Evening star., 1930-11-30

This promotes laxity Of thought In relation Hn
criminals that has bad consequences.
We can't expect our present deplorahle cxim8
condatsons 20 improve as long sentiment
rather than cold reason prevails In the coawe
room. It Is bound to interfere with fair ara
impartial trial But think it is only question
OF tune when the jury system composed hg
laymen win die out"
just how little Van Dine thinks Of our courts
of justice Is revealed time and again IN his
books. Whenever criminal is apprehended
for his crime, Philo Vance sees to it that he
makes an exit from this earth before he ever
reaches q court ROOM The clever detective
knows that once he is given a trial there n
too great chance that he will be acquitted
Van Dine was student of criminology before
he wrote the Murder Case" series. In his
youth he had been voraciouS reader of the
Sherlock Holmes stories and he had been fae-.
c1nated by the wonderful inductive reasoniuG
OF that world-famous detective of fiction. at
that time he little dreamed he would some day
create detective who would share fiction
honors with Sherlock Holmes. While criminof-
ogy appealed to him. he was primarily inter-
ested in the classics, in painting, music and
writing, and he entertained number of am
bitions when he was graduated from college.
But none Of them had anything to do with
the writing Of detective stories He also studied
medicine, anthropology and ethnology, and ak
one time he deserted them in order to become
an orchestra conductor
He finally took up journalism and under his
own name, willard Huntington Wright he be-
came known as q brilliant and scholarly critic.
He wrote various books on painting and ptilz
oGophy and one novel
He was working in Europe when the World
War broke out, and the horror of the devasta-
ton I'm addition to the strain brought on by too
much writing began to undermine his health
He returned to America and shortly after had
nervous breakdown. For three years he was
an invalid. Since his physician would not
permit him to read anything but light fiction,
he turned TO the Sherlock Holmes stories again
and once more the brilliant reasoning Of the
detective intrigued him. After that he read
nothing but detective stories as he became ms
terested IN anaIyzing the formula and technique,
HE started to work on some outlines Of de-
tecttve novels in order to see whether he
could put his knowledge to practical account,
But it wasn't until his physician had cautioned
him against returning to his serious literary
work for another year or two that he began aA
think Of doing fiction stories based ON the outs
lines he made. Under the pen name Of g. s.
Van Dine he wrote his famous detective stories.
Van Dine Is now working on his last mystery
story. Having won fame and fortune, he A.
anxious to return to more serious writing ana
resume his own name. He expects to continue
with his studies Of criminology. Unlike q good
many students. though, he does not believe
that crime will ever be eradicated.
81 don't mean the killings of the bootleggeTR
and racketeers," he said. "That is an excepa
tional condition brought about by prohibition.
refer to the murders of passion, which spring
from anger, jealousy, envy, quarrels, greed and
even economic need These crimes have been
with us since the beginning Of history and VIII
remain as long as there are human beings on
earth. Human nature is always the same.
The Egyptian happer had the same interests
and desires as the American dapper has. They
have the same reactions. In the last 5,0Oo
years human nature has not improved an iotA.
Greed, selfshness and envy still exist. As long
az you cannot change these human instincts
you win have crime"
(Copyrieht I93OD