The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-05-10


wa claims were on Oppo-
site sides of the great
mountain wall, which here described a
sefnicircle. When these two claims
ware taken up it was supposed the pay
streak followed the mountains course,
but it had here taken freak to shoot
straight across a fat formed by the
curve. Into this ground, at first deemed
worthless, both parties were tunneling.
The farther they tunneled the richer
grew the pay streak. Every foot was
worth fortune. Both claimed it. The
law was called upon to settle the diff
Guilty. The law was glad, for it had
then many children in the county who
needed fees. Our lawyers ran their tun-
nels into both of these rich claims, nor
did they stop boring until they had ex-
hausted the cream of that pay streak.
Year after year Table Mountain VS.. New
York Tunnel company was tried, judg-
nlent rendered first for one side and then
for the other, then appealed to the SUI
preme court, sent back and tried over,
until at last it had become so incum-
hered with legal barnacles, parasites and
cobwebs that none other than the law
yers knew or pretended to know aught
Of the rights of the matter.
Meantime the two rival companies
kept hard at work day and night. Every
ounce over the necessary expense of
working their claims and feeding and
clothing their bodies went to maintain
lawyers The case became one of the
institutions Of the country. It outlived
several judges and attorneys. The coun-
try town throve during this yearly trial.
Eventually jurors competent to try this
case became very scarce. Nearly every
Gle had ''sat on it." or had read or heard
or formed an opinion concerning it, or
said they had.
The sheriff and his deputies ransacked
the hills and gulches of Tuolumne for
new Table Mountain VS.. New York Tun-
rel jurors. At last, buried in an out-of-
the-way gulch, they found me. was
presented with paper commanding my
appearance at the county town, with
various pains and penalties affixed in
rase of refusal. obeyed. had never
before formed the twelfth of jury. In
my own estimation l rated only as the
twenty We were sworn in;
lworn to try the case TO the best of our
ability. 1t was ridiculous that l should
swear to this, for internally | owned
lad no ability at all as a juror. We
were put in twelve armchairS. The
t:reat case was called. The lawyers, as
usual. on either side opened by declar-
tng their intentions to prove themselves
Pill right and their opponents all wrong.
did not know which was the plaintiff,
which the defendant. Twenty-four wit
neSses on one side swore to something,
to anything. to everything; thirty-six on
the other swore it all down again. They
thus swore against each other for two
days and half. The court was noted
for being an eternal sitter. He sat four
teen hours per day. The trial lasted five
days.
Opposing counsel. rival claimants,
even witnesses, all had maps, long, brill
liant. parti-colored maps of their claims,
which they unrolled and held before us
and swung defiantly at each other. The
sixty witnesses testified from 1S49 up to
1864. After days of such testimony as
to ancient boundary lines and ancient
mining laws, the lawyers on either side,
still more to mystify the case, caucused
the matter over and concluded to throw
out about half of such testimony as be-
ing irrelevant. But they could not
throw it out of our memories.
The summing up" lasted two days
more BY this time was mere idiot
in the matter. / had, at the start, en-
deavored to keep some track of the evil
dence, but they managed to snatch
every clew away as fast as one got hold
oft. We were charged" by the Judge
and sent to the jury room. felt like
both fool and criminal. l knew
had not the shadow of an opinion or
conclusion in the matter. However,
found myself not alone. We were out
all night. There was stormy time be-
tween the three or four jurymen who
knew or pretended to know something
of the matter. The rest OF Us watched
the controversy, and of course sided
with the majority. And at last yer
dict was agreed upon.
1t has made so little impression on my
mind that forget now whom 1t favored.
1t did not matter. Both claims were
then paying well, and this was sure
indication that the case would go to the
supreme court 1t did. This was II
= 1860. think it made these yearly trips
up to 1867. Then some of the more OBJ
stinate and combative members of either
claim died, and the remainder concluded
to keep some Of the gold they We're dig
ging instead Of paying it out to fee law
vers. The Table Mountain VS.. New
York Tunnel case stopped. All the law
vers save two or three emigrated TO san
Francisco or went to congress. galnec
but one thing from my experience In the
matter-an opinion. 1t may or may
rot be right. 1t is that Juries IN mos
cases are humbugs.
PRENTICE MEEoRD-
The ordinance prohibiting pool rooms II
San Francisco has gone into effect, and al
of the rooms are closed except one, the pro
prietors of which were arrested. A ties
case will be made
The English Jockey club has refused
licenses to both 7. and S. Loates, the hrs
of whom headed the list Of winning
Jockeys both in 1889 and 1890, and to Nc
Auliffe and Hogan.