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
are to be selected. The jury have not yet been chosen. The jury for
the sake of comparison take the part of a Greek Chorus, a silent one
it is true, until the final word is to be said. They nevertheless are
as important and essential a part of the drama as the Chorus, without
which in the background no tragedy or comedy was complete.
No curtain divides the theater and the arrangement of the stage goes
on before the eyes of the spectators.
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