Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-12-22
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
!. C.. NJ.

Arthur Train. New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons. Washington:
Brentano's.
1t appeared. day or sc ago. in
The Evening Star-the picture Of a
'l1fef' oroadcasting his word to the
world from within the prison walls.
At each side of the chair upon which
he sits uniformed guard sta nds, fore
stallins any rash hope Of escape, any
sudden turn OF attack. The aspect of
the prisoner is gloom, indescribabie.
The brows are deeply drawn in upon
eyes that are but two points Of
puzzled query. The face is plowed in
deep burrows, the jaws are sagged the
body dropped Not a wicked face.
Rather. one that is greatly discour-
aged over the mystery that is himself
in an even more mysterious world.
1t is the general heyday of Christ
mas good will that, to this criminal
condemned to prison for life-is grant
ed the gift Of saying his word to the
free people outside.
To those listening in on that day
the voice coming through the air held
certainly no note Of complaint, car
ried no minor thread of whimpering.
Instead, its straight content was.
What is it all about. and why?" The
words. to be sure, were broken-quite
unintelligible to many-spaced with
long silences-then bursting into a
rounded challenge of sturdy protest.
Just, maybe, at the last, there was
mention OF the amnesty which at this
season SO frequently lies in the eX-
tended hand OF authority. If such
were the final note of this ''lifers"
message to his invisible audience. that
note must have been addressed direct
~ L .Futr nc,
State. For this criminal is none other
than Pep, the governors own dog,
serving life term In prison for the
unspeakable crime Of killing cat.
Cats" Is the exact term OF the in,
dictment
NV hand fell away from this picture
to 3 book lying beside me-a wide
open. face-up volume. And-believe II
or rot--Arthur Trains 'On the Trail
of the Bad Men" had opened itself al
the chapter, Animals In Court"
The main track Of this book is sci,
according to title, by the bad men.
not by the other bad animals. And
this broad path would. in ordinary
circumstances. absorb the reader in
Arthur Trains thoroughly Trainesque
frankness Of statement concerning
courts and lawyers and judges and
trials. The law Is his own craft. So,
talking from the inside, he tells OF the
confusing mandarinic bonlbast OF legal
procedure. He exposes the futility OF
many laws He derides the sacrosanct
invioIability of mere statutes. He
warns against the labyrinthine maze
Of legal technic This plain treatment
OF his own professional household
set out concreteIv in cases and Incl
dents innumerable. projected in q
keen but smiling satire-provldes
good reading and valuable informa
ton. 1t deserves the best of atten.
ton from the critic and the reviewer
on the one hand. from the student
and everyday man on the other.
But YOU see in this particular case
that dog of Gov. Pinchot's has the
chair. And he, quite by chance. but
none the less effectually. draws &c
himself and to us, others OF his errins
kind that have come up squarely
against the majesty Of the law.
In the main, the criminal animals
cited here take us back TO the middle
ages and thereabout. Though. i'm ex
ception TO this. there is the chin
was arrested out in the West Tor
violating one of the blue laws by
smoking a cigarette In a forbidden
place. Or. was that only newspaper
story? Or wasn't it q chimpanZee
after all-but something that looked
much like one instead? And is this
picture of Pep. the hound ''lifer' of
PENNSYLVANIA, but press erect
Never mind. 1t is essentially true
So il serves.
And here in the good company OF
Arthur Train we go back TO times
when il was a commonplace to hale
animals. other than man, into court
.as men themselves were. and are, sc
frequently cited to appear there.
This chapter sounds like dream
n mad dream. Ii Is authentic history
instead Listen. In 1886 at Fala1se
a SOW running loose through the
streets bit a child in the face and
arms The child died. Thereupon the
church authorities caused the SOW TO
he caught and impounded. They then
turned her over to the lay author
tiles Of the town. A solemn trial was
held and the SOW was pronounced
guilty of murder. The Lex Talionis
was invoked-'an eye for an eye. a
given that the SOW should be mangled
and manned in head and leg and then
hanged They sent to Paris for an
executioner The SOW was then
dressed in a mans clothes, led out
and killed in the public square. Now
the dressing Of the animal in the
habiliments of the human was to in
dictate it's equal responsibility with
man.
In 1899 the judiciary of the Cts.
tercian Abbey of Beaupre sent a
bull to the salIows for having killed
with ferocity" boy of 10. In 1853
Augustus. Duke Of Saxony, commend
ed the Christian zeal of the good par
son Daniel Greysser for having put
under the ban the sparrows on &C
count of their unceaSing. vexatious
and great clamor and scandalous un.
chastity during the sermon, to the
hindrance of Gods word and of Chris
tian devotion" Similarly did Egbert
Bishop Trier, anathemiZe the swal
,, lows which disturbed the devotions
of the faithful and defiled his vest
ments while officiating at the altar
He forbade them to enter the cathe
dral. and it is still believed that II q
swallow flies into the great door II
instantly falls to the ground dead-a
victim of the bishops curse" So the
gruesome records run in dozens OF
| examples gathered here.
An interesting feature of thi:
strange docket Is that no bug, birC
or beast was too small to be accused
of crime and placed on trial for it's Of
Tense, and the defendants include
caterpillsrs. flies, locusts, leeches
snails, slugs. worms, weevils, rats
and mice'-the whole whatnot Of ami
NAL life. Did not God curse the ser
pent in Eden?-so this ancient rea
soning runs. Did not David curse the
mountain of Gilboa? Did not Christ
himself pronounce against the barrier
fig tree? These-animal prosecutions