. The lawyers soon found
out that the usual tricks and subterfuges in criminal cases would
not procure acquittal, and they began to challenge off all the
women called. The court checkmated this move by directing the
sheriff to summon other women in their places, instead of men,
and then came motions for continuances. The result was a great
success and was so acknowledged by all disinterested persons. On
the grand jury were six women and nine men, and they became such
a terror to evil-doers that a stampede began among them and very
many left the town forever. Certainly there was never more
fearless or efficient work performed by a grand jury.

The legislature copied most of the statutes which it enacted from
the laws of Nebraska, and among others the following clauses in
the crimes act, to wit.:

If any person shall keep open any tippling or gaming-house
on the Sabbath day or night, * * * he shall be fined not
exceeding one hundred dollars, or imprisoned in the county
jail not exceeding six months.

Any person who shall hereafter knowingly disturb the peace
and good order of society by labor on the first day of the
week, commonly called Sunday (works of necessity and charity
excepted), shall be fined, on conviction thereof, in any sum
not exceeding fifty dollars.

No attention whatever had been paid to these statutes, and Sunday
was generally the great drinking day of the whole week; the
saloons sold more whiskey and made more money that day than any
other. The women on that grand jury determined to put a stop to
it and enforce these laws. They therefore indicted every liquor
saloon in town. This made a great outcry, not only among the
liquor-sellers but among their customers also. They were all
arrested, brought into court and gave bail; but Judge Howe told
them as this was a new law recently passed, and as it was quite
probable that most of them were ignorant of its provisions, he
would continue the cases with this express understanding, that if
they would strictly obey the law in future these cases should be
dismissed; but if any of them violated it, these cases would be
tried and the full penalty inflicted. They all agreed to this,
and the "Sunday Law," as it was called, was carefully ob