Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-15
SNAPS FOR JURYMEN.
Nothing Uncommon for Them to
Brace Lawyers for Loans.
THEY GENERALLY MAKE A STAKE.
Only One of the Evils Attendant Upon the
Present Jury System.
NOT A FAULT OF THE JUDGES, EITHER

A Knot of prominent lawyers yesterday
discussed the arrest of T. G. Ebling, who
was charged with borrowing money on the
strength of being juryman. The query
propounded as to "what difference it made
whether he was a juryman or not" is
easily answered by lawyers who have had
extensive practice in the courts, and the
question renewed the agitation, in meas
ure, relative to the possibility of getting
better class of jurors. Not that there are
none fit drawn, but it is well known that
one crooked man can upset or greatly him
der the work of the other IL.
1t is agreed by all who have given the
matter conscientious study that the selec-
tions will never be better while made under
the present system. Even the judges have
been known to put into the wheel the names
OF some as tough citizens as can be found in
the county, or there was some crookedness
elsewhere, and an inspection of the lists for
years past will show it.
HOW MISTAKES ARE MADE.
The explanation is simple A Judge can
not know all of the 100000 voters in the
county, all supposed to be eligible, and
must depend to some extent on the repre-
sentatives of people who may possibly
have axes to grind, and when it is known
that multitudes of men will work for
months for political aspirant merely for
the chance to sit two weeks in each year as
juror, and the use they are to politicians is
understood, it is not strange that consid-
cradle percentage of ring-streaked, striped,
speckled and grizzled characters names
finds its way into the jury selection.
Now, out of this class come the borrow
ers. Finding that a lawyer is engaged in a
case on which they are drawn they fire.
quently strike him for a small loan during
its progress, thinking that he will not dare
refuse, lest it peril his case, and it is said
that in times past an occasional lawyer was
not averse to securing the service of a Juror
in this way. One attorney says that it is
very seldom that he is not approached for a
trife by some juror in a case where he, the
lawyer, succeeded in getting a verdict for
his client. As the sum is ordinarily dol
lar or two it is frequently given, partly to
secure the fellows good will and also to get
rid of him.
1t seems. strange, in view of this state of
affairs. that honest and intelligent business
men get into law suits. The idea of having
a man whom you would not trust with your
pOChclDOOh dilu SlO slJ LII Oh your
case, where thousands may be involved,
when your opponent is unscrupulous in
duces many people to submit to imposition
rather than go to law unless the case is one
where crookedness would not avail.
THE REGULAR JURYMAN.
There is class of REGULARS" SO well
known to lawyers of several years expert
ence that it is a marvel that they are ever
allowed to sit on q case. Some of them not
content with one term year frequently
turn up the second time and at least one
case is known where man was drawn to
serve some IL years ago but having more
profitable employment at the time sold his
term of service to a hummer for IS and the
latter ran the daily risk of detection for
two weeks by answering to the name of the
man who had been selected.
Not all honest men are fit for jurors, but
the administration of the law is largely a
travesty under the system of selection, and
the late John X. McCune refused to trust
any whom he knew to have been sued for
Just debt. The Woerishotfers, of New
York, also made it a rule to refuse to deal
in the hands of a municipal corporation
that had ever either defaulted or attempted
to do so, no matter whether it were solvent.
Like McCune, they did not want to do
business where there was any probability of
O law suit but as suits at law cannot always
be avoided, it would seem to be wisdom for
honest people, from selfish reasons if for
no other, to combine for the puri6cation of
the jury system.