Evening star., 1938-02-27


the reviewer will certainly not quarrel
with that. 1t is more than under.
standable. But the means taken by
Belbenoit to crafty that impulse were
exactly those which defeated 1t for a
long time. The reviewer can only re-
peat the sense of what she said
in her criticism-that if tine chances
OF retaining ones health and morale
in French Guiana for eight years are
slim, they are even simmer when the
years are extended to IS, with the
original hard conditions of life made
worse for punishment.
RELBENOIT, on arriving in the
prison, was given light work and
had the comparative freedom within
the camp, which seems to be accorded
to men on good behavior His subse-
quent time in irons and in solitary
confinement came about as the result
of his own conduct This would seem
to bear out that the criminal does
Enthusiastically yield to immediate
desire" at the expense of intelligence
or, If you please, common sense.
It is true that the reviewer did not
mention the eight additional years
which the convict is required by law
to spend in Guiana as libere-that
is, as one who has freedom to do what
ever he wishes except leave the
country. This is an injustice; it would
seem therefore to be harder to bear
than the sentence for the crime. But
surely the better way for Belbenoit to
have dealt with it would have been
through those officials and friends who
showed kindly interest in him. If a
man with his record could win a
years parole from the governor. as
he did, it is likely that, with good be-
havior, he could have gotten COM
mutation.
Anyway, the plain fact is that he
did not much shorten his time and
that he worsened the conditions of
his imprisonment infinitely and that,
if the foreword Of the book is to be
believed, he ruined his health as
effectively as he could possibly have
done by quietly serving his sentence.
The reviewer is unable to see how this
course Of conduct escapes the de-
scription of stupid. "Tenacity of pur-
pose and ability to endure"-yes But
certainly not intelligence.
Nor, can one think, any perceptible
degree Of repentance, either. Rene
Belbenoit saw what he wanted and,
with blind determination and egotism,
went after It, He did exactly the
same thing when he emptied one en-
ployer's cash box and when he stole
another's pearls and pocketbook.
THE writer Of the critical letter
charges the reviewer with being
influenced. in her notice of the Bel
benoit book by Mr.. j. Edgar Hoover's
recent work, Persons In Hiding" ="
Il can't help but feel that it made q
great impression on you," she writes,
and that maybe you were trying to
fit Mr. Belbenoit into Mr.. Hoover S
theories on criminal psychology. Pos
sibly that is why you didn't get a
very fair picture of Mr. Belbenoit and
didn't give his book the good review
which it really deserves"
Well as to that, the reviewer is
quite willing to put it up to Mr..
Hoover. If he says that Belbenoit
was intelligent in his conduct as a
prisoner, or that he manifested diff
ferent state of mind. in his attempts
to escape, from that which he used
in his law-breaking-then she is
all wrong. She repeats, however. that
she never questioned Belbenoit S
tenacity of purpose or ability tn
endure, or that she denied that life
in French Guiana is the reverse of
a picnic And she Furthermore said
of Belbenoit's literary performance
his book, 1T is we'll written and
intelligent"
And just to give one more word
from the other side. she quotes this
note. the author of which asks not to
be mentioned:
I'VE can always depend on you to
give us an unsentimental interpreta-
ton of the books you review and to
look at them with a mind which
seems to be almost miraculously un-
swayed by ready-made opinions. l
refer particularly to your criticism of
DRY Guillotine" in last Sundays Star.
OF all the reviewers who will write
about that book I wonder if any of
them will keep so clear a view of the
essential facts and not lose sight of
the fact that the man was supremely
anti-social, and that his suffering was
the result Of his anti-social outlook
all the way along"
For these kind words, more thanks,
THE March Commentator is now
on the stands with a number OF
articles dealing with Washington
affairs For one thing, the Commen-
tator bears on its cover a picture OF
Secretary Of State Hull and has chosen
Mr.. Hull as the subject for its selec-
ton, THE Man of the Month" For
another, it publishes an article on
the National Labor Relations Board
cThe Boss Is Always Wrong" by Ray
Tucker). And for another, it tells
us that the Southern Democratic Sen
ators are planning to discredit the
President before 1910 C'The South
Secedes Again." by Dom Thomas)
And finally it contains piece on the
Washington columnists VANITY Un-
fair" by Carlisle Bergeron.
OF Secretary Hull. Commentator
says. 1T seems so good to have a
quiet man doing something. some
where-quietly," remarking too that
the Secretary's chief characteristic
has always been quiet.