“There goes a sitter,” said a constable at the county court, Friday, while a criminal case was going on, to a Spectator reporter.
“A what?” asked the reporter, with a surprised look.
“A sitter, I said,” continued the court officer. “You are surprised, no doubt, but I will explain to you the meaning of my remark. A sitter is a man who is a sort of ornament in a courtroom. No trial is complete without him. He is an individual who has developed a morbid curiosity for anything and everything that savours of sensationalism. He comes in when court opens, leaves at noon recess, returns sharp on time, and stays until the court crier acquaints the spectators that the business of the day is over.
“What is there so attractive in the dry court proceedings that will make men put in day after day in listening to the legal inquiries?”
“That’s a conundrum to me. The court lounger will listen with utmost attention to all that is said. He is a regular bureau of information, and is ready to tell you the merits of a case. He knows the calibre of the average juryman, and will not hesitate to express his opinion as to the result of a jury’s deliberation. He is invariably correct, strange to say. You see he has nothing better to do than to study human nature. And where will you find a better place to exercise that desire than in a courtroom ?”
“Are you ever annoyed by these people?”
“Sometimes. They are inclined to be garrulous, and if they find a person on whom they can press their convictions, they become quite enthusiastic. The height of a court lounger’s ambition is reached when he finds somebody who will sit and listen patiently to his learned explanation of the law. Should an individual be so uncharitable as to express a contrary opinion, the sitter will expostulate. He is grieved and will argue to suit the occasion, for or against, as the case may be. He has an excellent opinion of his abilities and his superficial knowledge of the law.”
A young man, with straight black hair plastered down carefully over his forehead, was pointed out to the reporter as one of the ‘regulars.’ The trial of a young man for highway robbery was going on at the time, and the scribe approached the sitter and succeeded in getting him into conversation. “Billy’s horribly rattled,” he said, “and he don’t know whether he’s going to get off or get sent down. He thinks his chance is about equal. Now, I’m putting up money to say that he’ll be found not guilty, and I’ve said that from the first. This here’s a peculiar case, but Billy, he’s all right this time.” And sure enough, Billy was all right, for the jury found him not guilty, and the judge discharged him.
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