Omaha daily bee., 1907-03-23
SEETCHED HIS OWN doom
FOOlhardy Criminal Sealed His Fate with
Carioaturss Of Jurors
JUSTICE As IT WAS IN CHEYENNE
EraEEsrated Likeness Of the Fore
Woman on the Jury Did the
Business and the Artist
Stretched Hemp.

1T seems to be accepted that jury OF
American men cannot be got to convict
young and good looking woman OF crime
where the legal punishment is DEATH OBJ
served a man from Wyoming. who has been
practicing In Cheyenne since territorial
days.
Il wonder how that thing would work
out II we commonly had juries Of women?
I know OF one case, in which half OF the
Jurors were women. and In which the man
being tried, a young and very good looking
chap accused Of murder lost out entirely
through the insistence Of the women Jurors
that he be convicted OF murder in the first
degree. The victim, however, lost out for
the reason that ne had no better sense than
to make fun Of the six women on the jury
In his case
ut happened In Cheyenne Cheyenne had
then been in existence only six months as
the terminus Of the first railroad to be
built across the continent, and Its citizen
ship was Of course as motley as that Of
all the frontier towns in that day-Chinesc
graders, Mexican sheep herders, gamblers
and grafters of all ranks and degrees with
schemes to make money I'm the town then
known as the Magic City. II had no side
walks or sewers, but from the very outset
Il had women voters and Jurors MEM
Der of the first territorial legislature had
said, Woman suffrage would advertise us,
and his idea stuck, so the lawmakers
passed a bill allowing women to vote, hold
any office in which men were eligible and
serve on juries, even in the trial OF capital
cases
The first chief justice OF Wyoming sent
out to the territory by the federal govern
ment was an easy convert TO the woman
suffrage idea, and at the first term OF the
court over which he presided the sheriff
was instructed to summon as many women
as men Jurors.
when women Served rs Jurors.
'The first real trial under regularly con-
stituted legal forms in Cheyenne sure did
make a commotion, not only by reason of
the novelty OF the thing, but because
women served as jurors in the case. That
first trial in Cheyenne was, in fact, the case
! that / started TO talk about
THE man on trial was Jim Baker,
charged with murder Baker was an odd
character, but in no sense a bad sort Of
chap. His father was an artist who had
| lived for many years among the Indians OF
the northwest. He had married Canadian
! half breed woman, and this woman was
| Jim Bakers mother. The boy had received
few years education in eastern schools
but had drifted back west after the death
Of his father. He picked up a pretty good
idea Of faro bank, and there were times
when he consumed an inordlnate amount
Of sagebrush whisky, but he was always a
gentlemanly sort of drifter, and, notwith.
| standing his habitual carelessness IN dress
he was a most picturesque and attractive
appearing fellow. He inherited his fathers
talent as an artist, and could sketch faces
and scenes rapidly and skillfully,
Baker had quarreled with a freghteI
over a game OF cards and had shot him
Under ordinary circumstances he wouldn't
have been bothered for this, for the
freighter was a bad actor, who had done a
bit Of killing on his own account. But the
courts had just been established in Wyon-
ing, and all hands wanted to see how they
were going TO work. The Cheyenne folks
were as proud OF their new court as q
small boy with a new red wagon. and they
hankered to see it in action. So Jim Baker
was arrested charged with 'murder'-a
word that had decidedly new sort Of
sound out that way-and he was held fol
trial with a whole lot Of rather pompoui
ceremony The same desire Of the Chey
enneites TO put into immediate service al
the institutions OF civilization instigatec
them TO 60 civilization one better and e
call for a new kink. That's how It hap
pened that, when the Jury to try Jim Baker
was made up, It was composed Of six mer
and six women.
up to the time of the rendering Of the
verdict the trial appeared to bore Baker
most profoundly. He was both careless
and reckless, and It lie presumabie that HI
had no idea that he would be convicted
He figured It, think, as a good many Of
the rest in Cheyenne did, that the tria
wac merely being pulled of for the pur
pose of oillng the wheels of the machinery
of Justice, and that at the finish he would
be turned loose
AT any rate, the testimony OF the wit
ncsses, the speeches Of the lawyers anc
particularly their monotonous wranglnE
over legal points, were obviously most irk'
some to Jim.
Jim as n CRrioRturist.
and so to keep himself out Of the dol
drums and to pass away the time while
the lawyers were showing each other how
much they knew about legal points pur-
posely made knotty, Jim, who was seated
alongside his counsel in the storage ware
house where the trial was held began to
do some sketching on slips Of paper lying
on his counsels table.
"Jim wasn't any SLOUGH as a caricaturist
7 often come across worse caricatures thar
that moor devil could turn OF. First he
drew the prosecuting attorney with widely
distended mouth and Hacking arms. Their
he made a striking pencil likeness Of the