The age-herald., 1898-01-05
FRENCH JUSTICE \ MOCKERY
System NotoriousIy Bad in Its
 Essential Attributes.
ANOMALIES ARE THE RULES
All Crimes Are Divided Into Two Classes, Mis- demeanors and Felonies Jury
 irresponsible and fancifal.

From the Philadelphia Times.
 | One very beneficial result to the French
 people from all the excitement of the Drey-
 fus scandal is the adoption of bill by the
 chamber of deputies providing for sweep
 ing prison reforms. There has been an
 urgent need of radical changes in the al-
 most grotesque conditions that obtain in
 the administering of justice in France.
 The development in the now world-fam-
 ous Dreyfus case has revealed such a rot
 tenness in the courts, both high and low,
 that the Frenchmen themselves scarcely
 know what will turn up next Count Es- | terhazy, who is now to be coEI t-mar-
 tialed being implicated far more than l Dreyfus in the alleged betrayal ot army secrets. is also accused of having sought
 to corrupt the government officials in eff
 forts to induce them to give Dreyfus an
 opportunity to escape the moment he was
 to embark for the penal colony.
 | Guilty until proven innocent is the maxim
 observed in the dealings with all persons | who become entanged in the meshes of the l law in France. It is safe to say the French, 1 in a certain sense, enjoy far more liberties 1 than do individuals of any other nation. | Paris. of course, always Is cited, might in | this case also serve as an example; one | must, indeed, be very hard to please or
 well along the road of crime when the 1 Paris police interfere. Thus, it will be
 found somewhat hard to break into l French jail; but, once in, it is truly her. 1 culean task to get out, even if innocent.
 The French law recognizes two great d- visions of offenses under the heads of de- | lits (misdemeanors) and crimes felonies). | This Is in France a most important dis | tinction, because man under the charge | of misdemeanor can only be tried in a
 rectional court and never sentenced to
 more than five years imprisonment; man charged with felony must have jury | trial and stands a better chance of nearly | always getting a lighter sentence, though
 his crime is far more serious in every way. The French have truly serio-comic way | of defining. the terms felony and misde- | meanor, which, while undeniably pictur l esque Is from a moral point of view de- ! cidedly disappointing. The sentimental | side of the Gallis nature plays a very | strong part in the judicial system and the 1 vagaries of a French jury are as irrespon- | sible and fanciful a dream. If an out | ragged husband should give his wife a | thrashing to teach her the error of her | ways he is more than likely to receive a l severe sentence at the hands of the cor | rectional judge. Should he kill her out | right the chances are very strong that 1 jury in the assize court would acquit him | without leaving their seats or else give | him reprimand. Such anomalies are really | the order of the day in the French admin 1 istration of justice. Then, again, a. com 1 paratvely mild offense can be and often i is construed through circumstances into an | absurdly serious one and vice versa. l If you should want to thrash an enemy
 within an inch of his life, and to that end | hunt him up in restaurant or cafe, and | after the usual preliminaries smash his | face with a bottle and disfigure him for | life, it would be only a misdemeanor. The
 point in your favor, according to French | law, is that you were unarmed and without | reconciliation picked up a weapon and l thus assaulted your enemy.
 | The greatest punishment for this is five | years in prison. But should you go to | your enemys house provided with a cane 1 and thrash him there and then, or even try
 to do so, you would be arrested and the
 charge would be felony. For this you are
 liable to get a sentence of twenty-years'
 transportation or the penitentiary.
 One member in the senate, advocating i thoroughgoing reforms, both in the laws 1 and in the management of prisons, said | the whole structure of criminal law and its | application were but an ill-conducted opera | bouffe.
 When a person is placed under arrest in | Paris he is known as a suspect and taken
 to the Prefecture de Police" Here are very scant accommodations indeed for any, 1 body. Outward appearances count a good l deal and if the suspect has good clothes | he is given the privilege of a little dubbed l by the Parisans the room for decent l coats" When the black Maria empties
 its load an officer quickly separates the
 captives. and the outEardy respectable
 are put into the room mentioned, while | the others huddled together helter | skelter, at least for awhile. In this crowd | you may representatives, at least as 1 far appearance go, of every class of so- | ciety. It is not at all uncommon to see
 people of undoubted respectability, es-ecfal-
 ly foreign visitors in this crowd. In ref | erence to these people, it seems as if the | overwhelming percentage of foreigners ar-
 rested was either Americans English. | They are generally of class known as
 fresh and have brought upon them their l predicament by some stupid desire to dis regard all laws of common sense. The
 American consul has been called upon l more than once, but even his intervention | will not save the prisoner from passing | through a monstrous amount of red tape before he reaches his freedom.
 The rank and file of the daily round up'' | of suspects, never less than 200. are-crowd- l ed together in ill-smelling, badly venti- lated hall with fagstone floor. The floor | even at its best is very dirty, and the fur
 niture consists of rough wooden benches. | Still there is one redeeming feature, the
 suspects must be released within twenty i four hours sent to the "trial' prison. l This is a distinct improvement as far as | accommodation and sanitary arrangements
 are concerned The prisoner is lodged | alone In small cell and his lawyer and | friends may visit and talk matters over | with him pending: his appearance before | a judge. But there great many ex- | captions to this rule If deemed an inn | portant prisoner he is kept strictly "au | secret" denied seeing or speaking to any
 one. and kept under the most intolerant l espionage.
 1 It is hard to believe. but nevertheless a | disgracefu fact. that the French prison l authorities not only permit but actually en- l courage the most despicable system of spy l ing among the prisoners. If man under | a long penitentiary sentence wishes to se- l ro1A -II L~l l-~- Il | to the officer in charge his desire to be- | come a mouton or spy. He does not re- | ceve any intimation whether his app1ica- l ton has been considered or not, but as a | rule is put to a test unknown to himself
 If he proves himself shrewd chap who | can ingratiate himself in the confidence of | his fellow prisoners and draw out their | secrets, he is deemed worthy of his dirty | fob. He then gets passport to the Pre-