Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-01-19
Women Juries Now Popular.

new OK SlCy, Jan, I4.-AhPAe coo
ed by the ability of women juries in
New Jeresy, New York is now con-
sidering the advisabifity of introduc-
ing women jurors into its courts. A
bill amending the present jury law
to include "female citizens of the
United States" as well as the male
ones, is to be submitted to the New
York legislature this month, and, as
the legislature is known to be favor
ably disposed on the question, it is
believed that it will be only short
time before "Ladies and Gentlemen
of the Jury" will be an established
form in the courts.
With the change in the law, jury
service will become an obligation on
the part of the women just as much
as it is today with the men, and they
will be subjected to the same strict
rules. The present law provides that
any person subpoenaed for jury duty
who fails to respond is subject to
punishment for contempt of court,
and may be fined to the extent OF
s1OO. It is doubtful whether this
compulsory feature of the law will
prove any more popular with women
than with men, after the novelty of
jury duty wears off, but for the first
few years there will probably be few
attempts at evasions.
Under present conditions, the
courts are having more and more diff
ticulty in obtaining complete juries
Of men. No man, it seems will serve
on jury if he can possibly avoid it.
Already masculine ingenuity has
been strained in inventing large as
sortment of excuses from jury SER
vice, and it may be that in the future
a long list of feminine excuses will
be offered, headed by necessity
shopping" and 'bridge club meet
ings."
But, so far, women have shown
themselves much more. interested in
jury duty than men.
1t was Judge Daniel A. Dugan, OF
the Essex county court, range, N. j.,
who first tried the experiment in this
part of the country. In November,
the Judge suddenly found his panel
of 800 men jurors drawn for his
court at the beginning of the year
running out, all of the men finding
excuses of one kind or another to re-
lieve them of the work. So, being
more annoyed than usual, he took
the radical alternative Of drafting the
newly enfranchised New Jersey wo-
men.
An Aristocratic Jury.
The women chosen were carefully
!. picked, and represented some ief the E,
best families in Oranges Much Ito tho.
surprise of the court, they appeared
! promptly in answering to the sum-
mons. and none offered an excuse to
avoid serving. At the last moment, 1t
is true, Mrs. Thomas A. Edison tele-
phoned the Judge and asked to be ex-
cused because her husband was i'll,
but she said that she would find some
way to come if he could not find some
one else to take her place.
According to Mrs. Everett Colby,
who was appointed foreman of the
Jury. the women talked the matter
over and decided that since they had
gained the ballot after such long,
hard fight, they ought not object to
fulfilling it's responsibilities; when
the call to jury duty. came they would
accept it without complaint.
.sIt was the most interesting ex-
uerience," Mrs. Colby declared when
the trial was over, and the ladies
were discussing its features in the
domestic atmosphere of an Orange
tearoom. at was the first time | had
ever had the chance to watch the
operations of court, and there were
lots of things we didn't understand,
but of course we couldn't interrupt
to ask questions.
ssThe most astounding thing to me
was when two witnesses swore to ex-
:actly the opposite thing on the same
point. We had to decide between
them as to which was telling the
truth, and we had nothing at all to
go upon. We knew nothing about