Lake Scugog Historical Society Historic Digital Newspaper Collection

Port Perry Star, 5 Dec 1929, p. 6

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body Rey and murder? | RY, disorder, haste, Tdn- [red drawers, cluttered desks, bro- n| ken jewel-cases, rings stripped from of | the victim's fingers, severed T-prints lead to | chains, torn clothing, PRI Vance indicates he |ohairs, upset lamps, broken Bl was hiding in a clothes | yoicted draperies, strewn Mn the "Canary's" apartment n the murder was committed. ham, believing in Skeel's guilt, fidicules the theory and Vance's no- morial indications--eh, what? so forth, Such are the accepted imme- pendant tipped-over | the slais So 'within, "How else could that one clothes- press have escaped the rifling activ- ties of the pseudo-burglarl "But--consider a moment, old chap. tion that the crime was committed by | Outside of fiction and the drama, in [th man of superior intellect and ingen-| how many crimes do they all appear-- ty. Vance Proceeds to explain how he arrived at his conclusion: CHAPTER XXIV, all in perfect ordination, and without a single element te contradict the gen- eral effect? That is to say, how many "Y' know, Markham," Vance began, in his emotionless drawl, "every gen- wine work of art has a quality which the oritics call 'elan'--namely, enthus|- @sm and spontaneity. A copy; or imi- gation, lack the distinquishing char- acteristic; it's too perfect, too care- fully done, too exact. "Even enlightened scions of the law, I fancy, are aware that there is bad drawing in Botticelli and dispropor- tions in Rubens, what? In an original, a ye see, such flaws don't matter. But an imitator never puts 'em in: he doesn't dare--he's too intent on get- ting all the details correct. The imi- tator works with a self-consciousness and a meticulous care which the artist, in the throes of creative labor, never exhibits. fas" like a Zola novel. matically perfect. form in every detail. chance and fallibility invariably steps th ab actual crimes are technically porfect in their settings? ... None! why? Simply because in this life--nothing th And ing actual is spontah- eous and genuine--runs to accepted The law of He made a slight indicative gesture. "But regard this particular crime: look at it closely. What do you find? You wlll perceive that its 'mise-en-} scene' has been staged, and its drama enacted, down to every minute detail-- 1t is almost mathe- And therein, d' ¥ see, lies the irresistible inference of ts having been carefully premeditated and planned. "To se an art term, it 'is a tickled- "And here's the point: there's no way of imitating that enthusiasm and 'elan'~which an original painting possesses. However closely a ¢opy may resemble an orig- * {nal, there's a ~vast psychological dif- The copy breathes an air of insincerity, of iltra- JerTocsion, of conscious effort. . , You 0] spontaneity--that ference between them. low me, eh?" "Most instructive, my dear Ruskin] . Vance meekly bowed his apprecia- tion, and proceeded pleasantly. "Now, let us considkr the Odell mur- You and Heath are agreed that it is a commonplace, brutal, sordid, But, unlike you two bloodhounds on the trail, I have jgnored its mere appearances, and der. wnimagirative crime. have analyzed its various factors-- "I have looked at it psychologically, go to speak. And I have discovered up rime. Therefore, its conception was not spontaneous. , , . And yet, don't y' know, I can't point out any specific flaw; for its great flaw lies in its being flawless. And nothing flaw- ess, my dear fellow, is natural or genuine." Markham was silent for a while. "You deny even the remote possibil- ity of a common thief having murder- od the girl?" he asked 'at length; and now there was no hnt of sarcasm in his voice, "If a common thief did it," contend- ed Vance, "then there's no science of psychology, there are no philosophic truths, and there are no laws of art. If it was a genuine crime of robbery, then, by the same token, there is no difference whatever between an old master and a clever techncian's copy." "You'd entirely eliminate robbery ds that it is not a genuine and sincere erime--that is to say, an original-- but only a sophisticated, self-conscious and clever imitation, done jy a skill- ful copyist. 1 grant you it is correct and typical in every detail. But there is wherd it fails, dont y' know. technic is too good, its craftsmanship tco perfect. The 'ensemble,' as it were, 1s not convinecing--it lacks 'elan.'" "Esthetically speaking, it has all the earmarks of a 'tour de force." Vulgarly speaking, it's a fake." He paused and gave Markham an engaging smile. "I trust thls somewhat oracular perora- tion has not bored you." "Pray continue,' urged Markham, with exaggerated politeness. His man- ner was jocular, but something in his tone led me to beieve that he was seriously intersted. "What is true of art is true of life," Vance resumed lacidly, "Every hu- man action, d' ye see, conveys uncon- sciously an impression either of genu- jneness or of spuriousness--of sincer- ity or calculation. For example, two men at table eat in a similar way, 'handle their knives and forks in the same fashion, and apparently do the identical things. Although the sensitive spectator cannot put his finger on the points of difference, he none the less senses at once which man's breeding is genuine and instinctive and which man's is imitative and self-conscious." He blew a wreath of smoke towards the ceiling and settled more deeply Its! greater jeopard itself, "Between two_ colossal dangers, he chose the murder as the lesser." Markham did not speak at once: he seemed lost in reflection. But present. ly he turned and, fixing Vance with a dubious stare, said: "What about the jewel-box? A pro- fessional burglar's jimmy, wielded by an exerienced hand, doesn't fit into your esthetic hypothesis--it is, in fact, diametrically opposed to theory." "I know it only too well," Vance nodded slowly. "And I've been harried and hectored by that steel chisel ever since I beheld the evidence of its work that first morning. . chisel is the ore genuine mote in an otherwise spurious performance. the motive, I take it." "The robbery," twas only a manufactured detail. The fact that the crime vas committed by a highly astute person indicates un- ungestionably that there was a far more potent motive behind it. "Any man capable of 50 ingenious and clever a piece of deception is ob- viously a person of education and im- agination; and he most certainly would not have run the stupendous risk of killing a woman unless he had feared some overwhelming disaster -unless, ndeed, her continuing to live would have caused his greater mental an- gnish, and wowd have put him in y, even than the crime Vance affirmed, such a Markham, that It's into his chair. "Now, Markham, just what are the universally recognized features of a as if the real artist had come along at the moment the copyist had finished his faked picture, and painted in a single small object with the hand of Per Year Ep terns and stamped a master." "But doesn't that bring us back in- _levitably to Skeel?" : "Skeel--ah, yes. That's the explana- tion no doubt; but not the way you conceive it. "Skeel ripped the box open--I don't question that; but deuce take it!--it's the only thing he did do; it's the only thing that was left for him to do. That's why he got only a ring which a Belle Margueriteswas not» wearing that night. All her other baubl to and he was far too thorough-goinz to have overlooked it accidentally. Then bre are the finger-prints on the 10D, his chair. "1 teil you, Markham, old dea, you 1 simply must build your conception of Yue rime on this hypothesis, and pro- © a: "If you don't, each edifice you rear will come toppling about your ears." (To be continued.) Soviets Admit Tajikistan As . Federated State Republic Part of Former Rus- sian Turkestan on Bor- der of Afghanistan Tajikistan, which has been elevat- ed from the status of an autonomous republic to a federated.depublic of the Unlon of Sociallst Sovie. Republics, is an area just twelve miles less than that of Nova Scotia, occupying the ex- treme southeastern corner of old Russian Turkestan,"says a National Geographic Society bulletin, The new republic is in a worse position than the proverbial needle in a hay- stagk for it cannot be found on any but\the-most recent maps. The area Co! 8.0! a bit of the old provinces of |Bokhara,, Samarkand and Pamir, of Russian Central Asia: "A rough outline of Tajikistan may be drawn by placing the point of a pencil on a map of Asla about fifty niiles due southeast of the city or Samarkand. = A* wavy line drawn due east of this point to the border of Chinese Turkestan is nearly the line of the northern boundary of the republic. The eastern boundary fol- lows the Chinese Turkestan border southward to Afghanistan. The southern boundary follows the north- ern border of Afghanistan to within about fitty miles east of the ity of Termez. The western boundary may be indicated by a line, slightly buig- ing toward the east, linking the west- ern ends of the north and ; south; boundaries, "During the rule of the Czars, there was little, it any, modern re- velopment in Tajikistan. This cor ner of Central Asia was seldom visi ted by outsiders except explorers. The highways were mere camel tracks over which moved long caravanse Rall roads have not penetrated the region. "Stalinabad, until recently called Dyushambe or Dushambey, is the capital. Althouglh the inhabitants have not yet heard the blast of a steam engine whistle, they frequent. ly hear the roar of airplane motors, for the capital is a stop on the air route between Termez, on the north: ern border of Afghanistan, and Kagan, near the city of Bokbara. A new railroad, however, now is being bullt from Termez to Stalinabad, and more than 300 miles of modern highways bid fair to offer the caravan routes serious competition in the more level regions of western Tajikistan, "There are about 800,000 inhabitants in the mew republic. Both sexes wear voluminous tcousers and long coats, but the traveler can distinguish the men by their skull caps and the women by their bright-colored sha vl headcoverings. At close range the women are more easily singled out by the bracelets, rings, necklaces and the other trinkets they wear. = Men and boy# wear earrings, not as ornas wouldn't have omitted it deliberatery, | "1t 1s 8 fascinating study to try to determine from ii Vance lightly tapped oh the arm of | jar Borhood, who won that title through carelessness of the parents in bring- ing them up, and 'who develops from the "bad boy" stage to the hoodlum, the street corner loafer; 'and from that point, 'still without restraint' to the skilled "crook; whe is determined to be an enemy of soclety and an aristo- crat of the underworld. Experience has taught criminolo- gists that it 1s not the boy of from twelye to fearteem ears of age, who stays by his reside in the even- ings, who develops into the dangerous ¢haracter, It is the boy who is al lowed by his parents to wander the streets at all hours of 'the night. i An incident which police officials\in Toronto encountered recently illus- trates how far matters ¢an go when there is laxity in the home. They had occasion to confine a small boy, fifteen years of age, whose two broth. ars weré both in penitentiary. When the police called atthe house to get the boy, they were stopped at the door by his little aister, nine years of age, who had the temerity and the experi- ence to resist their entry, contending that they couldn't enter the house without a warrant, The explanation as to why this home and thousands of others turn out this type of citizen instead of the kind of man or woman of whom we might be proud; can be summed up in three words--'lack of discipline." The t y to coddle children, to 16t them have their own way too the streets, because they might be too much trouble in the house, is to be blamed for the fact that the upkeep of penal institutions forms a 'large portion of our taxes. There 18 inclined to be too much sentimentality in connection with dealing with 'our unruly children. This discussion should not, for one minute, be construed as an outand-out sup- port of the maxim, "Spare the rod and spoil the child." Many of us do not find it necessary to discipline our child- ren by-funishment, and we gratefully accept the opportunity of avoiding' this disagreeable task. But vhen a boy shows signs of being incorrigible along certain lines, and drastic action is going to make difference in his future life, we should not be so weak that we coddle our children to their own undoing. ' Respect for their elders should be a cardinal rule with, the children in every home. Nothing may influence a boy's life more than developing the habit of saying "yes sir" or "no ma'am" and to get the idea in their heads 'that the elders are apt to know more than they do. Just to show you the predominence ot youth in crime statistics, I would like to quote you the following figures, which are worked on the basis of the 1021 census, 'when "it was calculated that there were 3,456,000 males in Canada. Of the juvenile from 10 to 16 years of age, 1 in every 87 is a criminal. the criminzi| izvariably an|. b-| behind. --Rev. Boynton Merrill much, to permit them to run wild in} Of the youths from 16 to 20 years, old, Tin every 75 is a criminal. Of the men from 20 to 40 years of age, 1 in every 106 Gis a criminal. ments, but as charms against evil spirits. "In the summer there 1s an exodus of Tajiks from the lower regions to the mountains, especially among tne cattle herdsmen who seek new pas- tures, wit, those that adorned her--had been stripped from her and were gone." "Why are you so positive on this int?" "The poker, man--the poker! . ., Don't you see? That amateurish as- sault upon the jewelcase with a cast- iron coal-prodder couldn't have beer made after the case had been pried open--it would have had to be made And 'tha ly insane % t ngly attempt to break Be cast-iron 'of the stage: didn't care if he got the case | wanted it to look as ERE the dinted box." Creat cobprt|. open oz | Ot the men from 40 to 100 years-of age, 1 in every 106 is a criminal. 1t we take pains to teach our child- ren that: (1) Laws are made for. their pro- tection and that consequently they should respect them. . (2) That'a clean mind, sound body and good charncter, with the desire and ability to work, are God's great est gift to humanity. 3 (3) Thr honesty is the best policy and the way of the transgressor is the road to ruin, 15 es to offer them for tho future than any other place on tl it they, © (4) That Canada has greater oppor-|- "The story of mankind fs of horizons dreamed of, sought after, reached--and Young Mary had a little lamb {According to the fable), And though she's grows up now, she - keeps 4 'Hor lamb--but 'calls it sable. mei Man wants little here below, but he'd like to have enough to keep with the Joneses. fott| | | and 'gas masks raided Durban, Natal cers, accompanied : tachment armed-with tear pounds. in search of-poll tax More than 6000 natives were ex- amined and 600.were arrested: It was not necessary to use force bey 'display. of arms and the use gas bomb, which had immediate' on one group of deflant natives: We W ant Poultry TOP PRICES PAID Write For Quotations The Harris Abattoir Co., Limited Toronto (2) 'St. Lawrence Market Director of Publicity : DEPARTMENT of AGRICULTURE, OTTAWA, ONTARIO Ploass send me the booklets I have marked with an "X". PAMPHLET NO: 40: "The Bacon Hog and Hog Grad- ing" all details concerni des. for market h a ety of fiom bogs in Canada. : BULLETIN NO. 20¢ "Preparing Poultry Produce for Macketo--fe "dressing and or attractive of equ. Name. Post' Offices onal e 9 urety --companics as the fastest fore smart crooks are vurning to paper fraud x ? 5. You may pass 40 bad cheques, but as long as you hold down the amount '$10 for each yo can only be tried "Jor 4 misdemaacor. Again, you cans be extradited from one state to an- other 'unless the amount of a single ars 0 Sad as much ago. y, pass 40 cheques for $90 yariation is the counter. bs ue. "These imita~ the American or Cook's, procedure if you ever-encounter the cheques of the following: The Am- erican Ara 'Association; Oriens > tal Totish Association; United Bank- tion. - They all look good ; ten gallons of gas. In untersigns 'one of his ? cheques and receives the travelerd' cheques ; and fake ones honest: paper that it is easy . get into the coma il stream, What is: more con- a certified cheque? Ob- it is £ lever crook ape! opened an account An accomplice using yyne opened 'accounts

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