turally the challenge for cause may or may not be allowed by the
judge--the form being, "Your Honor, I ask you to excuse Mr.
Smith,"--because the lawyers are more careful in attempting them; for
if they are not allowed the juror challenged may be small-minded
enough to retain a grudge against the counsel. The sure challenges
are the peremptory ones without any cause stated or reason given. The
number of peremptory challenges for each side is usually six. As soon
as a juror is challenged he steps out of the box and the clerk draws a
new name from the wheel.

It is very much as if a player were dealt a hand of twelve cards, and
under the rules of the game each side can discard and draw six times
from the pack six single cards to improve his holding. The hand,
however, is not only his but his opponent's, who may likewise discard
and draw six cards when the first player is satisfied. When the second
player is through the first may again discard any of the new cards the
second has substituted, provided, of course, that six drawings have
not been exhausted. This game of chance is always played with an eye
to creating a favorable impression on the jury and may be politely
finessed to the extreme.

"Mr. Merriweather, do you know the defendant in this case, Mr. Jacobs,
or his attorney, Mr. Jenkins, or his assistant, Mr.--er--the young
gentleman on his left?" is the usual form, delivered with the utmost
urbanity. It means very little, but perhaps helps the lawyer to
identify an antagonistic juryman and to obtain their answers, which
are almost uniformly in the negative. It is obviously desirable that
the juryman, as a judge, should not be a friend of the opposite side.
From the manner of the man in the box, as he answers, may possibly be
inferred his general disposition, and all further questions have this
purpose in view. So the attorney for the plaintiff proceeds throughout
the twelve before him, and he may say at any time, "Your Honor, I
excuse juror number so and so."

Usually he examines the whole twelve before "excusing" any of them,
and when doing so many lawyers turn from the box to the judge as they
say, "I will excuse numbers four, five, and eleven." Frequently those
remaining do not realize why their brethren have been dismissed. A
slight bewilderment may pass across the faces of all, as a man here
and there, under the beckoning finger of the clerk, rises to give up
his seat.

Opinion differs as to the extent to w