The Arizona copper camp., 1919-12-20
A Bright SPOT IN JURY DUTY
(Ry T. s. JAcoBs)


and very smilingly informs him that
he is expected to appear before His
Honor at $3.50 tomorrow for'd duty as a
trial juror for the Term, said juror
usually walks home with all sorts of
! perfectly good excuses floating
through his mind and calmly assures
| himself that he has every good reason
in the world to be dismissed from his
one sacred civic duty, which he owes
| to his beloved county-Pinal Instead
of profaning the atmosphere, he calm
ly walks home, very sorrowfully in
| forms the wife and babies that he "has
to go to Florence tomorrow on the
jury. The first question out of the
clouds is, "How long will you be
gomez" Answer, Till the judgel is
through with me-. With that quiet
but final assertion, our subject begins
to peel his coat and hat and hustle
doing his chores around the house,
for everything seems to need atten-
ton, just because he must go serve
as a juryman.
Taking the big car or the train, he
very calmly rides to the little town
and takes the stage over to the hotel
in front of which, basking in the sun
shine, he finds some fellow citizens
who are bent on serving their county.
Chatting and wondering what he is
to do with himself, all the three
weeks" that is to be his own, except
such as the cases might claim, he
strollS up and down the street and
finally comes the hour of 1:30, the
first time at which our subject proud
ly marches up to the court house and
listens to the proceedings. Having
been dismissed until $50 tomorrow,
he finds that he has ocdles of time,
for at home he is usually "busy' from
morning until night. Just as he con-
cludes the contemplation of a little
hike to while away the shining hours,
for the sun really shines in Florence,
he is greeted by familiar "Hello!"
Turning, he grasps the extended hand
of fellowship and proceeds with his
first denunciation of the court, law
and order and quietly tells his cold
time friend" how much his work will
be behind and how much dear wifey
and children will miss him at home,
as he has SO many chores to do. Prob
ably, he would not say this before
"wifey," for she could most likely take
any twelve men, tried and true" and
impeach most all of his testimony
After a chat with his Florence friend,
he has realized the conversation is
changed and that they are no longer
discussing his troubles, but in the
hour of his arrival he learned they
have grand country around Flor
ence, and so he finds himself listen
ing to the wonders of the valley.
After a few minutes chat with his.
ow-countryman," he meanders
toward the gates of the great court
yard, intending to be on his way
though where he may be going he
knows not. Having gone but short
distance, he recalls some of the cheer
full remarks made Ly the Florence
resident, and wonders if the world is
all bad, after-all.
Farther, he is accosted by another
Florentine, approaching with extended
hand and smiling broadly. He readily
finds that his second auditor is not
particularly Interested in his troubles
as a juror, so he proceeds to close up
and listen to what the approaching
county official might have to say, for
in the first flush of arrival he has not
fully grasped that these same Flor
ence boys have listened to those tales
of woe ever since they first moved
to the county seat and go through it
two terms year
Fortunately, said county official
hits tender spot while telling him
what a dandy ride he was having
yesterday" until he got mired in the
mud and the whole darn bunch had
to walk back home Apparently, the
official was on his way to ''some-
where" and, realizing that duty
comes before pleasure, he starts
toward his destination accompanied
by our poor juror, who, while not in a
perfectly contented frame of mind, is
apparently more reconciled than he
was the day the deputy approached
and handed him his summons.
Suddenly, our loquacious juror finds
himself parting with another dear
friend and mentally admitting that he
is not such a bad fellow. So it goes
through the whole coterie Of county
officials, whom it has been our pleas
ure to know, and each of them clean
cut young fellows, striving with grim
determination to overcome some of
the previous inefficiency by putting