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

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ings; but humanity does.
A French jury will always award lex
tenuating circumstance" to a prisoner
who may be supposed to have committed
murder under the influence of love, ieal.
ousy, revenge or despair-love especially.
They will not uncommonly acquit man.
if his character is otherwise irreproach.
able, who has killed an unfaithful wife
or her lover Besides, the idea of CAPT
tai punishment is abhorrent to the
French, and the jury will always try to
find extenuating circumstances to avoid
sending fellow creature to the guillo-
tine. And even when their consciences
will not allow them to find these extenu-
ating circumstances, they fondly cling
to the hope that the president of the re-
public will commute the sentence of
death to one of penal servitude for life.
No wonder that there should be relatively
so few executions in France; and no
wonder that, when one takes place, there
should be little excitement over it. If
the French executed criminals as freely
as some of their neighbors do, they would
in time get used to it and make no fuss
about it, and would thus save some for
eign reporters the trouble of sending to
their newspapers sensational accounts of
Exciting Scenes at the Scaffold."
To turn to less somber subjects, l
should like to say a word or two upon a
kind of imprisonment that the republic
has almost entirely done away With
mean the imprisonment for press Of
lenses. Under the empire Republican
journalists often got several months i'm
prisonment for writing violent articles
against ths emperor or his ministers
There was really nothing very terrible
about theS, condemnations except the
name of th1 thing. At the prison of Ste.
Pelagie special quarters were reserved
for such delinquents, and they were toll
erably comfortable quarters, too. 1t is
true, the prisoners door was locked at
night by some one else on the outside in
stead of by himself on the inside; but
that was almost the only thing that
could recall to him his position. All day
long he was free to receive friends from
the outer world. One would arrive with
the latest literary sensation, another with
the foundation of a good lunch, and
right merry time was spent. When
nothing more exciting offered, No. s
could call on No. Z in his room and be-
guile the hours with a chat or the COM
position of a newspaper article. The di
rector himself would call and see that
ces messieurs were happy and comfort
able
The amusing part of the business was
that the populace imagined these poor
journalists to be languishing on damp
straw and living on bread and water for
fighting their battles. When the prison
er came out he was a hero to be wor-
SHIPPED, and his sojourn at Ste. Pelagie
often led to promotion and sometimes to
a seat in the house of deputies. If it did
not procure him this honor it was pow
erful testimonial in case he ever needed
another journalistic post. He was al
ways proud to add at the foot of his list
of recommendations, "Have suffered
three months imprisonment at Ste. Pela-
gle"
Press offenses were tried in certain
department of the Paris correctional po-
lice court called the sixth chamber, and
republican journalists had this name on
the brain. One day a journalist friend
of mine, in search of apartments for
himself and his wife, entered house
where some were to let. He applied to
the concierge. who showed him over the
place:
"You see," said the concierge, "there
is drawing room, dining room, three
bedrooms
"Well," said my friend. "that makes
five rooms"
"Ohl but BESIDES" added the man,
with a smile, "we have sixth cham
ber"-
That concierge must have wondered
for long time why the journalist took
to his heels SO suddenly.