neglectful or remiss. Judge Hager presided in the Fourth District Court,
and his integrity and judicial qualifications, or judgments, have never
been questioned or impeached. Judge Freelon presided as County judge;
the same can be remarked of him. There was no material fault alleged
against the Police Court. It is true, however, that in important
criminal cases, and sometimes in civil suits, the juries were often
packed. But why? I will state: Merchants and business men generally had
great aversion to serve on juries, particularly, in important criminal
cases, which are usually protracted; and the jury were kept in
comparative close condition, because their time was too valuable, and
their business interests required their constant attention. They
preferred, therefore, to pay the fine imposed, in case they were unable
to prevail upon the Judge to excuse them. Jury fees were inconsiderable
in comparison with their daily profits; but it was the loss of time from
their business which mainly actuated them. Yet these fees were
sufficient to pay a day's board and lodging, and to the many who were
out of employment, serving on a jury was the means to both. There is, in
every large community, the class known as professional jurymen - hangers
about the Court, eagerly waiting to be called. There were men of this
kind then; there are more than enough of them still loitering about the
Courts, civil and criminal. San Francisco is not the only city in the
United States in which defendants in grave criminal cases have recourse
to every conceivable and possible means, without scruple, to procure
their own acquittal, or the utmost modification of the penalty, by
proving extenuating circumstances, or that the indictment magnifies the
crimes. This was true of 1856; here, as elsewhere in the land; it is
equally true now. Had the merchants and solid citizens then drawn as
jurors, fulfilled their duty to the cause of justice, to the
conservation and maintenance of law and order, they would have had no
cause or pretence for the organization which they formed. The initial