The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-11-23
BIDWELL ON FRANCE
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pretty sick, my poor fellow" I said.
"What Is the mattcr??' .'The matter, sir,
Is n hundred and fifteen DAYS in this
dark cell! That Is what is killing mel"
What! a hundred and fifteen days in
the dark cell! What did you do to
bring down so heavy a punishmenS?"
Nothing, sir. absolutely nothing. and
they know it now.' l suppose he no.
ticed my look of incredulity, for he
added, Il dare say you will not believe
me. Another prisoner wen to the
chief warden and told him that 7 had
tobacco I wa locked up in that fright
full to make me confess. The
story was not true. / would not con-
Tess and | am dying because of it." The
chief warden. a man with a sinyularly
disagreeable smile, who had been many
years in the service and who was then
receiving five francs q day salary, wGs
with me. l asked him If the dying
prisoners story was true. well" he
said, you see we are Obliged to en-
force these rules and we must
act on the information that we receive.
The man was not punished. He was
merely placed in secluslon to enable us
to get at the truth" The fact re-
mained, nevertheless, that the mans
treatment was causing his death and
the whole thing resulted from q pris-
oner's spite. 1t was however, merely q
siiiI siShdN IA Pl " NaiiS VI tttC
usual procedure in criminal cases. the
every day occurrence In the p~rocurer's
office.
American Ways Arc Rest.
To understand the blessings ones
" country enjoys, 1t is only necessary
to go to another where they do not cx-
list. No habeas corpus. personal liberty
unknown, the within of a magistrate
the measure of a mans liberty, the
pleasure of a procureur, the tension OF
ones rights, these are some of the priv
ileges which liberty. equality and fra
ternity as the French understand them
bring In their train. And yet French
men see nothing to complain Of, no
doubt because they know nothing bet
ter. Maxims of law which with us are
self evident as the sun have never &C.
Cured to the French mind even to think
Of. 1T is not the custom of the Romans
to give n man to die until he that is
accused have the accuser face to face
that he may answer for himself"
Neither is it the custom of Americans.
In france men are every day con-
demned in their absence par contu-
mace" as the lawyers call 1t, to any pen
atty the law awards for the offenc
charged, and when arrested the penalt
may be summarily inflicted. A man who
has been convicted of felony can at any
moment be charged with the %perpetra-
ton OF another. 1t may be that there
is not the slightest proof against him
but he does not escape on that account.
Every prison in the country holds men
h 1t is almost certain are innocent,
condemned as capable of some crime OF
which the real perpetrator has not been
discovered. Domiciliary visits if not so
frequent are just as liable to happen
under the republic as under the empire
with redress for no man. Frenchmen
are fond of repeating that French JUS
tice makes no mistakes and when any
such are proved the explanation IL that
justice was misled, and those who are
not the sufferers care very little for
those who are.
Doubtless it takes time for q legal sys-
tenn to grow and when a people is once
accustomed to its own, 1t accepts details
as natural, but no American can see
European methods without feeling
thankful that his own traditions have
led him to expect something with which
he systems of Europe have scarcely
anything in