The Savannah morning news., 1901-07-06
JuRY's PoT-LucK JUSTICE.
Professional Mans Eyes Disagree
ably Opened.

| New York professional man this week,
through my being called upon to serve
as a juror in one of the city courts. In
the jury-room / learned of a condition Of
things which think should be known to
| every man or woman who has any in
tention of going to law about anything.
From what l had previously been reading
all my life in the story books and the
newspapers about trials by jury, l had
come to the court irnbued with a thorough
respect for the majesty of the law and
for that supposedly ideal institution of
a man being judged-not by some one
arbitrary, tyrannical judge but by a
jury of his peers The developments sur
prised me.
The first case on which l served as
| juror was typical of the other three, and
l am led to believe, of many others. The
suit was over a promissory note for some
5000. The plaintiff held the note, and
the defendant admitted signing it, put
refused to pay the money on the GRAND
that he had never received IL personally.
The plaintiff showed a receipt for the
cash from a, third party, showing that
this third party had received the money
to give to fourth party, who was in
turn 10 give it to fifth party, the fifth
party being the man who had originally
received the note from the defendant, and
who had agreed to give the money to the
defendant when he Uhe fifth partly had
received it from man No 4. Party No
was dead by the time the suit was brought
and the defendant claimed the money
never reached him, and thus was not
bound 10 pay the money to the holder of
the note.
Now, it was perfectly plain to any per-
son of ordinary sense that, legally, the
money was due to plaintiff. He held a
note which he had paid for, and the ma
ker did not question that it was genuine.
l was surprised. therefore, when instead
of giving verdict for the plaintiff with
out leaving the box, the other members
of the jury was juror No. 4-declared
they would retire.
80 we left the box, fell into line, and
the court officer, getting In front, led the
way out to the jury-room. As we pass
ed out we found that the lawyer for the
defense had placed the wife of his client
near the doorway of the courtroom,
where, as each juror filed out the wo-
man eyed him in the most captivating
manner she could assume-of course, to
try to influence the verdict. AS soon as
we were all in the jury-room and the
court officer had sealed the door and
remained outside as the books tell us
the majesty of the law requires, / ex-
pected every one to sit around the ia
BILE, with the foreman at the head in
the capacity of chairman, and that we
would begin at once to give profound
thought to the discussion of the pros
and cons of the case. The contrary
happened. First, the Jurors began to
curse both sides for stretching the case
out so long. Then there was a general
hauling out of cigars and pipes. Then
the jurors began to divide up into little
knots to discuss various news items in
the morning papers Not a word was
said about the suit for fully ten min
utes, when I in dismay blurted out: But
how about this case of A versus B, gen.
tlemen? What are we going to do about
it?'
only one man in the room took the
least notice of my question; this was a
young dry goods clerk, and all the atten-
ton he paid to my suggestion was to
say:
Wasn't she a peach, though?' re-
ferring to the wife of Mr.. b., of course.
l tried to get the man to discuss the real
issue, but my only reward was to see
him go off to the other end of the room
10 borrow a cigarette. This decided me
not to say anything more until some one
else should make mention of the suit.
Finally, up spoke an old Hebrew with a
hunched back and diamond in the front
of his neglige shirt: he was juror No. 5.
and had spent most of his time in the
jury box asleep.
"'Ven, vat will We do nit der case?'
and without waiting for a reply. went on:
Seems ia me, gen'lemens. dot de man
vich gets it in der neck is Mister A
What do you mean?' l ventured to
ask. i don't think we ought to find for
the defendant 1t seems to me that the
aNyidance 10 1Uat-xx heI f1in txy in favor
plaintiff Then the old Hebrew asked
me il l had ever been in trouble over
promissory note Too surprised at the
question to express my indignation, i
merely replied in the negative, while the
old Hebrew went on: Den, number four,
you amt got no pizness ia speak. Eet
ees plain dat dees fellers ees nut 'ings
else put some tam sheeney shaver-a
sheeney ote-shaver-und l mote dot we
max a veredeect for de defense
'Yez may be roight, an Irish shoe
maker ono. 12) interrupted, but 1t sames
ia me dat de difndint was fool to soign
dat note an give 1t away til he first he'd
de dough in hes hans. So. SEES OF, lit de
Jew plaintiff have de verdict wit all de
costs The discussion went on in this
strain for a long time, every juror but
myself having expressed himself several
times Not once, however, was the word
eNlQGnCt QStQs
Soon all the jurors but myself had de-
cided on a verdict in favor of the de-
PENDANT, who by the by, was a saloon
keeper. and evidently all the more pop
ular with the Jurors on account of 1t.
They seemed much surprised when l
failed to readily agree with them. Pres
entity they began all sorts of personal
abuse of me. L bet he's sheeney shaver
himself on the q. t. lin secret, one
said. and then turning on me continued;
L guess, Mr.. Man. you must tink va
know a h. of a lot more'n all of us
put togeder, don't var 'W'ot is eating
you, anyway another demanded of me.
Where de h did va get de gan TIA buck
yerself up alongside of all us wen We say
yerself va don't know muffin bout how
dem shavers does DER work. These were
but the mider arguments used on me,
so finally gave in, explaining. as l did
so, i think. gentlemen. that Mr.. A. is
in the right. but l bow TO your superior
knowledge of business details
IAN the while that this jury was out
the plaintiff and the defendant with their
various lawyers. to say nothing OF the
| justice. the clerks, and other court Off
GERS, were all IN the courtroom waiting
anxiously for the verdict. At length |
called out: L say. gentlemen. why don (
we get back?' Well, let them keep on
waitin' said the dry goods clerk: don [
you know that II we hold out here longer
n de jedge kin Mold out there. why hen
30 out TO dinner Ouncheon). an wen get
off ourselves right away after he comes