St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-05-10
ward with anything better, and it seems
destined to survive another century.
Jurors on DUty.

Looking at panel of jurors as they
sit in the jury box, you behold an aver
age body of men. Among the twelve
you will find Intelligent men and ig-
norant men, shrewd men and obtuSe
men, angelic cOuntenanceS and demOnl-
acal ''phiZes." There are some jurors
who pay the closest attention to every
point i'll the case on trial, and will often
question the witnesses as to matters in
which they are not entirely clear. There
are others whose minds are either up in
the clouds or down in the bowels of the
earth while the trial is going on. They
sleep and yawn alternately, and twist
and shift in their chairs as ii there were
bees nests beneath. This last class of
individuals lays back until the case is
summed up and the judge delivers his
charge. They are then ready to express
their verdict. In complicated cases
there are few jurors who possess the
brains to keep the evidence in mind,
and, as the arguments of coun-
sci contain fair resume of
the principal points involved, the gen.
erality of jurors will not attempt to fol-
low the testimony introduced through
all its tortuous windings, but will take
their points from the attorneys in what
may be called the ''wind-up." There is
not few, who pay little heed to either
the attorneys or the evidence, and take
their knowledge of both the law and tie
fact from the charge of the court.
Are Quite Particularly.
Jurors have their preferences regard
ing the nature or kind of cases they sit
upon. Small, petty matters, actions to
recover $500 or less, make them very
weary, and they show their displeasure
in various ways. They like to try cases
where large amounts are involved. and
for this reason they have an especial
production for personal injury cases.
In suits of this kind the amount
sued for rarely falls below $4,000,
and often mounts to the magnificent fig
ure of So, 900. The more money that is
i'll case and the more the case is in
volved. the better the jurors like it. The
issues as they are unfolded in cases of
this kind read like the pages of novel.
and jurymen listen with open-mouthed
interest to every particle of testimony
adduced. They enjoy sitting OIL the
jury at such times just as much as they
would at play.
Sympathy is an element which enters
largely into the composition of every
human being, and, strive as you may, it
will manifest itself and form strong
swaylng element with jurors in cases
where the weak are pltted against the
strong, the rich against the poor, or
where there is manifest inequality of
conditions existing. There is an old
saying to the effect that man will al
ways sympathiZe with the lower dog in
a fight, and the rule seems as applicable
In law fights as i'll dog fights. So where
corporation is pitted against an indi-
" m Of h.Fr f fhn
leans unwittingly towards the latter,
and, everything else being equal, the
corporation must expect ''leetIe' mite
the worst of it.
Corporations, however, are not with
out their friends, and they are often
found on jurieS when they (the corpora
tons are interested parties. The at
torneys do their best to weed out such
material, but as they are restricted to
three challenges. prejudiced parties will
often retain their seats i'll the jury box,
and play havoc later on when the jurg
comes to decide upon verdict.
How Verdicts Are Made.
How do jurors arrive at verdict?
This is not on easy question to answer.
Some juries get at their ultimatum one
way, some another. Let US take peep
into the jury room after the jury has re-
tired to deliberate. If the weather is
warm the first thing the jurors do IS to
remove their coats, and sometimes their
vests are laid aside when a long siege is
anticipated. The men then arrange
themselves around the table which sits
in the middle of the room, pull out
cigars from thetrtinside pockets, and
after lighting them attention is given to
the matter in hand. The first thing
done is the choosing of a foreman,
which takes but a moment, some one
proposing name, the rest acceding to
the choice as matter of course. The
next step is TO come to a verdict. If the
issues are simple and the questions
PLAIN, some one Of the jurors may arise
and give his opinion as to what the yer
dict should be. The others then put their
heads together, and the result may be
and usually is the finding of verdict
i'll conformity with that proposed by
one of their number. Such jurieS re-
main out from ten to fifteen minutes.
The method usually employed by jurieS
i'll arriving at a verdict, however, is
this: Ballots are made out and dis
tributed among the jurors. The
first question to be determined
is whether the verdict shall
be for the plaintiff or defendant;
each juror writes the word plaintiff or
defendant, according to his views of the
case, on ballot, which he places in a
box that is passed around. the ballots
are then counted and the result noted.
Then, if the verdict is for the plaintiff,
the next step is to determine the amount
of the recovery. The ballot system is
often used for determining the amount,
each Juror marking his ballot with the
figure he thinks proper and the average
of the amounts being taken. This
method is resorted to continually, es-
pecially where juror is stubborn and
will not agree to the verdict of his COM
radeS. But it is method fraught with
dire and grave consequences, unless the
jurors are actuated by conscientious
motives, which is not always the case.
For Instance, man with sinister mo-
tives can use this method as cloak,
either to raise the verdict far beyond
what is right and proper or to depreci-
ate it in the same proportion. This can
be dope by marking the limit sued for
or nothing, as the case may be.
One Pulls Eleven.
The stubborn juror is one of the fac
tors that enter into the make up of
nearly all juries, and he is an unknown
and diSagreeable feature. The stub
born juror cares little for the evidence
or the law. 1t is nothing to him that ten
or eleven men entertain distinctly OPP
posite views from himSelf-he knows 1T
all and no one can enlighten him, for he
will not be enlightened. 1t is because
of this stubbornness of men that iuries
so frequently fail to agree and justice is
thereby delayed and often thwarted.
Aud it is because of this that from time
to time an endeavor has been made
to pass laws that will make
verdicts valid given by ten men.
Jurymen are enjoined and sworn to
secrecy while celebrating upon a YER
dict. but there Is no law to prevent
them from unburdening themselves
after they are released from duty, and
so it comes that many tales are told of
their doings while in the jury room. 1t
is related that in case tried in the dis
trict court short time ago, one stubborn
Juror held out firmly for fifty-eight bal
lots apainSt the other eleven and fDallv,