BEARDS WORK NO
INJUSTICE HERE.
LOCAL LAWYERS DISCUSS WHIS-
KERS IN COURT.
Hair on the Face a Side Issue,
Says Thad B. Landon, Com-
menting on a Chicago
Judge's Remark.
If there is a prejudice against bearded jurors in Kansas City, such as seems to be agitating the bar of Eastern cities at this time, attorneys have not heard of it. A number of them, when questioned yesterday, said they had found no fault with jurors who wear "hangdowns," "stickouts," or "stubbles." As there are few cases in which a damage suit arises out of impaired hirsutement, local attorneys say, bearded jurors have been found as satisfactory as clean-shaven ones.
"I have never noticed that bearded jurors took views different from clean-shaven ones, taking them as classes," said Bert S. Kimbrell, who has been the assistant prosecuting attorney for four years. Mr. Kimbrell had unusual opportunities to study jurors. "The mere fact that a man has a beard to stroke while another, for want of it, may have to twiddle his thumbs during the trial of a case, does not prove nor disprove any issue," said Mr. Kimbrell.
NO EFFECT ON INTELLECT.
"A beard or the absence of it does not have any effect on the intellect, so far as my experience with juries goes," said Glen Sherman, who himself could raise a prodigious beard, if only he would. "for reasons of my own, I prefer to remain a bachelor on the beard question, but every juror has a right to his beard, and to his opinion. No prejudice exists, so far as I am concerned."
"Many considerations enter into the choice of a juror from the attorney's standpoint," Ben T. White remarked. "I have never noticed that a beard was one of them, however.
"Challenges do not depend on beards, but on the general character of the jurors," said James L. Kilroy. "It may perhaps be true that the character student could lay down a vague rule whereby anyone might analyze the workings of a man's mind from the cut of his beard, but such a conclusion no doubt frequently would shoot wide of the mark. I never worry about juries with whiskers."
All of the attorneys here quoted are clean-shaven. there was not a bearded one who could be found to be questioned.
