urts of
Heaven. The pictures of Godhead represent him as sitting in the center
on his raised throne with the surrounding tiers of attendant angels.

The modern court-room is only an adapted continuation of a medieval
idea. On the raised dais under an unsanitary and dusty canopy of green
plush sits the judge; instead of a sceptre he holds the gavel. This
gavel, by the way, is falling more and more into disuse. As a symbol
of authority, a little wooden hammer has become a trifle ludicrous. If
a judge were to shake it too violently there might be a fear on the
part of those watching that he was about to throw it at the spectators
or at one of the arguing lawyers.

The judge sits at an imposing high-railed desk with standard lights at
either corner. The top of the desk is usually above the level of the
eyes even of the lawyer standing. This is an arrangement which is
conventional and convenient; it would not be consistent with the
majesty of the law if the judge should be discovered writing a
personal note or taking a glance at the stock market reports in the
evening paper.

The judge's chair is ordinarily a revolving one with a dip backward.
Stationary chairs are trying, for those who have to remain quiet for
so many hours at a time, and the swinging back and forth and twisting
about gives a little relaxation.

In front of the judge's dais are the counselors' or lawyers' tables,
and at one side in front and below usually another table for
reporters. It is somewhat like the arrangement in baronial halls where
there was an upper and lower table and some sat below the salt and
others above.

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 jud