Evening star., 1928-12-01

4 matlcul0uS ABOUT statements
calling for the conclusion of the
witness"
IF your honor, please, should like
to answer the question"
II withdraw the objection" Graham
subsided meekly.
THE most significant factor In
Orme's life of recent years." DR.. Cav
anaugh turned from the district at
torney and addressed the jury CONVEX
sationally, "naS been the loss of two
of his fingers. From a squalid child
hood he had been lifted by his talent
into a world of muSic-a world where
he met some of the greatest names Of
Europe on a plane of congeniality and
equality.
"At one stroke he was hurled out of
that environment. hurled back into a
poverty and a limitation far worse than
that in which he started because it was
now complicated by thwarted ambition.
The result, in man of his tempera-
ment, was sense of inferiority-an
inferiority actual and yet undeServed-
which conditioned his entire life.
ut was for that reason that Mrs.
Orme's Skepticism regarding his musi-
cal ability moved him even more pow
erfully than the cooling of her love and
her attentions to other men.
HE transferred to the loss Of his
memory the same intense feeling Of
inferiority which had goaded him ever
since the loss of his fingers. 1t was a
further Topping off, you see-another
blow of fate stamping him as incom-
plete, as unable to hold his own with
normal men.
"You must remember that we are
here dealing all along with exaggerated
reactions. In the short time at my
disposal for treatment, was unable
to eradicate from David Orme's mind
the idea that his flight from reality
in the form of fugue was an act OF
personal and moral cowardice.
1T was not that. of courSe-it was
absolutely beyond his control But re-
member the tortured pride with which
he endured the humiliation of rubbing
sandpaper in a jazz orchestra when he
had expected to take his place among
the worlds great violinists. He had
dragged himself back from the tempta-
ton Of suicide because he thought it
cowardly to run away from life.
And yet, after enduring that depth
of bitterness, he found that after all he
had run away Rather than admit
that flight, with the moral stigma
which he placed upon 1t, he was WILL
ing to let things take their course. even
if his silence resulted in his convic-
ton. Life, you see, was already a
prison to him, and sentence OF death
would offer him honorable escape, his
final release"
For a moment, silence hung over the
courtroom. Every mind was contem-
plating the vision of a tormented soul
called up by the doctors quiet and yet
compellingly earnest utterance. The
district attorney was the first to shake
himself free of the spell.
He shuffied his notes, coughed,
changed his position.
May I ask doctor" he said, con-
cealing his uneasiness under an air Of
ponderous assurance, whether it Is
your custom to take your patients of
the streets and give them course OF
treatment at their mere request, with
no assurance of their ability to pay
for your services?"
Your honorl" Graham sprang to
his feet, finding relief in action. do
/ understand that the district attor-
ney is attempting to impeach this wit
neSS?"
What Mr.. Graham understands Is
beyond my power to fathom, as l
make no pretense Of being mind
reader or psychiatrist." The district