On one side, opposite, but not as high, is the jury-box. This is a pen
with twelve seats within a high-sided inclosure like an old-fashioned
pew. What the object of the inclosure may be is uncertain, unless it
is a relic of a time when it was necessary to imprison the jurors.
Jury duty has doubtless always been arduous and disagreeable, and in
earlier days men were probably as anxious to escape serving on the
jury as they are to-day. In one of the courts, which was not supposed
to be for jury trials, twelve men once sat on a case without any
jury-box in plain chairs and at the side of the room. They were
extremely uncomfortable themselves; their legs were exposed and they
seemed shockingly unconventional.

Between the judge's desk and the jury-box is the witness chair, an
ordinary chair placed not quite so high, but beside the judge's and
where he can look down on the witness. The position of the witness
chair may be accountable for the feeling of protecting the witness
that exists in the minds of the judge and jury. There is a natural
sympathy for him, as though he were being attacked by the examining
counsel. The witness in former times stood in a little enclosed box
and in Italy, where court scenes are more intense, the prisoners to
this day in criminal trials testify from behind iron bars.

Below the witness chair is the stenographer. The former idea of the
aged scrivener or court clerk with white hair and green eye shade has
vanished. The modern stenographer, who keeps the record of a trial, is
probably an energetic young man, who has passed high on the civil
service list, knows something about law, is studying for a better
position, or is connected with a very profitable stenographers'
business on the outside.