Evening star., 1925-06-02
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. e.. NJ.
Gentlemen OF the Jury. Francis L.
Wellman The Macmillan Company.

Wellman. The Macmillan Company.
Much of a mystery to the average
even yet, these gentlemen of the
| jury" Though trial by jury Is among
| the oldest of our inherited institu-
tions, though it operates daily in in
Vulnerable cases all over the country,
| though II bears vitality upon both the
theory and practice of democracy,
! nevertheless the common concep-
ton of this institution is of an ex-
ceedingly obscure and sketchy sort.
From the newspapers one gathers, on
a morning. that a jury has been
| drawn" for this case or that case,
| one to be tried in a court of law.
/ Possessed of no real personal inter-
| est one wonders idly why a jury al
ways "sits" and "sits in a box where
as the other parties TO the contention
appear to have much freer use of
| themselves.
| From this slender thread of vagrant
| interest he is likely then to envisage
the courtroom-jury and judge, at
| torneys and accused, with the wit
nesses for and against. He comes to
see the opposed attorneys raging to-
| gether like a pair of angry dogs toss
| ing back and forth between their
swapping jaws some small and fright
ened animal. The prime object of
favorite son of wickedness itself. The
aim of the other is to present him as
the innocent victim of an empty
though possibly damning circumstance.
| To this end witnesses swear for and
against in a careless random of coun-
teracting oaths. Oratory and tears
flow, equally on both sides, to accom-
plish the desired. but hostile ends.
And one grows inclined to forget the
InTiSnnar ha
this is, in effect, a game upon which
the jury sits as umpire. These i'm
passioned pleas and high dramatics
are to win the game through the de
cision of the umpire. At the end of
a longer or shorter to.do the jury-so
one reads-is herded out into seclu.
sion for It's ballot on this man game.
| Sometimes there are disconcerting re-
ports that the jury is hung up
but 1t never is, really, for either
through boredom or other source of
agreement they all finally emerge.
alive, and turn the result of their
confinement over to the judge. This,
In sum, is about all that the avera ge
reader knows of trial by jury. Except
one extra point which is that when
a man of any substance is drawn for
jury service he Immediately gets him
self a release on the pretext of i'm
portant and engrossing demands upon
his time. This is the habit among
men of affairs. And its long contin-
uance must have had a quite damag-
ing effect upon the quality of jurors
as a whole. and therefore upon the in
stitution itself as one of democracy s
prime instruments of justice.
Francis L. Wellman here turns over
to readers a body of "reminiscences
growing out of 80 years experience
at the bar-an experience covering
roughly, more than thousand ca ses
before juries, cases lasting from one
day to several months. The book is
addressed definitely and pointedly to
jurors Therefore, il is addressed 10
every citizen save those coming
within the too-long list of exemptions
from this duty. The writer deals
sharply with this still growing list
OF exemptions. whose effect is TO re
duce turies to the level of third ami
fourth rate men. He deals in equal
directness with those who evade a
clear and serious obligation by seek
ing these exemptions, TO the detri
ment, not only of individual cases at
law, but to the damage of the entire
legal structure s well.
" n
But this author is no preac cher
Rather is he a good actor. sensitive
to dramatic issues and settings, keen
to the Importance of personal con,
facts. SO he here takes the reader
the potential juror, into the court
room itself where the most intense
of human dramas is being enacted
And he unfolds these dramas, one
after another, each in its basis OF
accusation, in its projection by the
one side and the other, according tC
each separate and special point oi
l.. view, in the respective methods oi
thought employed, in temperamenta
differences and their effects-in all the
essentials of a trial as these in turr
, focus upon the body of jurors who
are ultimately to determine the side
upon which the balance of evidence
lies. There is nothing labored about
these successive projections, nothing
dry and difficult. Instead, these court
; room scenes. drawn from Mr.. Well
mans own practice of the law. are
; little morality plays turned pointed,
; upon the Office of Juror for instruc
, ton at vital points, for general guild
ance and, above all, for an emphasis
, upon the strength and quality of the
, jurors obligation as an instrument OF
the law.
The prime object of the whole is
let the author himself state his pur
pose. MY object is to acquaint Jurors
with the profound Importance and dig
nifty of their membership in that an
cient and honorable institution of Tria
by Jury; to lay before them the du
ties. privileges and prerogatives of q
, juror; to open their minds to the fal
, lacies of human testimony, to the
,, why's and wherefores of intentiona
perjury, TO the methods by which
truth can be distinguished from false
, hood. by which eXaggerations can bt
reduced to their proper proportions.
: The chief of these objects, one gathers
from the points of emphasis anc
. elaboration here, is to impress Jurors
with the dignity of this Office and with
its Importance as a prime element ir
the exercise of that democracy upor
, whose principles this country ha:
built one after another of its element:
in the general government.
| X IL
In pursuance of this prime objec
Mr.. Wellman sketches the history Of
trial by jury to show that this is ar
/, institution that is centuries old, com
. ing into England at the time of the
Norman conquest and persisting, IL
essence, to our own time, with every
, likelihood of its long continuance
: No cross-examination In those ole
days to shake evidence. Indeed, NJ
evidence was taken. There were nj
judges. There were no witnesses. out
side the II family heads chosen a.
jurors because they were, in fact
witnesses. or at least had some knowl
edge of the dispute in question. II
those old, and simpler. days If the &C
cused was "oathworthy," a person o.
; probity, his oath was SUFFICIENT t.
clear him. If, however. others s1vor,
against him, then he was compelled