Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1892 — AS OTHERS SEE US. [ARTICLE]

AS OTHERS SEE US.

The Ways of the American Juryman as Known in England. 'the strange custom in America of appointing men to office without aitiy regard to their previous career or occupation frequently leads to the most extraordinary Incidents, which to English readers unacquainted with transatlantic life would appear extravagant, even if they witnessed them on the stage of some theater devoted to opera bouffe. Thus, what can be more comical than the conduct of the Dakota judge, a veterinary surgeon by trade, who was asked by a citizen to be excused from serving as a jurvman on the plea that he had a sick horse. “Is it your sorrel mare?” inquired the Judge, his professional instinct getting for the moment the better of his judicial dignity. “Yes, your honor,” replied the marj. “The court will adjourn for one hour!” exclaimed the Judge* “I know something that will cure that sorrel mare inside of twenty minutes;” and thereupon the court linked arms with the juryman and, accompanied by the prosecuting attorney, the Sheriff and the prisoner, whom the Sheriff did not like to leave behind, sought the indisposed sorrel. Nor was it so very long ago, says the Pall Mall Gazette, that a big rawboned man at Julesburg, Col., declined to go on a jury because, as he expressed it, “he couldn’t bear to serve under no man that he could lick,” meaning the Judge. Now, the latter, when not dispensing justice from the bench, was dispensing drinks at the bar of the liquor saloon which he owned, and in his younger days he had acquired considerable fame as a bruiser. The dormant instincts of the latter ajvoke and arose to the surface on hearing the objection put forward by the refractory juryman. Laying aside the judicial ermine, the court got down from the bench into the body of the court, requested the spectators to foi m a ring, and, with the clerk as timekeeper and the prisoner as referee, fought the large man for fifteen minutes, thoroughly removing the latter’s hesitation to serving on that particular jury. As soon as Ills honor- had accomplished this he resumed his seat on the bench and went on with the trial.