The Press., 1891-06-11

~ claims were on OppO-
 site sides of the great mountain wall, which here described a semicircle. When these two claims were taken up it was supposed the pay streak followed the mountains course, but it had here taken 8 freak to shoot straight across flat 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 culty. 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 ment rendered first for one side and then for the other, then appealed to the su- preme court, sent back and tried over, until at last it had become so incum- bered 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 one 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- nel 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 case of refusal. obeyed. had never before formed the twelfth of a jury. In my own estimation rated only as the twenty-fourth. We were sworn in; sworn to try the case to the best of our ability. It was ridiculous that I should swear to this, for internally I owned had no ability at all as juror. We were put in twelve armchairs. The great case was called. The lawyers, as usual. on either side opened by declar- ing their intentions to prove themselves all 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 iant, parti-colored maps of their claims, which they unrolled and held before us and swung defantly at each other. The sixty witnesses testified from 1849 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 8 mere idiot in the matter. had, at the start, en- deavored to keep some track of the evi- dence, but they managed to snatch every clew away as fast as one got hold of it. We were charged" by the judge and sent to the jury room. felt like both fool and criminal l knew l had not the shadow of an opinion or 8 conclusion in the matter. However, l 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.
 It has made so little impression on my mind that I forget now whom it favored. It did not matter. Both claims were then paying well, and this was sure indication that the case would go to the supreme court. It did. This was in 1860. I think it made these yearly trips up to 1887. Then some of the moro ob- stinate and cumulative members of either claim died, and the remainder concluded to keep some of the gold they were dig ging instead of paying it out to fee law yers. The. Table Mountain vs. New York Tunnel case stopped. All the law yers save two or three emigrated to San Francisco or went to congress I gained but one thing from my experience in the matter an opinion. It may or may not be right. It is that juries in most cases are humbugs.
 PRENTICE MuIPoRD.