Arizona republican., 1891-07-14

site sides of the grea
 mountain wall, which here described
 semicircle. When these two claim
 were taken up 1t was supposed the pa
 streak followed the mountains course
 but it had here taken freak to shoo
 straight across a flat formed by tn,
 curve. Into this ground, at first deemed
 worthless, both parties were tunneling.
 The farther they tunneled the riche,
 grew the pay streak. Every foot wa
 worth fortune. Both claimed it. Tn,
 law was called upon to settle the diff
 culty. The law was glad, for it haG
 then many children in the county who
 needed fees. Our lawyers ran their tun,
 nels into both of these rich claims, no,
 did they stop boring until they had ex,
 hausted the cream of that pay streak.
 Year after year Table Mountain ys. New
 York Tunnel company was tried, judg-
 ment rendered first for one side and then
 Tor 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 tnis 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- mel 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. I 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 should | swear to this, for internally owned | had no ability at all as a juror. We l 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 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 put about half of such testimony as be- ng irrelevant. But they could not throw tt out of our memories.
 The summing up" lasted two days nore. By this time was mere idiot n the matter. l had, at the start, en- P to keep some track of the evi- ience, but they managed to snatch o very clew away as fast as one got hold # it. We were charged" by the judge N nd sent to the jury room. felt like si 10th fool and criminal I knew I r lad not the shadow of an opinion or a M onclusion in the matter. However, U ound myself not alone. We were out II night. There was a stormy time be- ween the three or four jurymen who .. new or pretended to know something P f the matter. The rest of us watched he controversy, and of course sided - nth the majority. And at last yer jet was agreed upon.
 It has made so little impression on my lind that 1 forget now whom it favored. did not matter. Both claims were K Ten paying well, and this was sure that the case would go to the ipreme court. It did. This was in '6O. l think it made these yearly trips p to 1S67 Then some of the more ob- mate and cumulative members of either aim died, and the remainder concluded keep some of the gold they were dig Al ng instead of paying it out to fee law ITS. The Table Mountain vs. New ork Tunnel case stopped. All the law ITS save two or three emigrated to San A 'ancisco or went to congress. Igained eel It one thing from my experience in the %s be, atter-an opinion. It may or may we t be right. It is that juries in most An