Jim Sturgis said he knew of no joke in the matter--his clients could not be punished for indulging in what some people chose to consider a game of chance until it was proven that it was a game of chance.

Judge and counsel said that would be an easy matter, and forthwith called Deacons Job, Peters, Burke, and Johnson, and Dominies Wirt and Miggles, to testify; and they unanimously and with strong feeling put down the legal quibble of Sturgis by pronouncing that old sledge was a game of chance.
"What do you call it now ?" said the judge.
"I call it a game of science!" retorted Sturgis; "and I'll prove it, too!" They saw his little game.
He brought in a cloud of witnesses, and produced an overwhelming mass of testimony, to show that old sledge was not a game of chance but a game of science.
Instead of being the simplest case in the world, it had somehow turned out to be an excessively knotty one.

The judge scratched his head over it awhile, and said there was no way of coming to a determination, because just as many men could be brought into court who would testify on one side as could be found to testify on the other.

But he said he was willing to do the fair thing by all parties, and would act upon any suggestion Mr.Sturgis would make for the solution of the difficulty.
Mr.Sturgis was on his feet in a second.
"Impanel a jury of six of each, Luck versus Science.

Give them candles and a couple of decks of cards.