Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 May 1886 — IN THE JURY BOOM. [ARTICLE]

IN THE JURY BOOM.

The Twelve Good and True Men Did Not Agrse. [Detroit Free Press.] The case siemed clear enough to a hoy ten years old. The plaintiff i-ued the defendant o,i a debt. The defendant admitted that he contracted the debt, aud that he had never paid it. He tried *o show, as an offset, that he onee lent plaintiff some money, but be failed to even establish the date of he transaction. Ttm amount, sued for was S4OO, and the Judge charged us to return a verdict in favor of tho plaintiff. When we got set'lea in the juryroom and elected a foreman he said: “Well, 1 suppose wa must return & vordict for the fu 1 amount?” “Well, I dou’t!” replied one of the jurors- a man whom I had selected as an honest, conscientious juior. '‘But isn’t it a plain case?” “No, sir! The plaintiff had two lawyers, while the defendant had hut one. There was nothing fair about that!"

"But the Judge charged us to return a verdict for the amount,” observed another juror. “’Sposing he did!” exclaimed an old man on his left, "if the Judge knows more about this case than we dJ then what are we here for?* “WbioS of ’em was the plaintiff, anyhow?’*solemnly inquired a solemn juror, whom I hdd seen sleeping thro' most of the trial. “The red-headed man, of course,” replied a young man who wore tight paninloons and chewed plug tobacco with great ambition. “Was it? Why, I thought it was the fat man!”cxclaimed juror No. 6. Tho foreman suggested that we maik on slips of paoer the amount each juror tnoughc the plaintiff entitled to. His suggestion wad follow* ed, and the amounts run from fifteen cents to S4OO. “It seems to me,” he reflected, “that the defendant either owes him SIOO or nothing.* “I don’t believe he owes him nuthin.” replied one of the twelve. “But you heard the evidence?" 1 v “Hangthe evidence,” Some one suggested that we add up the sums marked and strike an average.

Another suggested that we return a veidict for the defendant. A third tffered to flip a cent and head or tail (or the S4OO or nothing. A fourth wanted some one to tell him if the debt hadn’t been outlawed. It was finally discovered that we sto'd five for the plaintiff and seven for the defendant, and the for* *nan wanted to know what we should do. “Well.” said o'e of tho seven, “if we agree with you in this case will you agree with us in the next?” He couldn’t promise, and the lead* er of the dissenters declared that he would remain in that room a 1 fetime before he would agiee with the five. At the end of an hour there were eight men willing to return a verdict for $75. At the end of two hours there were seven men who d dn’tcare a cent and five who were in favor «f the defend-, ant.

At the end of three houis six men were in favor of S4OO, and the other six were playing poker. In another hour /wo of us favored S4OO an i the other ten had made up their minds that at least two out of the three lawyers ought to be in jail. We finally marched in witn the innounceraent tkat we couldn’t agree, when the juror who didn’t know plaintiff from defendant raised hig voice ana protested: “Judge, wo could have agreed all richt if anybody ha t told us what the case was about. 1 think we orter be furnished with diagrams.” Isaac Fisher, for fiftv-two years in the servics of the Government as a mail carrier, died at Altoona last week at the age of eighty-two years. Mr. Fisher was a stage driver between Lewis owu and Greensburg as far biok as 1837, and numbered among his paeeengora Henry Clay, Daniel Webster’ Lewis Cass, Andrew Jackson, Horace Greeley and Charles Sumner. Mr. Fisher remained i a the service until several weeks ago when be was obliged to retire ou account of rheumatism, which he contracted while on duty last winter.

During tlie war Mrs. Terry, of North Adams. Conn , cursed back to life a stranger who was prostrated by fever. Th* man who was a brother of ex-Gov Leland Stanford, of California, died recently, leaving her $15,000.

Ome Flag.—The rea werkingmen --the reai American* of Ohicago—will aet to It that the American flag does n >t give place to the red flag there—New York Sun.