The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-09-24
LAWYERS SPEECH IN
GALSWORTHY PLAY
LONGEST ON STAGE
Plea for Prisoner Is Unique
Because of Its Humani-
tartan Idea
JUSTICE" TO BE SEEN
AT THE JEFFERSON
Foremost Thinker Exploits the Courts
in His Epochal Drama Now Run
ming at Gambler Theatre
in New York

Justice" a play by John Galsworthy,
one of the foremost thinkers of the pres
ent generation, which Is now enjoying an
indefinite run at the Gambler theatre in
New York, and which will be presented
at the jefferson theatre sometime in the
late fall, is featured by many impressive
scenes, but that of the speech of
Frome, the advocate, in his address to
the jury in defense of Falder played
by John Barrymore), ranks as one of
the distinct dramatic creations of the
year on the metropolitan stage.
Lester Lonergan is the actor that por-
trays the part of Frome.
A SIMPLE STORY
Justice" is the simple story of the
raising of a check by a junior clerk In
order to have funds to leave England
with the wife of another man who is a
brute. The clerk is arresterd, convicted,
serves his term and later suicides as the
result of indirect prosecution from the
authorities for his original offense. The
speech for the defense of Falder, the
clerk, follows:
IF it please your lordship, gentlemen
of the jury, my friend Counsel for the
CROWN in discrimination has shown
a disposition to sneer at the defense
which has been set up in this case, and,
say will move you, if the evidence has
not already convinced you that the pris-
oner committed this act in moment
when to all practical intents and pur-
poses he was not responsible for his ac-
tons; a moment of such mental and
moral vacuity, arising from the violent
emotional agitation under which he had
been suffering, as to amount to tenn
porary madness. My friend has alluded
to the romantic glamour with which
have sought to invest this case Gen
tlemen, | have done nothing of the kind.
have merely shown you the background
of 1ife-that palptating life which, be-
lieve me--whatever my friend may say,
always lies behind the commission of
crime.
A HIGHLY CIVILIZED AGE
Nov, gentlemen, we live in highly
civilized age, and the sight of brutal
violence disturbs US in very strange
way even when we have no personal in
terest in the matter. But when we see it
inflicted on a woman whom we love
what then? Just think of what your own
feelings would have been, each of you,
at the prisoners age; and then look at
him. Well! He Is hardly the comforta-
Bile, shall we say bucolic, person likely
to contemplate with '~luanimity marks
of gross violence on a woman to whom
he was devotedly attached. Yes, gentle.
men, look at him. He has not strong
face; but neither has he a vicious face.
He is just the sort of man who would
easily become the prey of his emotions.
You have heard the description of his
eyes. My friend may laugh at the word
funny l think 1t better describes the
peculiar uncanny look of those who are
strained to breaking point han any cher
word which could have been used. I don't
,s,,I 4l-A l.. AZ
sponsibility was more than a flash of
darkness in which all sense of proper
ton became lost; but do contend, that
just as man who destroys himself at
such moment may be, and often is, alb
solved from the stigma attaching to the
crime of self-murder, so he may, and
frequently does, commit other crimes
while in his irresponsible condition, and
that he may as justly be acquitted CT
criminal intent and treated as a patient.
PLEA MIGHT BE ABUSED
II admit that this is a plea which
might well be abused. 1t is a matter for
discretion. But here you have a case in
which there is every reason to give the
benefit of the doubt You heard me ask
the prisoner what he, thought of during
those four fatal minutes What was his
answer? L thought of Mr. Cokeson's
face" Gentlemen, no man could invent
an answer like that: it Is absolutely
stamped with truth. You have seen the
great affection legitimate or not, exist
ing between him and this woman, who
came here to give evidence for him at
the risk of her life. 1t is impossible for
you to doubt his distress on the morning
when he committed this act We well
know what terrible havoc such distress
can make in weak and highly nervous
people. 1t was all the work of a moment
The rest has followed as death follows
stab to the heart, or water drops if
you hold up a jug to empty it. Believe
me, gentlemen, there is nothing more
tragic In life than the utter impossiblity
of changing what you have DONE Once
this check was altered and presented.
the work of four minutes-four mad min
utes-the rest has been silence But in
those four minutes the boy before YOU
has slipped through door, hardly
opened, into that great cage which never
again quite let's a man go-the cage OF
the law. His further acts. his failure to
confess, the alteration of the counterfoil
his preparations for flight. are all evil
dence-not of deliberate and guilty inten-
tien when he committed the prime act
from which these subsequent acts arose:
no. They are merely evidence of the
weak chara cter which is clearly enough
his misfortune.
is A, MAN LOST?
"But is man to be lost because he is
bred and born with weak character?
Gentlemen, men like the prisoner are de-
stroyed daily under our law for want of