The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1924-06-20
PROD|G|ES LIVE
SECRET INNER
! LIFE
leopold and Loeb Forced to
Be Abnormal, Says
Writer
By JULIA MCCARTHY.
Written for international News
Service,

CHICAGO, June 20.-Prodigies
have no playmates.
Their books are their best
friends. @
They cannot play with children
of the same age. Too boresome.
Their elders are merely amused
BY the phenomenon of the prodigy.
So the too bright boy selects his
1ntimates from the white leaves OF
the library rather than the red
cheeks of the playground.
His life Is abnormal.
So were the lives Of Nathan Leo
pold, jr., and his chum, Richard
Loeb, two university boys who con-
fessed to the brutal murder of
Robert Franks.
Nathan Leopold, though a social
1avorite among his set, lived a Sc
cret inner life that was more salts
factory than anyone could ever
Know. All prodigies do this very
thing, one way or another, though
Few chose to live dangerously,
Ii ne doesn't fit in at stupid, do.
nestle table conversation, the
prodigy knows he can maintain a
superior silence.
You can't stop prodigy from re-
ceiving the literary confidence of
great authors who might be better
associates for his old age.
Wickedness in Literature.
Literature, particularly in its le.
gends, is full Of symbols Of forbid.
den things. The things you mustn't
see or do or speak Of or create. Holy
things and wicked. Dangers. Blue.
boards chamber. Pandora's box.
The Frankenstein monster.
Life is full of the things you must
beware Of.
Leopold and Loeb. being prod
1g1es, are unfortunate.
Books were their best friends.
And 1t has been the fashion to de.
cry the danger Of going down into
. the dark mines of the written
wealth or the past and present.
The hangman may hand them
their diplomas Of death. And they
may wear, not cap and gown. hut
only the black cap that drops over
the eyes and is never to be DOTTED.
This is the fate both fear. A fate
brought on after the boys passed
up" parents--and professors of tha
more prudent type-and decided
that experience was the best
teacher.
How He Treated Temptation.
Leopold believed that the only
thing to do with temptation was to
give in to 1t.
Then there was the case of rne
girl student Knocked because she
admitted regular church attendance.
But you don't think she was
told. You are letting other people
do your thinking. That sorh of
thing isn't done now. You mfehs as
well not have a mind If others are
going to use, it for you"
Challenge to Youth.
And the trouble IS that perfectly
good moral people, not criminals,
preach this sort of thing while play.
ing safe themselves. Such state.
ments are a challenge to flaming
A bookseller who for years mold
reading to boys like Leopold and
Leob and who has had them among
his customers said recently:
Il sec this sort Of thing all the
time. Boys OF seven picking the
fourteen year cld's books. The
fourteen-year old reading what is
better for the men Of thirty. / don't
cay they're reading actually bad.
books, hut it is bad for them to be
too advanced at en- early age.
Parents are often warned by book
clerks, but they seem to take a
strange pride in the fact that their
children are so smart" ,...f,
The tales of supermen and their.
treacheries seem to argue that
you can get away with wicked.
ness
Two boys in jail now know that
Is not true. :,