Evening star., 1938-02-20

AUIOtLy Tue LIOtty DSuU. MT
1Dith drawings By a telloD con,
by William La Vdrre, F. r. G.
eight years there, Belbenoit records
that his immediate determination was
to escape. He reached that decision,
indeed. before leaving France, so 1t
was not prison conditions which mott
waited him. Arrived. he made repeated
attempts to get away. Four times he
tried unsuccessfully, and his sentence
grew accordingly. He had been
warned by the commandant that es-
cape was virtually impossible; he had
/, been told that the only way to tighten
his lot was by good behavior. He
knew that attempts to escape resulted
in longer time and harsher treatment.
But he persisted. 1t would seem that.
If eight years in the colony was a
friRhtful prospect. Is years would
have been worse. But apparently this
view of the matter never occurred to
Belbenoit.
One might understand the reason
ing behind repeated attempts to get
away If the convict in question were
sentenced for life or If he had depend
ents. Belbenoit, however, was young
enough when sentenced to have served
his original term and still have had
his life before him. And he was alone
in the world. His breaks for freedom,
therefore, seem peculiarly stupid-they
were the precise means of keeping him
in the place. Granting. that his punish-
ment was heavy for his crime, submis-
sion would still seem to have been
the course of wisdom.
Yet the book definitely is not the
work Of a stupid man. It is well writ
ten and intelligent. It not only tells
OF the horrors of the penal colony, as
so many books have done before it; it
goes into the policy behind those hor-
rors. It states fatly that the real
purpose Of the prison administration
Is to kill the prisoners of and, in
support Of this contention, points out
that. though TOO men are sent there
each year. the total number never
grows. The death rate takes care of
any increase.
The book also goes into the cor
ruption Of the prison officials to some
length. Every man appointed there,
says Belbenoit, from turnkey to COM
mandant. has his particular graft,
jealousy guarded from other possible
profiteers. Yet this system works to
the benefit of the prisoners in the
long run, since all of the lower OIL
clals are open to bribes, so that
convict with little money can ameli-
crate his lot considerably. Belbenoit
pays tribute to Gov. Siadous for hon.
esty and humanity; he also mentions
a physician who took his work among
the convicts seriously. The others,
however, he brands unscrupulous and
brutal to an almost unbelievable de-
gree.
Belbenoit, it should be said, did
finally escape. He had written his
book while there. encouraged by Blair
Niles. who met him on her visit to
the colony when she gathered material
for her work, Condemned to Devils
Island" Carrying his manuscript he
broke away at last, journeyed for two
years through the jungles, enduring
appalling hardships. and made his
way up through Panama and Mexico
to the United States. Mr.. La Varre
met him twice on the way. Negley
Farson, in his "Transgressor in the
Tropics" reports that he met an es-
capped convict in Panama. It may
have been this same man.
Belbenoit Is 80 today and, according
to Mr.. La varre. terribly emaciated.
almost blind, toothless, scurvy-eaten
and fever-wrecked. :" But for his
repeated attempts to escape he would
have been released with seven years
less time and surely in somewhat bet
ter health. It would seem indeed
that the criminal does have q psy-
chology Of his own. . way of thinking
that takes account of nothing but i'm
mediate desire. apart not only from
morality but from common sense.
CONQUERER OF THE SEAS. BY
Stefan Zweig. New York: The
Viking Press.
THIS is the biography Of a man of
whom almost every one has heard
but of whom few of US know more
than his name-Ferdinand Magellan.
It Is fine adventurous story. The
author. according to his own account,
made trip to South America . short
time ago and voyaged in such comfort
and safety on the modern ship that the
contrast between today's easy journey
ing and the hard, perilous sailing Of
the early discoverers could not but Inn
press him. And 1t impressed him 20
deeply. he relates. that he finally came
to write this book from 'shame."
Allowing for pleasant story, there
is much to be said for the comparison,
not q 1t applies to Mr.: zweig's particu-
lar case, but to those Of ali modern
travellers. For nowhere In our life to-
day can we hnd parallel for the hard
ships and dangers encountered by the
men who pushed back the sea
horisons Of the world after the dark
ages; such parallels no longer exist.
The man who takes = party into the
Antarctic probably comes closest to
realizing the early conditions Of ex-
ploring, but even his case does not ap-
prcximate the conditions In essen
tials, for he knows where he is eoing.
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