22

THE CONSCIENCEOF THE COURT

By ZORA NEALE HURSTON

The judge was ashamed.

An unlettered witness reminded

him of something

he had learned years ago —

and almost forgotten.

\

23

[ HE clerk of the cotirt took a good look at thetall brown-skinned woman with the headrag on. She sat on the third bench hack witha husky officer beside her.

"The People versus Laura Lee Kimhle!"The policeman nudged the woman to get to her

feet arfd led her up to the broad rail. She stood there,looking straight ahead. The hostihty in the roomreached her without her seeking to find it.

Unpleasant things were ahead of Laura Lee Kim-ble, hut she was ready for this moment. It might bethe electric chair or the rest of her life in some higlonesome jail house, or even torn to pieces by a mob,but she had passed three long weeks in jail. She hadcome to the place where she could ttu-n her face tothe wall and feel neither fear nor anguish. So this

ILLUSTRATED It) WILLIAM A. SMITH

here so-called trial was nothing to her but a formand a fashion and an outside show to the world. Shecould stand apart and look on calmly. She stooderect and looked up at the judge.

"Charged with felonious and aggravated assault.Mayhem. Premeditated attempted murder on theperson of one Clement Beasley. Obscene and abtisivelanguage. Laura Lee Kimble, how do you plead?"

Laura Lee was so fascinated by the long-namedthings that they were acctising her of that she stoodthere tasting over the words. Lawdy me! she musedinside herself. Look like I done every crime exceptinghabeas corpus and stealing a mule.

"Answer the clerk!" The officer nudged LauraLee. "Tell him how you plead."

"Plead? Don't reckon I make out jtist what youall mean by that." She looked from face to face andat last up at the judge, with bewilderment in hereyes. She found him looking her over studiously.

The judge understood the look in her face, but hedid not interfere so promptly as he ordinarily wotildhave. This was the man-killing bear cat of a womanthat he had heard so much about. Though spare offat, she was built strongly enough, all right. An oddNegro type. Gray-green eyes, large and striking,looking out of a chestnut-brown face. A great abun-dance of almost straight hair only partially hiddenby the high-knotted colored kerchief about her head.Somehow this woman did not look fierce to him atall. Yet she had beaten a man within an inch of hislife. Here was a riddle to solve. With the proud,erect way she held herself, she might be some savagequeen. The shabby housedress she had on detractednothing from this impression. She was a challenge tohim somehow or other.

"Perhaps you don't understand what the clerkmeans, Laura," the judge found himself saying toher in a gentle voice. "He wants you to say whetheryou are guilty of the charges or not."

"Oh, I didn't know. Didn't even know if he wastalking to me or not. Much obliged to you, sir."Laura Lee sent His Honor a shy smile. "'Deed Idon't know if I'm guilty or not. I hit the man afterhe hit me, to be sure, Mist«r Judge, but if I'm guiltyI don't know forstire. All them hig words and all."

The clerk shook his head in exasperation andquickly wrote something down. Laura Lee ttirnedher head and saw the man on the hospital cot swad-dled all up in bandage rags. Yes, that was the veryman who caused her to be here where she was.

"All right, Laura Lee," the judge said. "You cantake your seat now until you are called on."

The prosecutor looked a question at the judge andsaid, "We can proceed." The judge nodded, thenhalted things as he looked down at Latirá Lee.

"The defendant seems to have no lawyer to rep-resent her." Now he leaned forward and spoke toLaura Lee directly. "If you have no money to hireyourself a lawyer to look out for your interests, thecourt will appoint one for you."

There was a pause, during which Laura Lee cov-ered a lot of ground. Then she smiled faintly at thejudge and answered him. "Naw sir, I thank you.Mister Judge. Not to turn you no short answer, butI don't reckon it would do me a hit of good. I'mmighty much ohligod to you just the same."

The implications penetrated instantly and thejudge flushed. This unlettered woman had called upsomething that he had not thought about for quitesome time. The campus of the University of Vir-ginia and himself as a very yoimg man there, filledwith a reverence for his profession amounting to analmost holy dedication. Hia fascination and awe as eprofessor traced the more than two thousand yearsof growth of the concepts of human right« and jtxs-tice. That brought him to his greatest hero, JohnMarshall, and his inner resolve to follow in the greatman's steps, and even add to interpretations of hu-man rights if his abilities allowed. No, he had notthought about all this for quite some time. Thejudge flushed slowly and deeply.

"All I did waii grab him h> hi.shi>cls und fruil the pillar of theporrli witli him a few times."

Below him there, the prosecutor was movingswiftly, but somehow his hrisk cynicism offended thejudge. He heard twelve names called, and jtjst likethat the yxxry hox was filled and sworn in.

Rapidly now, witnesses took the stand, and theirtestimony was all damaging to Laura .Lee. The doc-tor who told how terribly Clement Beasley had beenhurt. Left arm broken above the elbow, compoundfracture of the forearm, two ribs cracked, concus-sion of the brain and various internal injuries. Twoneighbors wbo had heard the commotion and ar-rived before the house in time to see Laura Leefling the plaintiff over the gate into the street. Thesix arresting officers all got up and had their say,and it was very bad for Laura Lee. A two-legged she-devil no less.

Clement Beasley was bome from his cot to thewitness stand, and he made things look a hundredtimes blacker. His very appearance aroused a bum-ble of pity, and anger against the defendant. Thejudge had to demand quiet repeatedly. Beasley'stestimony blew strongly on the hot coals.

His story was that he had come in conflict withthis defendant by loaning a sizable sum of money toher employer. The money was to be repaid at hisoffice. When the date was long past due, he had goneto the house near the river, jtist off Riverside Drive,to inquire why Mrs. Clairbome had not paid him,nor even come to see him and explain. Imagine hisshock when he wormed it out of the defendant thatMrs. Clairbome bad left Jacksonville. Further, hedetected evidence that the defendant was packingup the things in the hotise. The loan had been made,six hundred dollars, on the furnishings of the entirehouse. He had douhted that the furnishings wereworth enough for the amount loaned, but he hadwanted to be generous to a widow lady. Seeing thedefendant packing away the silver, he was natu-rally alarmed, and the next morning went to thehotJse with a moving van to seize the furniture andprotect the loan. The defendant, surprised, attackedhim as soon as he appeared at the front door, in-jured him as he was, and would have killed him ifhelp had not arrived in time.

Laura Lee was no longer a spectator at her owntrial. Now she was in a flaming rage. She would haveleaped to her feet as the man pictured Miz' Celes-tine as a cheat and a crook, and again as he sat upthere and calmly lied about the worth of the furni-ttire. All of those wonderful antiques, this man mak-ing out that they did not equal his minching sixhundred dollars! That he was a sin and a shame!The People was a meddlesome and unfriendly passeland had no use for the truth. It brought back to herin a taunting way what her husband, Tom, had toldher over and over again. This world had no tise forthe love and friending that she was ever trying togive.

It looked now that Tom could be right. Even Miz'Celestine had tumt her back on her. She was here inthis place, the house of The People, all by herself.She had ever disbelieved Tom and had to get to beforty-nine before sh-; found out the truth. Well, justas the old folks said, " It's never too long for a bullfrog to wear a stiff-bosom shirt. He's bound to getit dirtied some time or other."

"You have testified," Laura Lee heard the judgetalking, " that you came in contact with the defend-ant through a loan to Mrs. J. Stuart Clairbome, heremployer, did you not?"

"Yes, Yotir Honor," Beasley answered promptlyand glihly.

"That being true, the court cannot understandwhy that note was not offered in evidence."

Beasley glanced quickly at the prosecutor andlowered his eyes. " I —I just didn't see why it wasnecessary. Your Honor. I have it, but "

" I t is not only pertinent, it is of the utmost im-portance to this case. I order it sent for immediatelyand placed in evidence."

The tall, lean, hlack-haired prosecutor hurled asurprised and betrayed look at the bench, then,after a pause, said in a flat voice, "The State rests."

What was in the atmosphere crawled all overLaura Lee like reptiles. The silence shouted that hergoose was cooked. But even if the sentence wasdeath, she didn't mind. Celestine Beaufort Clair-bome had failed her. Her (Cnntinueti un /'agp 112)

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Putting our heads together. Red andI figured out his vital statistics, includ-ing his mother's name before Bhe hadmarried. The question of who had hiredliim and when he had worked waslougher. As he recalled it, Nancy, the¡¡resident of the senior class, had passedhim on the street and yelled out, "Comeoil over to The Archive and fold papersawhile!" Since he worked five nightaaweek in the drugstore, and we onlyfolded papers on Wednesday, he fig-ured it must have l>een a Wednesdaywlien he was off, and it was winter, he-cause there was snow on the ground." Rate of pay" we knew to be seventy-iive cents hecause that was what thechit said, but he couldn't rememberhow long he had been there. He saidhe was quite surprised to get paid atall, because he had spent a half hour ina comer rehashing a basketball game,and l)y the time be got to the foldingtable there was a terrible argument go-ing on about how many ligbt-years itwas to the moon, and he couldn't re-member doing any work at all, thoughbe supposed he must bave folded a fewpapers. I bought him a soda while wetbresbed these fine points out, andfinally arrived home exactly one hourlate for supper.

That evening, and several there-after, the rest of them dropped in at theoffice for help on their blanks. Accord-ing to law, I was then serving at timeand a half, or sixty cents an hour, andon that basis my advice ran to a littleover six dollars. I still haven't paid my-self.

Early in the second week of our"routine" check by the Wage andHour Division of the Labor Depart-ment we stood charged with operatingin interstate commerce, running somesort of a sweatshop for kids under six-teen and discriminating against corpo-ration executives. I couldn't help won-dering when our man would get downto brass tacks and look into our fourregular employees.

I didn't have to wait long. I returnedto the office one afternoon late, afterbeing out at a farm demonstration. Theinvestigator had been there most of thetime I was gone and had taken eachemployee off into a comer for cross-examination. According to the men, orratber, the boys—their average age is

twenty-four—he found something sin-ister in the fact that the nineteen-year-old linotype operator made as much as$110 a week. He showed great distresswhen he learned we didn't have a timeclock, but just paid the men whateverthey said we owed them at the end ofthe week. There was also something ir-regular about the fact that we paid theforeman a salary and gave him paid va-cations, a practice we have sinceabandoned.

Very little work was done on tbe dayof tbese interviews. Not that the actualquestioning took so long, but by thetime everybody had compared notesand told what he said and they said, itwas about quitting time, so, rather thanrun into overtime, we closed up and Istuck around till two or three in themorning to get the work finished andincidentally get myself some more over-time.

The chief result, to date, of theWage and Hour visit is that we had togo out and get an automatic newspaperpress that folds as it prints, thus elim-inating all the part-time workers andthe lady who fed the old press. Althougliwe Irnd hoped to put one in eventually,we were in no position financially to doit at this time. Even though we took itapart, moved it and put it togetherourselves, it had cost us eight thousanddollars so far, despite tbe fact that itia at least forty-five years old.

I don't know what the verdict of theWage and Hour people will be, onceall the data is filed. I suppose thethree of us could go to the peniten-tiary or go broke. In talking aboutit with other small-business men aroundtown, I am encouraged to believe weshall somebow survive. Most of themclaim to have had more harassing ex-periences, and they are still operatingat the old stand. Furthermore, theyassure me that this is only the begin-ning, as I can expect another man fromWage and Hour along any day to checkon the first one, and ultimately a thirdto check on the second; and, after all,I haven't been checked out by thestate Department of Labor or the un-employment-compensation people, notto mention the income-tax man andthe FBI.

There is. of course, one possible solu-tion: We can close the paper.

THE CONSCIENCEOF THE COURT(Continued from Page 23)

husband and all her folks had gone onbefore. What was there to be so happyo live for any more? She had writ that

letter to Miz' Celestine the very firstday that she had been placed in jail.Three weeks had gone by on tbeirrusty ankles, and never one word fromher Celestine. Laura Lee choked back asob and gritted her teeth. You had tobear what was placed on your hack for

ou to tote."Laura Lee Kimble," the judge was

raying, "you are charged with serious•elonies, and the law must take its;ourse according to the evidence. You•efused the lawyer that the court of-fered to provide for you, and that was amistake on your part. However, youhave a right to be sworn and tell thejury your side of tbe story. Tell themanjrthing that might help you, so longas you tell the truth."

Laura Lee made no move to get toher feet and nearly a minute passed.'hen the judge leaned forward.

"Believe it or not, Laura Lee, this isa court of law. It is needful to hear bothsides of every question before the courtcan reach a conclusion and know whatto do. Now, you don't strike me as aperson that is unobliging at all. I be-lieve if you knew you would be helpingme out a great deal by telling your sideof tbe story, you would do it."

Involuntarily Laura Lee smiled. Sbestood up. "Yes, sir, Mister Judge. If }can be of some help to you, I sure will.And I thank you for asking me."

Being duly sworn, Laura Lee sat inthe chair to face the jury as she hadbeen told to do.

"You jury-gentlemens, they askedme if I was guilty or no, and I still don'tknow whether I is or not. I am a un-learnt woman and common-clad. Itdon't surprise me to find out I'm igno-rant about a whole heap of things. Iain't never rubbed tbe bnir off of myhead against no college walls andschooled out nowhere at all. AU I'mable to do is to tell you gentlemens howit was and then you can tell me if I'm 'guilty or no.

" I would not wish to set up here andlie and make out that I never hit this

(Continued on Page ¡14)

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(Cinuintu-il frutii l'itfív 1¡2)plaintive back. Gentlemena, I ain't hadno malice in my heart agaitist the plain-tjve. I seen him only one time before hecome there and commenced that fracaswith me. That was three months ago,the day after Tom, my htishand, died!Miz* Celestine called up the funeralhome and they come and got Tom tofix him up so we could take him back toGeorgia to lay him to rest. That's whereus all come from, Chatham County-Savannah, that is.

"Then now. Miz' Celeatine donesomething I have never knowed her todo he-fore. She put on her things andwent off from home without letting meknow where she was botind for. Shecome back afterwhile with this plain-tive, which I had never seen before inall my borned days. I glimpsed himgood from the kitchen where I was at,walking all over the dining room andthe living room with Miz' Celestineand looking at things, but they wastalking sor^ of low like, and I couldn'tmake out a word what they was talkingabout. I figgored that Miz' Celestinemust of been kind of beside herself,showing somebody look like this plain-tive ail her fine things like that. Herthings is fine and very scarce old an-tiques, and I know that she liave beenoffered vast sums of money for 'em, butshe would never agree to part withnone. Thiïigs that been Iianded downin both the Beaufort and the Clairbornefamilies from way back. That little oldminching six hundred dollars that theplaintive mentioned wouldn't even beworth one piece of her things, not tomention her silver. After a while theywent ofTand when Miz' Celestine comeback, she told me that everything hadbeen taken care of and she had thetickets to Savannah in her purse.

"Bright and soon next morning weboarded the train for Savannah to buryTom. Miz' Celestine done even morethan she had promised Tom. She tookhim hack like she had promised, so thathe could be buried in our family lot,and he was covered with flowers, andhis church and his lodges turned outwith him, and he was put away likesome big mogul of a king. Miz* Celes-tine was tbere sitting rigbt along by myside all the time. Then me and Miz'Celestine come on 6ack down here toJacksonville by ourselves.

"And Mrs. Clairborne didn't run offto keep from paying nobody. She's aClairborne, and before that, she wasborn a Beatifort. They don't owe no-body, and they don't rtm away. Thatain't the kind of raising they gets. Miz'Clairborne's got money of her own, andlives off of the interest which she re-ceives regular every six months. Shewent off down there to Miami Beach tosort of refresh herself and rest up hernerves. What with being off down herein Florida, away from all the folks shetised to know, for three whole years,and cooped up there in her hotise, andremembering her dear husband beingdead, and now Tom gone, and nobodyleft of the old family around exceptingher and me, she was nervous andpeaked like. It wasn't her, it was methat put her up to going off down therefor a couple of months so maybe shewould come back to herself. She nevercheeped to me about borrowing nomoney from nobody, and I sure wasn'tpacking nothing up to move off whenthis plaintive come to the door. I wasjust gleaming up the silver to kill timewhilst I was there by myself.

"And, gentlemens, I never tackledthe plaintive just as soon as he mountedthe porch like he said. The day beforethat, he had come there and asked-ed

me if Miz' Clairborne was at home. Itold him no, and then he asked-ed mejust when I expected her back. I toldhim she was down at Miami Beach, andgot the letter that she had sent me so jhe could geL her right address. Hethanked me and went off. Then thenext morning, here he was back with agreat big moving wagon, rapped on thedoor and didn't use a bit of mannersand politeness this time. Without evena 'Good morning' he says for me to gitout of his way because he come to hauloff all the furniture and things in thehotise and he is short for time.

You jury-gentlemens, I told him inthe nicest way that I knowed how thatbe must of been crazy. Miz' Celestinewas off from home and she had left methere as a kind of guardeen to lookaft«r her house and things, and I surecouldn't so handy leave nobody toucha thitig in Mrs. Clairborne's house un-lessen she was there and said so.

"He jtist looked at me like I wassomething that the buzzards laid and ,the sun hatched out, and told me to \

SONG IN THEIMPERATIVE MOOD

Hy I^>U1

Coll frisk and Ianil> leapAnd calf jtimp «vtr the clod,

lto> race and girl chase,All in the praise of Cod.

Cow praiicc and liorse danceAnd lovf walk hand in hand,

Man hoe and wife sow,AM in the goodly land.

Frog jump and hean litinipAnd rooster flai> your wing,

yip and feet skip,All to the tune of spring!

move out of his way so he could comeon in and get his property. I proppedmyself and braced one arm across thedoorway to bar him out, reckoning hewould have manners enough to go onoff. But, no! He flew just as hot asTucker when the mule kicked hismammy and begun to cuss and double-cuss me, and call me all out of myname, something nobody bad neverdone be-fore in all my borned days. Itook it to keep from tearing up peaceand agreement. Then he balled up hisfistes and demanded me to move 'causehe was coming in.

'"Aw, naw you aint,' I told him.'You might think that you's going togrow horns, but I'm here to tell youyou'll die hutt-headed.'

" His mouth slewed one-sided and hehauled off and hit me in my chest withhis fist two times. Hollered that noth-ing in the drugstore would kill me noquicker than he would if I didn't git outof his way. I didn't, and then he uppedand kicked me.

" I jumped as salty aa the 'gatorwhen the pond went dry. I stretchedout my arm and he hit the floor on aprone. Then, that truck with the twomen on it took off from there in a bighurry. All I did next was to grah himby his heels and frail the pillar of theporch with him a few times. I let him igo, but he just laid there like a log.

"* Don't you lay there, making outyou's dead, sir!' I told him. 'Git up

(Continued on Page 116)

Murch 18, 1930

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from there, even if you is dead, and giton off this place ! '

"The contrary scamp laid rightthere, so I reached dovi'n and muscledhim up on acrost my shoulder andtot«d him to the gate, and heaved himover the fence out into the street. Noneof my business what become of himand his dirty mouth after that.

" I figgered I done right not to leavehim come in there and haul off Miz*Celestine's things which she had leftthere under my trust and care. ButTom, my husband, would have said Iwas wrong for taking too much on my-self. Tom claimed that he ever lovedme harder than the thunder couldbump a stump, but I had one habitthat he ever wished he could break meof. Claimed that I always placed otherfolks'e eares in front of my own, andmore expecially Miz* Celestine. Saidthat I made out of myself a wishboneshining in the sun. Just something forfolks to come along and ^)ick up andrub and pull and get their wishes andgood luck on. Never looked out fornothing for my ownself.

" I never took a bit of stock in whatTom said like that until I come to be inthis trouble. I felt right and good, look-ing out for Miz* Celestine*s interest andstanding true and strong, till they tookme off to jail and I writ Miz' Celestinea letter to please come see 'bout meand help me out, and give it to the folksthere at the jail to mail off for me.**

A sob wrestled inside Laura Lee andshe struck silence for a full minute be-fore she could go on.

"Maybe it reached her, and thenmaybe again it didn*t. Anyhow, I ain*thad a single scratch from Miz' Celes-tine, and here I is. But I love her sohard, and I reckon I can't help myself.Look, gentlemens, Celestine was giveto me when I was going on five **

The prosecutor shot up like a strik-ing trout and waVed his long arm. "Ifthe court please, this is not a street cor-ner. This is a court of law. The witnesscannot he allowed to ramble '*

The judge started as if he had beenshaken out of a dream. He looked atthe prosecutor and shook his head."The object of a trial, I need not re-niind you, is to get at the whole truthof a caee. The defendant is unlearned,as she has said. She has no counsel toguide her along the lines of procedure.It is important to find out why an actwas committed, as you well know.Please humor the court by allowingthe witness to tell her story in her ownway.*' The judge looked at Laura Leeand told her to go ahead. A mimnur ofapproval followed this from all over theroom.

"I don*t mean that her mama andpapa throwed her away. You knowhow it used to be the style when P babywas born to place it under the specialcare of a older brother or sister, orsomebody that had worked on theplace for a long time and was apt tostay. That's what I mean by Celestinewas give to me.

"Just going on five, I wasn't yet oldenough to bave no baby give to me, butthat I didn*t understand. All I didknow that some way I loved babies. Ihad me a old rag doll-baby that mymama had made for me, and I loved ithetter'n anything I can mention.

"Never will forget the morningmama said she was going to take meupstairs to Miz' Beaufort's Iiedroom tolemme see the new baby. Mama washomed on the Beaufort place just like Iwas. She was the cook, and everythingaround the place was sort of under hercare. Papa was the houseman anddrove for the family when they wentout anjrwhere.

"WeU, I seen that tee-ninchy babylaying there in a pink crib all trimmedwith a lot of ribbons. Gentlemens, itwas the prettiest thing I had ever laidmy eyes on. I thought that it was abig-size doU-baby laying there, andright away I wanted it. I carried on sotill afterwhüe Miz* Beaufort said that Icould have it for mine if I wanted it. Iwas so took with it that I went plumbcrazy with joy. I aak-ed her again, andshe still said that she was giving it tome. My mama said so too. So, for fearthey might change they minds, I saidright off that I better take my babyhome with me so that I could feed it myowtïself and make it something to puton and do for it in general.

" I cried and carried on somethingterrible when they wouldn*t leave metake it on out to the little house wherewe lived on the place. They pacifiedme by telling me I better leave it withMiz* Beaufort until it was weaned.

"That couldn't keep me from beingaround Celestine every chance I got.Later on I found out how they all tookmy carrying-on for jokes. Made outthey was serious to my face, but laugh-ing fit to kill behind my back. Theywouldn't of done it if they had knowedhow I felt inside. I lived just to see andtouch Celestine—my baby, I thought.And she took to me right away.* "When Celestine was two, going onthree, I found out that they had beenfunning with me, and that Celestinewas not my child at all. I was too littleto have a baby, and then again, howcould a colored child be the mother ofa white child? Celestine belonged toher papa and mama. It was all right

(Continuetl mt Pagr II8j

118 THE SATLIKDAY EVENING POST

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(Continuedfrom Page 116)for me to play with her all I wanted to,but forget the notion that she was mine.

"Jury-gentlemens, it was mightyhard, but as I growed on and under-stood more things I knowed what theywas talking about. But Celestinewouldn't allow me to quit loving her.She ever leaned on me, and cried afterme, and run to me first for every littlething.

"When I was going on sixteen, papadied and Tom Kimble, a young man,got the job that papa used to have.Right off he put in to court me, eventhough he was twelve years older thanme. But lots of fellows around Savan-nah was pulling after me too. Onewanted to marry me that I liked extrafine, but he was settling in Birming-ham, and mama was aginst me marry-ing and settling way off somewhere.She ruthered for me to marry Tom.When Celestine begin to hang on meand beg and beg me not to leave her, Igive in and said that I would haveTom, but for the sake of my feelings, Iput the marriage off for a whole year.

M a r c h IS, l'>.'><)

That was my first good chance to breakoff from Celestine, but I couldn't.

"General Beaufort, the old gentle-man, was so proud for me to stay andpacify Celestine, that he built us a nicehouse on the place and made it over tous for life. Miz' Beaufort give me thefinest wedding that any colored folkshad ever seen around Savannah. Westood on the floor in the Beaufort par-lor with all the trimmings.

"Celestine, the baby, was a yotinglady by then, and real pretty withreddish-gold hair and blue eyes. Theyoung bloods was hanging after her inswarms. It was me that propped her upwhen she wanted to marry young J.Stuart Ciairbome, a lawyer just out ofschool, with a heap of good looks, asmiling disposition, a fine family nameand no money to mention. He did havesome noble old family furniture andsilver. So Celestine had her heart's de-aire. but little money. They was sohappy together that it was like a play.

J V^^^ things begin to change. Mamaand MIZ' Beaufort passed on in a year

(Continued on Page 120)

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that jt takes to run a modern army. So much money passed throueh hiahands that he graduaUy confused himself with Uncle Sam and spent morethan he should have. ,

One day, confronted with an urgent need for cash, the clerk made out adraft for $3571.47 payable to the disbursing officer, forged that officer'sname to it and cashed it at the nearest bank. The bank forwarded it tothe Treasurer of the United States for payment. That official, thinkinethe draft was good as gold instead of not being worth the paper it waswntt«n on, promptly paid ¡t. Two weeks later the Treasury discoveredthat It had been stung. The clerk was jailed, but he was penniless TheTreasury, smarting under the loss, demanded its money back from tbebank.

" It was up to tbe bank to detect the forgery and refuse to honor thedraft. Treasury counsel argued. "The fact that it accepted the draft in-nocently is no excuse."

" How could we be expected to recognize the signature as a forgery "the bank replied, " when it fooled tbe Treasurer of the United Stat¿? " '

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forged draft settled the matter foronce and for all.Baaed on a 1920 deciaion ofthe Supreme Court of the United States.

120 TÏIK SATUIÏDAY EVENING POST

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(Continued from Pane IIH)of each other. The old gentleman lin-gered around kind of lonesome, thenone night he passed away in his sleep,leaving all he had to Celestine and herhusband. Things went on fine for fiveyears like that. He was building up afine practice and things went lovely.

"Then, it seemed all of a sudden, hetook to coughing, and soon he was tootired all the time to go to hia office anddo around like he used to. Celestinespent her money hke water, sendingher hushand and taking him to differ-ent places from one end of the nation tothe other, and keeping him under everykind of a doctor's care.

"Four years of trying and doing likethat, and then even Celestine had toacknowledge that it never did a hit ofgood. Come a night when Clairhomelaid his dark cttrly head in her lap hke atrusting child and breathed his last.

"Inside our own house of nights,Tom would rear and pitch like a mulein a tin stable, trying to get me to con-sent to pull out with him and find us! .ett«r-paying jobs elsewhere. I wouldn'thear to that kind of a talk at all. Weiiad been there when times was extragood, and I didn't aim to tear out andleave Miz' Celestine by herself at lowwater. This was another time I passedup my chance to cut aloose.

"The third chance wasn't too longa-coming. A year after her husbanddied. Miz' Celestine come to me and1 old me that the big Beaufort place wasloo much for her to keep up with themoney she had on hand now. She hadi)een seeking around, and she hadfound a lovely smaller house down atJiickson ville, Florida. No big groundsI«) keep up and all. She choosed thatinstead of a smaller place around Sa-vannah becatise she could not bear tosing small where she had always led ofT.An* now she had got hold of a familywlio was willing to buy the Beaufortestate at a very good price.

"Then she told me that she wantedme to move to Florida with her. She re-alized that she had no right to ask meno such a thing, but she jtist could notbear to go off down there with none of

March 18.19.W

her family with her. Would I pleaseconsent to go? If I would not go withher, 8he would give Tom and me theworth of our property in cash moneyand we could do as we pleased. She hadno call to ask us to go with her at all,excepting for old-time love and affec-tion.

"Right then, jtiry-gentlemens, Iknowed that I was going. But Tom hadever been a good hushand to me, and Iwanted him to feel that he was consid-ered, so I told her that I must consultmy pillow. Give her my word one wayor another the next day.

"Tom pitched a acre of fits the mo-ment that it was mentioned in his hear-mg Hollered that we ought to grab thecash and, with what we had put away,buy us a nice home of our own. Whatwas wrong with me nohow? Did I aimto be a wishbone all my days? Didn'tI aee that he was getting old? Hecraved to end his days among his oldfriends, his lodges and his churches.We had a fine cemetery lot, and therewas where he aimed to rest.

"Miz' Celestine cried when he toldher. Then she put in to meet aU ofTom 8 complainU. Sure, we was aU get-ting on in years, but that was the veryreason why we ought not to part now.Clmg together and share and lean anddepend on one another. Then whenTom still helt out, she made a oath. IfTom died before she did, she wouldfetch him back and put him awayright at her own expense. And if shedied before either of us, we was to dothe same for her. Anything she left waswilled to me to do with as I saw fit.

"So we put in to pack up all the fin-est pieces, enough and plenty to fur-nish up our new home in Florida, andmoved on down here to live. We passedt^ree peaceful years hke that, thenTom died."

Laura Lee paused, shifted so that shefaced the jury more directly, thensummed up.

"Maybe I is guilty sure enough. Icould he wrong for staying all themyears and making Miz' Celestine'scares my own. You gentlemens is got

( C l i l i'g

(Conliniiftl nil 122}

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122

(Continuetl from Page ¡20)more book-learning than me, so youwoxdd know more than I do. So far asthis fracas is concerned, yeah, I hurtedthis plaintive, but with him acting theway he was, it just couldn't be helped.And 'tain't nary one of you gentlemen«but what wouldn't of done the same."

There was a minute of dead silence.Then the judge sent the prosecutor acut-eye look and asked, "Care to cross-examine?"

"That's all!'* the prosecutor mum-bled, and waved Laura Lee to her seat.

" I have here," the judge began withgreat deliberation, "the note made byMrs. J. Stuart Ciairbome -with theplaintiff. It specifies that the purpose ofthe loan was to finance the burial ofThomas Kimble." The judge pausedand looked directly at Laura Lee tocall her attention to this point. "Theimportance to this trial, however, is thedue date, which is still more than threemonths away."

The court officers silenced the gaspsand mumbles that followed this an-nouncement.

"It is therefore obvious why theplaintiff has suppressed this valuablepiece of evidence. It is equally clear tothe court that the plaintiff knew thathe had no justification whatsoever forbeing upon the premises of Mrs. Clair-borne."

His Honor folded the paper and putit aside, and regarded the plaintiff withcold gray eyes.

"This is the most insulting instancein the memory of the court of an at-tempt to prostitute the very machineryof justice for an individual's own ne-farious ends. The plaintiff first at-tempts burglary with forceful entryand violence and, when thoroughlybeaten for his pains, brazenly callsupon the law to punish the faithfulwatch-dog who bit him while he wasattempting his trespass. Further, itseems apparent that he has taken stepsto prevent any word from the defend-ant reaching Mrs. Ciairbome, who cer-tainly would have moved heaven andearth in the defendant's behalf, andrightfully so."

The judge laced the fingers of hishands and rested them on the

March 18,1950

polished wood before him and wenton.

The protection of women and chil-dren, he said, was inherent, implicit inAnglo-Saxon civilization, and here inthese United States it had become asacred trust. He reviewed the long,slow climb of humanity from the rule ofthe club and the stone hatchet to theConstitution of the United States. TheEnglish-speaking people had given theworld Its highest concepts of the rightsof the mdividual, and they were nofgoing to he made a mock of, and nulH-fied by this court.

"The defendant did no more thanresist the plaintiff's attempted bur-glary. Valuable assets of her employerwere trusted in her care, and sheplaced her very life in jeopardy in de-fendmg that trust, setting an examplewhich no decent citizen need blush tofoUow. The jury is directed to find forthe defendant."

Laura Lee made her way diffidentlyto the judge and thanked him overand over again.

"That will do, Laura Lee. I am theone who should be thanking you."

Laura Lee could see no reason whyand wandered off, bewildered. She wasinstantly surrounded by smiling, con-gratulating strangers, many of whommade her ever so welcome if ever sheneeded a home. She was rubbed andpolished to a high glow.

Back at the house, Laura Lee did notenter at once. Like a pUgrim before ashrine, she stood and bowed her head." I ain't fitten to enter. For a time, I al-lowed myself to doubt my Celestine.But maybe nobody ain't as pure inheart as they aim to be. The cockcrowed on Apostle Peter. Old Makerplease take my guilt away and castIt into the sea of forgetfulness whereIt won't never rise to accuse me inthisworld,nor condemn me inthe next."

Laura Lee entered and opened allthe windows with a ceremonial air.fahe was hungry, but before she wouldeat, she made a ritual of atonement byservmg. She took a finely wrought sil-ver platter from the massive old side-board and gleamed it to perfection. Sothe platter, so she wanted her love toshine.

ROCHESTER, N. Y.(Continued from Page 39}

Taylor brothers were producing ther-mometers. In 1880 a shy, sharp-nosedyoung bookkeeper was experimentingwith photographic dry plates in hiskitchen. His name was George East-man.

Mention Rochester to the man nextto you in the club car, and chances arehe'll say, "Oh, yes, Rochester. That'sGeorge Eastman's town."

And he'd be right. The Kodak Kingcommitted suicide in 1932, leaving anote that said: "My work is done, whywait?" There could be some questionabout his work being done, but there isnone at all about the man's continuingimpact on every phase of life in Roch-ester. His millions and his ideals builtthe University of Rochester, the East-nian School of Music and Theater, thecity's dental clinic, the medical school.And he fashioned a city to his ownblueprint.

All these came only after Eastmanhad used his inventive skill and or-ganizational genius to create an in-dustry that rises like a giant over thenrnny other great productive facilitiesin Rochester. It takes three plants-

Kodak Park, the Camera Works andHawkeye-and an office buUding tohouse Eastman's 32,000 local workers.

Eastman began with the dry plateand the Brownie camera. Today a pro-fusion of products—from a simple rollof film to plastics, acetate yams andisotopes-flows from the company'splants and research laboratories. In C1948 these items were sold at home andabroad in the amount of $435,395,626,with net earnings totaling $55,495,-425. A high percentage of this wealthreturned to Rochester, because 22 percent of Eastman's shareholders, owning26 per cent of the stock, live there.

If Eastman is king in Rochester,Bausch & Lomh is crown prince. In 1915the company turned out the firet purernelt of optical glass in this country.Since then, B. & L. has gone far afield,and in World War II came up with along list of instruments for the armedforces.

The products of Rochester's othergreat industries supply national andworld markets: thermometers andother precision devices from TaylorInstrument, dental equipment from .-Ritter, radios from Stromberg-Carlson,glass-lined tanks from Pfaudler, gearsfrom Gleason, bank-note paper andfoolproof checks from Todd, mail