Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-01-17
Women Juries
Now Popular
by Frederic J. Hnskin

New York City. Jan. i7.--Impresscd
by tho ability OF women juries In New
Jersey, New York liz now considering
the advisabiIity Of introducing women
Jurors into it's courts. A bill amending
the present jury. law to include female
citizens of the United States" as well as
male ones. is to be submitted to the
| New York legislature this month, and,
ns the legislature IL known TO be favor
ably disposed on the question. IL ID be-
lieved that IL will be only a short time
before ladies and Gentlemen OF the
Jury" will DO an established form In tho
| courts.
| with tho change In the law, jury
| service will bccorne obligation on the
| part OF women just ne much as 1t is to-
day with men, and they will be subject
ed to the same strict rules. Tho present
law provides that any person sub
spond Is subject to punishment for
| spond ia subject to punishment for
contempt OF court. and may Ne fined to
| the extent of $I00. Ii is doubtful whether
this compulsory feature of the law will
prove any more popular with women
than with men, after the novelty of tirv
duty wears OF. but for the first few
years there will probably be few at
tcInpts at evasions.
Under present conditions the courts
are having more and more difficulty I'm
| obtaining competent juries Of men. No
man. 1T seems. Will serve on Jury IL he
can possibly avoid 1t. Already masculine
ingenuity has been strained In invent
Ing large assortment OF EXCUSES from
jury service. and IL may be that In the
future long list of feminine EXCUSES
win be offered. headed by necessary
shopping" and bridge club meetings"
But. so far. women have shown them
selves much more interested I'm Jury
duty than men.
IL was Judge Daniel A Duaan, of the
Essex County Court. Orange, n. j., who
frst tried the experiment in this
part OF the country. In November. The
judge suddenly found hia panel or 500
men Jurors drawn for hi. court Mt the
beginning, OF the year running out
all of the men finding excuses Of one
Kind or another to relieve them OF the
work. So, being more ANNOYED than
usual. no took the radical alternative. of
drafting the newly enfrsnchised New
Jersey women.
An Aristocratic Jury
The women chosen were carefully
picked. and represented some of the
best families of Orange. Much to the
surprise OF the court. they appeared
promptly in answer to the summons.
aud none offered an excuse 10 avoki
serving. At the last moment, IL is true.
Mrs. Thomas a. Edison telephoned the
Judge and asked To be excused because
her husband was i'll, but she said that
she would ind some way TO come If he
could not find someone else to take her
place.
According TO Mrs Evcarett Colby. who
was appointed forewomsn OF the Jury.
the women talked the matter over and
decided that since they had gained the
ballot after such lons. hard fight.
they ought not TO object to fulfilling its
responsibilities; when the call to Jury
duty came they would accept IL with
out complaint.
1t WAS the most interesting ex.
perience." Mrs. Colby declared when the
trial was over. and the ladies were dis
cussing its features in the domestic at
mosphere OF an Orange tearoom. 1T
was the first time I had ever had the
chance TO watch the operations of n
court. and there were lots OF things
we didn't understand. but of course we
couldn't interrupt to ask questions.
The most astounding thing 10 me was
when two witnesses swore to exactly the
opposite. on the same point. We had
to decide between them as to which
was telling the truth, and we had moth
ing at all to go upon. We knew moth
ing about their history or what kind
or people they were. and yet we had 10
determine which one was lying, and
which one was telling the truth. OF
course. one of them was lying. But he
MA l.
swear TO a lie that he knew was a lie.
and the jury decided against him, de-
cided that he was lying, but he was
allowed TO go without anything being
done TO him.
Our case. OF course, was a simple
one" continued Mrs. Colby. There was
dentist who came from a family of
hucksters- There were three brothers.
and the dentist had taken one of his
brothers and kept him In school, sending
MIN through high school. Afterward
the boy became a huckster, but also
helped in the Office of his brother. the
dentist. One OF the witnesses, a woman.
testified that she went to the dentists
office one evening at s o'clock and the
boy tried to pull tooth for her. but
the tooth broke, and blood began to
flow. The boy told her he would have
TO go away and come back again when
the tooth stopped bleeding
A Sample Case.
She went away and when he came ,
back her jaw was terribly swollen and
she was suffering intensely. The boy ex-
planned that he could do nothing until
the swelling went down, but. as the pain
was so great, she decidedthat she must
have treatment immediately and went
10 another dentist. The new dentist |
treated her and extracted the piece of |
tooth left in the Jaw. and told her to
take IL back to the other dentist and
show him what had been done
The three brothers all swore that the /
boy was merely a huckster. and that he |
had never been in the dentists office |
and had never worn white coat in his |
life. But the woman positively identified |
the boy and other witnesses also iden- |
titled him and said he had treated them /
in his brothers Office. The boy was /