Evening star., 1935-01-31

When she went back on the Stand Sne
seemed tired and confused.
his wife, he replied. mo, do not
think So"
Mrs. Hauptmanns reply to the form
of that question as applied to her was
an unqualified, mo, have no reason
to doubt him"
Listening to Hauptmann on the
stand, observing the evergreen phe-
nomenon of woman standing by TO
the death, the futility of much OF the
paraphernalia of justice, as it is being
meted out in Pennington and in hun
dredS of court rooms like it, strikes
fear and sense of impotence into the
heart of this beholder.
World Watches Grief.
Practically an entire world has
turned its eyes, like pair of prying,
scorching Klieg lights, onto the private
grief of the young parents, who
through every seeming volition except
their own continue to be the pro-
tagonists forced to play before a pub
lie which has apparently no limit to
its prying vulgarity, its obscene Curl
osity and its morbid desire to gaze
upon pain.
Pennington court room is filled with
eyes that want to see butterflies i'm
paled upon pins, frogs disSected and
surgical operations in amphitheaters.
In Pennington court room, where I
am seated watching human emotions
on undreSS parade, is small sea of
the faces of spectators not pretty or
edifying to behold. They are for the
most part shallow, maSochistic, sadis-
tic, sensation starved faces They are
the faces of the so-called respectable
public which blows off its lurid steam
by hacking bits of granite souvenirs
off the tombs of national heroes, beg
ging splinters off guillotines and pay
ing Paris guides to be taken to tourist
Shows"
Exposed to Spectacle.
Dumbell DoraS and dumbell
Johns are undoubtedly airing their
adenoids on the wooden benches of
the Pennington court room. But
simultaneously, and in spite of their
silly selves, they are being exposed to
a spectacle which must jerk them to
some kind of awareneSs of the ma
chinery of government which makes
this court room scene, of, for and by
the people, possible.
Trial by jury!
Those four ladies and eight gentle
men seated in the jury box, upon
whose decision rests the fate of this
case, have been called, not, mind you
like a learned CincinnatuS from his
plow, but like ordinary plowmen from
their plows, to mete out the care
fully considered gift of justice.
You, audience, cape if you will, but
above all, pause to think. Are these
four ladies and eight gentlemen, good,
substantial, God-fearing citizenry that
they appear to be, qualified in your
mind or in your opinion to judge OF
the innermost recesses of your hearts,
to say nothing of the recesses OF the
Bruno Hauptmann heart, the con-
niving perjurer's heart, the lying wit
ness'S heart, the spellbinder's heart,
the willy orators heart, the martic-
ulates heart?
What chance have their not highly
trained mindS-the tranquil lady Juror
in the third seat, there, who Is cham
pion cake baker of her county, or the
pleasant-faced machiniSt beside her,
who loves his bungalow ife-to cope |
with the terrific and sudden lombard
ment of circumstances, Wordage, cum
ming, eloquence, rebuttal, spellbindery, |
technical babel and carefully planned
dramatic effects, which, out Of a clear
village sky, so to speak, are being un- |
loosed upon them?
Village ladies suddenly catapulted
out of the small routine of small lives
into Notwithstanding decisions; trades
men lifting their respectable noses
from the grindstone and trying to
focus the unframed mind onto the
cunning and tricky technique OF the
court room.
What chance have these II, dazed
by trick of speech, by the lightning
mentality of brilliant prosecution and
defense, by the blare of publicity, the
sudden upset of routine life, the ex- |
citement of more events in one day |
than perhaps they are accustomed to |
in q year, to focus with clarity and !
wisdom and sound Judgment upon the |
decisions ahead of them? |
Are they capable of passing judg-
ment upon the prisoner at the bar?