months and prepare him for n flrst-class
funeral. The Judge heard this abuse ST.
lently, and then, without any emotion.
cogitatcd as follows:
well, you kills me to-day three months
ago, viii you? Let me see. This Is Au-
gust 1. Three months will be November
I. Thanksgiving will be 18th. / will miss
my Thanksgiving dinner. Christmas is
next. ] will miss Christmas, too. Six
months from August | will he Shanuary.
] makes II six months, und den you kills
me, Will IL? You shust go right away to
jail six months, and then ! see you any
more | shous shoot you So full OF lead IL
viii take won steam derrick TO lift you
down Ia your grave. You hear me
The six months were up long ago, and
the justice still sits upon his cobbler's
bench when not dispensing Justice from
his official seat. The tough citizen is pre-
sumably herding cattle in Arizona.