Iditarod pioneer., 1916-12-23
JURYMEN'S CHRISTMAS FEED
 WAS SAVED BY COMPROMISE
(Bill Nye)

(Bill Nye)
 There seems to be kind of one-horse ef. fort now being made by the enemies of the jury system to do away with It, and thus leave us with the national fabric totterlng to its very foundation. There can be noth- ing in the whole mechanism of 8 free re public more important and necessary to the success of national security than the jury system, system which not only gives every American citizen the right to submit hi sgrievances to a panel of twelve enlght- ened peers, but which insures to each juror E day and board, with a period of mental calm and intellectual rest which is priceless as a soother and tranquilllzer to the invalid who generally sits on jury by advice Of his physician instead of filling his system full of opiates. See, air and change ot scene, of course, are good, but give us the sweet unruftied sleep of the juryman as health promoter by all means in place of the expensive sea voyage and the high priced-foreign hotel.
 William H. Root was giving us his ex- perience this morning On Chicago jury, showing how the free, unfettered love of even handed justice is ever burning in the breast of the true American juror, even in Chicago.
 T was empaneled," said William, sadly, fin damage case there one time. l most always fixed 1t so as to be drawn on jury when other avenues of employment seemed closed, and sometimes 1 would make S35 or $40 a day, according to the nature Of the case People have widely different no- tions about the market value of subst8n- tial justice Some are willing to pay a fair commission to the poor juror, and oth- CTS are timid and reserved about putting up.
 This was a case where kid had stuck his foot through defective sidewalk, and injured the sciatlc nerve so that the leg was paralyzed, and the boy sure enough cripple for life.
 Suit was brought for sl8,000 and it was proved up all right and good case but we had the bIankety blankedest cosmopolitan jury you ever saw.
 "We,had .Polander that couldn't speak g. word of English deaf man from Osh- kosh, and half-witted cuss from Blue Island. Then there was also a Norwegian on the jury who hadn't been in the country very long, and didn't know a verdict from a porous plaster.
 'The whole mob was about the most ornery and trihing aggregation of unprejud- iced intellect you ever saw. The first thing that we did was to disagree.
 1t was the afternoon before Christmas that they locked us in with two overworked spittoons volume of Greenleaf on Evl- dence.' and a work on medical jurispru- dence. We looked at the pictures in the medical work, read aloud few pages on the rule regulating the verdict in cases ot manslaughter and malicious tape-worm, and then took ballot
 1t stood all the way from $50 to s10,000. We voted till about 3 o'clock Christmas morning, and then got mad. We had ex- hausted all the stories we knew, and ar gued and cussed and swore, but the vote stood just the same every pop, Finally took the Colonel to one side and made proposition to him. The Colonel was the only man on the jury (except mel that seemed to know what the jury was for Most of the outfit seemed to think Jury was empaneled mostly to disagree, and draw their per diem.
 "The Colonel nodded, and said that was all right when 1 conferred with hlm, and I arose to address the free, enlightened un- prejudiced and illterate jury Of my country.
 q said: Now gentlemen, you are aware that we seem to be divided considerably on this question We are now beginning on the Christmas holidays with about s9,ooO between the two extremities of thls Jury. l see no way of arriving at conclusion until after the usual Christmas festivities are over. In few hours the court will be raking hot stufing out of the open coun- tenance of baked turkey, and asking the various guests whether they will take some of the light or some of the dark meat, while we are here eating Bologna sausage and Rip Van Wrinkle cheese. Before night the counsel on both sides will be so drunk that they can't get home without directory and a nosse comitatus, while we are drinking c;stern water and runing our health. nronose we nut on our ballots the amount of damage we are individually in favor of, and then we will add the whole gosh blasted thing up and divide 1t by twelve. That will he the measure of damages and the verdict.
 "They greeted my proposition with ap- plause.
 "When the votes were examined they found the Polander had voted as usual, and SO had everybody but the Colonel and me We voted S40,000 apiece. That brought the average up to 5000 for the cripple.
 I've made out verdict, signed her, .u.l :, +ho hoiIif S,,hmitted our decision