Page:The Jail, Experiences in 1916.pdf/190

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J. S. MACHAR

Czech painter Šimon,—can you imagine him at the side of and working hand in hand with this Simon?

But let us go further. Lamm is his surname. Lamm! No greater cynicism has been perpetrated since the creation of the world than that such a scoundrel should be called Lamm, a lambkin, a lamb, the symbol of our Saviour, an animal which, after the dove, is the most peacable and most virtuous: This criminal's surname is Lamm. Gentlemen, a greater spiritual derangement, a more depraved contempt for all that the whole of mankind has hitherto held in esteem, I cannot imagine. These two names would of themselves suffice." (Sensation throughout the court).

"And look at the accused. Gentlemen, this individual is laughing. This outcast of humanity, branded by his own father and by fate, is laughing. Gentlemen, words fail-me.

But away with emotion and stirring of the spirit. We are here as representatives of justice,—and this is not only blind, but must likewise be inaccessible to all spiritual emotions.

The accused has said of himself that he was punished by his father. He was punished by the cynic who, with the name Simon, pre-destined him for the career of a scoundrel,—how depraved must his youth have been, when even his cynic of a father thought fit to chastise and punish it.

The documents of the Galician courts were destroyed during the Russian invasion; this is a pity, for I am certain that they would have thrown an unsurmised light upon the curriculum vitae of this individual. The accused has been relying upon this and has persisted in his denials. But vainly.

Gentlemen, the individual present here has robbed and murdered in company with the notorious Rozsa Sándor amid the forests and plains of Hungary, and when Rozsa Sándor was apprehended, he

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