Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-08-25
No Executioner and Capital Punish
ment Held Up.
FEELING OVER sOLE1LAND's CASE
Question Of Dreyfus' Promotion
Awaits Reassembling Of Parliament.
Picquart Firm in Declining Help.

! Seine tried Soleiland for the peculiarly
atrocious murder of little girl the ques.
| ton whether not he is to be executed
has become burning one. The verdict on
! the jury being guilty, without the benefit
| of extenuating circumstances, obviously the
condemned man in the ordinary course OF
| things would be guillotined. But, though
parliament has not voted the abolition OF
| capital punishment, the death sentence
pronounced on the prisoner must appar-
emily remain a dead letter, since the public
| executioner has been pensioned off by the
| budget committee of the chamber of depu-
ties and the guiliotine has been slowed
away in some disused building.
| By the non-votng Of the law abolishing
| capital punishment, while at the same time
| suppressing the post of public eXecutioner
| and RELOCATING La Veuve," as the guillo-
tine is called m criminal slang, to an out
building, distinctly abnormal condition
of things has been established. For in
| stance, within the last six months. in
Paris and the provinces, the death sentence
| murderers, the said sentence being Of neces-
| sity committed by the president Of the re-
| public, since virtually capital punishment
| can no longer be said to exist.
In presence of the exceptionally atrocious
| crime which brought Soleiland to the assZe
court many leading organs of the press
| are now clamoring for ''sa tete" with al
| most unseemly violence, and on the first
| page of certain journals the criminal s
| severed head, with the guillotine beside 1t,
| constitute gruesome pictorial attraction
| for the morbidly inclined
Exploited by Yellow Journals.
| It should be said that the latest Partisan
crime has been what Is termed written
| up In what appears.a distinctly objection
obi Col ND INN Som
| ment his wife has not only been repeatedly
| interviewed by enterprising reporters, but
she has been persuaded to write her me-
moirs for O boulevard sheet, in which deli
cate and intimate subjects connected with
her married life with the convict are crude
ly revealed, and all manner OF objection
able details are given. In a word. the ap-
petite Of the multitude for the horrible and
the tragic has been pampered, and what
was simply revolving. ignoble crime,
| about which, out of respect for decency,
the less said the better, has been given all
the prestige Of cause ceIebre."
One inevitable result was that during the
two days the trial lasted the assize court,
despite the heat was overcrammed by so
ciety ladies, actresses and demi-mondaines,
many of whom came back from the country
or the seaside to be present. And, as a
male spectator with no little disgust re-
marks, the attitude and manners of these
smartly dressed, pearl-powdered, per-
fumed women was deplorably out of keep
ing with the solemnfty of the surroundings.
They laughed, chartered, applauded, or
the contrary, as though they were at some
theatrical dress rehearsal rather than in a
court of justice unmOved apparently either
by the presence in the witness box Of the
hapless victims parents or the exhibition
of the bloodStained garments worn by the
child on the day she was slaughtered
Opinion at Variance.
With regard, however, to the important
question anent the abolition or mainte-
nance of capital punishment in France
thoughtful commentators on the subject
rightly remark that opinions concerning
that question ought not to be affected
merely because a sensational crime has
been committed, and street hawkers are
selling pictorial illustrations thereof in
which La Veuve" is figured awaiting her
lawful prey. Some months ago when m.
de Paris the public headsman) was pen
stoned off and it was tacitly understood he
would have no successor, the campaign in
favor of the abolition of the death SEN
tence met with distinct public approval.
1t was argued that in countries such as
Switzerland or Belgium, where capital pun
ishment does not exist, murders were not
SO frequent as in countries where it does
exist.
Certain magistrates high police officials
and jail chaplains. however, guided by
their long experience and contact with the
criminal classes, maintained that fear of
La VI lve' was needful as a restrainer
upon numbering instincts, or in default of
this some kind Of punishment more severe
and lasting than the sentence of transpor-
tation to La Nouvelle" must be provided.
1t is a fact that convicts are by no means
much intimidated by the prospect of serv-
ing their sentence on some island where
privileges are too easily obtained, chances
Of escape by no means problematical, and
life altogether far more endurable than
that passed by the convict undergoing i'm
prisonment in a French Jail.
Sentences Garry No Force.
Against the maintenance of capital pun
ishment in France it is urged that the
presidential p-erogatve of clemency is fire.
quently SO erratically used as to result in
fragrant injustice toward criminals on
whom sentence Of death has been passed,
some of whom are executed while others
keep their heads on their shoulders. In
any case, it is distinctly desirable that the
chamber of deputies, Immediately the
autumn session calls them back to work,
should settle the matter one way or
another. 1t is manifestly absurd to see day
by day throughout France prisoners found
guilty of murder sentenced to death with
all Wonted solemnity, when all the time
they know the sentence will not, and can
not, be carried out.
AS for the Wretched culprit SOleiland II
would evidently be akin to injustice to be-
head him were 1t possible SO to do, when
many other criminals sentenced to death
within the last six months have profited by
the existing and embarrassing uncertainty
whether or not La Veuve' has made her
exit forever. There has been recrudescence
of crime lately in France. OF this there
can be no doubt. 1t remains to be seen
whether this fact will suffice without legis-
lation to induce the chambers to hesitate
before definitely voting the abolition of capt.
tai punishment.
NJ Lepine. the project of police. like
every one else, has remarked the eXtraor-
binary influx of foreigners into Paris dur
ing the spring and summer seasons. and he
has decided that the sergents de Vile shall
be taught foreign languages to enable them
to render service to the foreign visitors.
With this object in view. he has made an
arrangement with a school for modern lam
guages, at which certain number of SER
gents de vile will follow the classes three
times a week to learn German, English and
Spanish. Naturally, at least in the first
instance, those sergents de vile who pos
sess aptitude for acquiring languages will
be selected.
The Dreyfus Case.
So far as can be gathered, the question
Of Maj. Dreyfus' promotion to the rank of
lieutenant colonel remains in allegiance. and
will not be settled one way or the other
until parliament reassembles in October He