AN AMERICAN TEMPLE OF JUSTICE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 141, 14 June 1879, Page 4

AN AMERICAN TEMPLE OF JUSTICE.

[" San Francisco Poat."]

We cannot speak too highly of the new model for a Court of Justice juat completed by those prominent young architects, Chizel & Robb, and to be shortly submitted for adoption by the authorities. Recent local trials have demonstrated that the introduction of certain long-needed improvements in the construction of judicial halls can no longer be delayed. Jn the plan referred to the presiding magistrate is encased in a moveable iron-clad turret mounted upon a benob, and pierced *'ith portholes for the free uae of the revolver. Underneath this ia a galling gun arranged so as to rake the entire court-room when tbe necessity oi preserving order becomes very great, aod js worked by a pedal upon wbich tbo judge's feet rest. The witness-box is constructed of the beet half-inch boiler iron, nnd ia provided with an acoustic' tube through which answers can be given when the circumstances of the cross-examination require that the deponent be protected from the pisio! of the defendant. The jury-box is sopplied with twelve moveable iron shields warranted impervious to any ordinary bullets, and equipped with improved breech-loaders to repel witeesses. The attorneys and spectators are respectively protected witb breastworks made of four-ioch steel plates, backed with oak, and tbe lawyers and sheriffs supplied with a neat article of cast-iron helmet, stoqt enough to shiver the thickest' cabe known to the bar. As can be imagined, the adoption of these conveniences will -expedite business in our tribunals to a' wonderful extent. The intermiriable f interruptions for the purpose of settling some legal point #ii£ thl'boWiei knife, or club, now so coflaiaoo, will be |

vastly lessened in frequency. It is obvious to (he moat ordinary underatan lina that the present practice of chasing oljectionable witness out of tiio loom with revolvers, nnd the habit attorneys bave falleu into of pitching the judge out of (he window every time bo mnkes an adverse ruling cannot go on for ever. More protection is absolutely necessary for counsel when engaged in insuliific the wives of epectators. L/ufc week, ! for illusiration, Colonel Bioger, the; distinguished criminal lawyer, went info the Thirty-fifth District Court, shot down two counsel, and knocked a • juryman clean over the rciling, as a ! starter, before he discovered (hit the ; caee he was interested io wasn't on at all.