The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-12-25
JACQUES BONHOMME.


-he bench of the Police Correctionnellt
Is composed of three judges, SO that al
beast one may be listening when the
other two are asleep. These men have
power to award as much as five years
imprisonment and five years police SUI
pervision. Nothing is more prosy thar
the proceedings of this court of Justice
unless some waggish prisoner be bent or
enlivening them by exhibiting his wit in
mis- answers. The following pass of arms
Is still fresh in the memory of Parisians.
Prisoner" said the presiding judge
one day, ''you say you are not guilty OF
robbing the prosecutor; but he will pro.
duce three witnesses who saw you in the
act of snatching his watch from his per-
son."
"Threel Is that all, NJ lie PRESIDENT
Why, l could produce thousands who
didn't
/ remember one man who was accused
of stealing geese. Although plucked by
the prisoner, the prosecutor maintained
he had recognized them as his own.
''From their consumptive appearance
suppose!' exclaimed the prisoner, who
In France, can always speak at his trial
"And how is it you heard nothing when
stole them? You ought to know that
geese will make noise when interfered
with. Why Nj. lie President, the prose
cutor seems to be a most ignorant man
If he had read his Roman history, he
would know that the geese woke up the
Romans one morning by their noise, and
warned them of the approach of the
Gauls."
The scholarship of the prisoner was
not appreciated by the magistrates, who
gave him three months imprisonment.
was present N the room, and remem-
Der that the prisoner, as he was removed,
exclaimed, 1.-The magistrates are as ig-
norant as the prosecutor
One of the most frequent customers of
the Police Correctionnelle is the vagrant.
In France man is taken up for having
no recognized means of subsistence. The
first time he is convicted of vagrancy he
IS sentenced to three months imprison-
ment. When he comes out of prison he
may have five or six francs in his pocket,
If he has been Industrious His position
Is precisely the same as it was before he
went in, except That he is now a man
who has been to prison, and therefore
work, if he be ever SO anxious to get it,
Is not SO easy to obtain. He fails to find
employment, of course, and his five or
six francs are soon exhausted; in few
days he is taken up again.
l quite appreciate the answer once
given by fellow who was for the sec
end time charged with vagrancy.
"What are your means of subsistence"
asked the presiding judge.
''Why, have lived on Them" an
swered the prisoner.
This second time, besides term of six
months imprisonment, the accused has
TO undergo from two to five years police
supervision, which means that he must
report himself once week at the police
station. Considering that, by law, Paris
and the five or six largest towns of
France are closed to him, it would be
Just as well, and much more human, to
give him transportation for life at once
How is he likely to get employment in
town where he is seen paying his weekly
visit to the police station? In the large
cities he might have had chance.
When society, in the name of the law,
deprives man Of his liberty, it under
takes to provide him with the neces-
saries OF life; but if it discharges him
from prison, telling him he must provide
for himself, and at the same time i'm
poses CONSTANTS upon him which make
Is practically impossible for him to earn
An honest living, what is the conse-
.quence? Vagrancy brings condemna-
'tion and police supervision; police super
vision brings impossibility to obtain
work; impossibility to obtain work
brings yagrancy. This is the vicious
Circle in which he is virtually enclosed.
If the proceedings of the Police Cor
rectionnelle are dull and prosy, those of
the court of assizes offer a different
sight. We are now in perfect theatre.
Nothing is wanting but stage boxes, and
the division of seats into stalls and gal
leries. The prisoner himself often for
gets his awful position, and thinks of the
public who gaze at him. He feels like a
sort of hero, the actor in whom the in
terest of the grand spectacular drama
concentrates. Ladies of the highest So
ciety flock to the court, duly provided
with scent bottles and extra pocket hand
kerchiefs If, as is the case in France
nine times out of ten, a woman is the
cause of the prisoners terrible position,
they expect sensational scenes that would
draw at the Porte st. Martin theatre, and
they are seldom disappointed. At last a
little bell is rung. All are silent and
breathless. The accused, accompanied
by two gendarmes, enters the court, and
sits on high bench, well in view of ev-
erybody. Then come the three judges,
with their scarlet gowns, followed by
the advocate general, or public prose
cutor. All take their seats solemnly.
The performance is about to begin.
"Prisoner at the bar" says the presid-
ing Judge. "stand up, and give me your
name and surname" Then the examina-
ton of the accused by the judge begins.
I cannot help thinking that the French
are right in examining the prisoner be-
fore the jury. The French eye is remark
ably quick to detect expression, and ii
seldom fails to understand the move
ment of the muscles of the face. Emer-
son said he knew an experienced counsel,
who once said to him that he never
feared the effect upon jury of lawyer
who did not believe in his heart that his
client ought to have a verdict Faces
.-a--o-- I;o Truth tr-rappi1ac ovar fba I'M.