On the first day of the trial, Jem, Scout, and Dill went to town. Outside of the courthouse, they found that it was
a gala occasion. There was no room at the public hitching rail for another animal, mules and wagons were parked under every available tree. The courthouse square was covered with picnic parties sitting on newspapers, washing down biscuit and syrup with warm milk from fruit jars.
People had come from near and far to witness the trial. Many of them rode by the Finch house in their wagons as they headed to town. Miss Maudie thought that all those people going to watch the trial was "like a Roman carnival." She disapproved of what a spectacle it had become.
Watching the trial was a form of entertainment. In the 1930s, there was no television and the town did not have a movie theater. Maycomb was in a rural area, so there was little to do for entertainment. The trial was well known because a black man was accused of raping a white woman. Atticus had also received substantial attention for defending Tom Robinson at the trial.
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