secretary, who is sympathetic over the fact that the month is December
and the busy season of the year in the florist business and that there
is only one assistant in the shop, but the judge is busy and will only
see him from the bench. Finally he goes into court and waits for his
name to be called.

After the roll call, he goes timidly up to the rail and stands there
waiting until his Honor will take notice of him. His Honor is busy
blowing his nose or signing papers. Finally the court officer points
him out. The judge scowls and asks him what he wants. Tremblingly he
explains his difficulty: that his business needs him or that his wife
is sick and that he will serve any other month if he can be let off
now. The judge reads him a lecture on the duty of citizenship and the
responsibility of jury duty and says he is sorry that he can not
excuse him.

Afterwards when the judge finds that there are enough jurymen in court
for the needs of the calendar, he may privately send word to the
juryman by a court attendant that he is excused for the term or for a
few days until the Christmas rush is over or his wife is better.
Judges are often humane, but if they were to excuse the juror openly
they would find all the others in court clamoring for the same
exemption. If the juryman merely wants to dodge the duty he probably
does not get excused. The judge seems surprisingly intelligent and
discriminating and able to pick the sheep from the goats. The man who
merely wants to escape serving usually has to, and the man on whom it
is a hardship is sometimes let off. Uniformly the jurymen feel that it
is a necessary evil, but not so bad when they are once in court.

Until a case is called for trial they sit about the court-room or walk