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