ing a case is due more to the
confusion of administrative methods; until some more practical system
is devised it will continue. Then witnesses and clients will not be
loath to go to court.

The weary work is finished, all the tiresome facts have been gathered,
and the rehearsals have been had. The play is written, the parts are
cast. The disappointments and delays have been forgotten, the months
of preparation have passed. At last the bell for the performance rings
and the case is finally to be tried.

VIII

PICKING THE JURY

The clerk calls the case again for trial, not this time to inquire
whether both sides are ready but to announce that it is about to
begin. The lawyers, their assistants on both sides and their clients
move forward to within the rail. There is a certain amount of
commotion as they arrange their papers, their portfolios, law books,
hats, and coats, and take their places at the counsellors' table
opposite the jury-box. In the dignified courts in this country this
rather uncomfortable disposition of overcoats and hats is arranged in
an adjacent room. The opposing parties in the battle to be enacted are
now facing each other. Matters become at once more serious and
formal. What was once avoidable is now inevitable.

The stage has still in a measure to be set. Twelve important actors
are to be selected. The jury have not yet been chosen. The jury for
the sake of comparison take the part of a Greek Chorus, a silent one
it is true, until the final word is to be said. They nevertheless are
as important and essential a part of the drama as the Chorus, without
which in the background no tragedy or comedy was complete.

No curtain divides the theater and the arrangement of the stage goes
on before the eyes of the spectators. The choice of the jury
constitutes an interesting part of the performance. In this
preliminary play the lawyers having important parts, their manner,
bearing, tones of voice, their courtesy or discourtesy, repose or
nervousness, are watched and unconsciously noted by the jurors. As the
jury-box gradually fills, even the slightest idiosyncracy may have
some effect on the outcome of the case.

Trial lawyers are careful of their actions even before the case is
called to trial. It may be that among the spectators who have been
sitting beside the lawyers in the back of the room, waiting for the
case to be called, are those who may afterwards be called as jurors.
Any affectati