FAMOUS CASE RECALLED.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 58, 8 March 1913, Page 17

FAMOUS CASE RECALLED.

The release from gaol of the Swedish valet, Foulke Brandt, after serving sis years of his thirty years' sentence, has created almost as much Interest in America as the release of Dreyfus from Devil's Island caused in Europe. Brandt himself was not a sympathetic He was the' valet of Mr. Mortimer Schlff, millionaire banker, of New York v and was arrested at the Instance of his employer, and charged with burglary. The crime In the opinion of the Attorney-General of the State was never established, but Brandt was convicted. Mr. SchilT's lawyers contended that Brandt should be sent to prison for thirty years. Rightly or wrongly, the American people concluded that the entire case demonstrated that he was not punished for burglary, but, through the personal vengeance of powerful individuals, for some unnamed offence. The great newspapers rang with denunciation. "Was America to tolerate one law for the rich a"hd another for the poor?" was a question asked everywhere. Brandt admittedly was a liar, a perjurer, and a scallywag. He had" slnndered the fair name of his employer and returned evil for pood. Nevertheless, such a crime as Brandt committed did not deserve thirty years In gaol, and his release Immediately public opinion became aroused was certain. Governor Sulzer pardoned Brandt immediately he found time to review the case, and Americans to-day are proud because justice has triumphed. In the broadest sense, it was not Brandt who was the issue here. The sole question, as presented to Americans, was whether a powerful man can in New York imprison a friendless one for thirty years because the offender was guilty of slander and lying, a misdemeanour punishable by one year in a penitentiary. When this issue was clearly ►liown, the personality of lying Brandt disappeared. Be/ore his release. Brandt withdrew the slanders he had uttered regarding Mr. Sc-hiff's family, - and undertook, if freed, never to exploit his case on the •music-hall stage or in the public newspapers.