San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-08-09
SIGHTS IN THE COURT.
Some Observations Made by an Ole

Some Observations Made by an Old
Juror.
1t has been some months since our
court has been adjourned and it will
be some weeks more before it will be
resumed again.
The reporter was talking yesterday
evening with an old time juror who
has felt the hard seats in the jury
box quite number of times. GIVE
not been roped in to sit in the box
during the coming court, as yet.
There is no telling, however, 1 can be
called up at any time. L have seen
plenty of this court business,
and have had my full
share of it. You have no
idea of the different effects that differ
ent lawyers and different cases have
on the jury. There is one lawyer
here who has very unpleasant
monotonous address and who seems
to be able to hammer at a witness
longer than any other lawyer and
succeeds in bringing much less out of
him than any other man in the town.
My; but in what agony the jury does
while away the slow, long hours
without soft seat in the box, when
whole day. If ever I am called
to the jury box and that lawyer
is on the case, will be sure
to "know all about it, your
honor" Then on other occasions 1
have laughed or roared so heartily as
have never done before. There are
such numerous amusing situations be-
tween the witnesses and the cross
examiners; between the lawyers
themselves. 1t is truly amusing TO
see witness contradict himself right
straight along under the skillful
cross-questioning of some criminal
lawyer. But it is infinitely more fun
to see two apparently Infatuated law
yers angrily carrying on the fight be-
tween themselves. One of our law
yers has the amusing habit of jump
ing to his feet with "Ah. L object!
All! Don't ask the man such silly
questionsW Another threatens with
an Injunction, third makes the
gravest kind of accusations and
points the man out, with his finger,
something which no man would
take outside of the court room. Still
another will make his whole plea or
argument, terrible black guarding
TRADE against the prosecuting attor-
ney, which, with some kind of juries
has great effect. Another will keep
posted on all the vices and bad points
of the witnesses on the opposition, and
when they give some telling testi-
mony this lawyer gives vent to all of
the witness vices that he had BET
able to find out. Then the num-
Der of lawyers who spring to
their feet every few minutes ard
claim that the opposition is trying to
rob them of their rights guaranteed
by the constitution, ana the continual
cry of "This is simply monstrous ~
''Such actions are entirely unheard
ofn becomes too common to appear
ridiculous to juror, after he has sat
two or three times. A man for the
first time in court who watched a
heated encounter between two law
yers, is never more surprised when
he sees 1.-The two fierce combatants,
when their work is over, joke and
laugh between themselves over their
apparently angry battle of words.
No, but look at the present system;
what a monstrous farce it is. The
jurors, as a rule are a set of ignorant
ny q ldlS0 IL 10
natural that it should be so under the
present jury system which requires
that the person to be taken as jury
man should not have made up his
mind. This naturally means that he
must not have read or heard all
about the cases, and such men as
these are for the most part, people
who are too ignorant to read the
papers. These are the men who are
chosen to pass upon the merits of a
case and to determine upon the ques-
tions of life and death, liberty or i'm
prisonment. 1t would be a great
thing, no doubt, if our jury system
were improved and these objection
able features done away with. By
the way, while our common jurymen
are for the NEST part plain, very often
ignorant, and nearly always OF the
poorer class of people, our grand
juries are nearly entirely composed
of the wealthy citizen. How do you
account for that? Does not the honest,
poor but intelligent citizen make as
good a grand juror as the wealthy
man? Is not the world full of the
former? Then 1 don't see why the
distinction is made, by the jury COM
missioners."
Pirfh1nU PARTY