People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20456, 8 November 1934, Page 6

People and Their Doings .

Mr Clarence Darrow, an Advocate in the Massie Murder Trial in

Honolulu, has Written the Story of His Life : A Sequel to a Riccarton Race Day Incident.

y[R CLARENCE DARROW. the famous American advocate whose sponsoring of lost and seemingly' hopeless causes has brought him worldwide fame, has written an autobiography, “ The Story of My Life.” Among the many causes celebres with which he has been associated are the Maywood trial, the M’Namara case, the LoebLeopold murder, the famous Tennessee “ fundamentalist ” case, and the recent sensational Massie murder trial in Honolulu. Born of comparatively humble parents in a small American country town, the fifth of a family- of eight—a fact which (Radical though he is) has alway's prevented him from being specially enthusiastic about birth-control—the bent of Mr Harrow’s mind, was early' determined by' his parents. “ Both my mother and my father were friends of all oppressed people and every’ new humane and despised cause and ism.” He tells us that soon after he qualified for the Bar he found that his “ sympathies always went out to the weak, the suffering and the poor. Realising their sorrows I tried to relieve them in order that I myself might be relieved. I had little respect for the opinion of the crowd. My instinct was to doubt the majority view.” 3F 9 ® TT IS TYPICAL of Mr Darrow that one of his first cases—it was an action over a set of harness worth about £3—involved him in an expenditure of several hundreds. Because a question of principle was involved he carried the case from court to court (at his own expense), until it was decided in favour of his client. He makes the proud claim that he “ has never let the lack of money' stand in the way' of helping people in trouble.” He is used to having the purity’ of his motives criticised, and is inured to the abuse of the unthinking. But even he was unprepared for the storm that burst over his head when he set out to defend Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold—two schoolboys, seventeen and eighteen years old respectively—for the brutal and * motiveless murder of one of their schoolmates. Both

boys were sons of wealthy', well-known and highly respected Chicago families. In their case the very wealth of their parents was their greatest handicap. When it became known that their indefensible, self-confessed crime was to be defended the cry of privilege was raised and the whole of America cried aloud for the supreme penalty'. Mr Harrow’s account of the trial--he made no attempt to deny' the guilt of the accused, but only to save them from the gallows—is an absorbing study in crowd and individual psychology. was a story in the "Star” on Monday night dealing with some of the picturesque sidelights of life on the Riccarton racecourse during Cup Week. In it there was a reference to a cigaretteseller, and this story has an interesting sequel. For seventeen years this wellknown figure has been selling cigarettes in the central gate at Riccarton, but ior the first time on Saturday he was accosted by a sergeant of police, and, at the instance of the Jockey Club, was compelled to leave the course, although he offered his name and address and the name of his solicitor as a guarantee of his bona fides. He. has since been advised that he might properly have been prevented from selling cigarettes or. the course, but that there was no power by' which he could be removed from the course, his character being unblemished and he himself never having been convicted of any offence in his life. But, perversely enough, the Jockey Club refuses to refund him the shilling that he paid for admittance, and the injustice of this, to a man incapable of hard work and with a family of eight to support, is no mere trifle. But a rebuff of this nature has not discouraged this servant of the racegoing public, and each race day this week finds him in business as usual, either in front of the Addington racecourse or outside the shilling gate at Riccarton. And he is very good friends with the police, with whom, by the way, he has never come into collision.

r JMIE PACKS OF CARDS that are being sold to tourists in Moscow as “ souvenirs ” are specially printed in English for English and American visitors. The cards bear appropriate propagandist ilhistrations, particularly of the “ anti-God ” kind. One. for example, depicts a capitalist Mammon (looking like a very fat M. Poincare) up in the clouds holding strings attached to worshipping puppets on the earth below. M. Poincare, Mr Winston Churchill and Sir Austen Chamberlain appear to have been singled out as particularly suitable for symbols of the wicked and oppressive bourgeoisie. 3? ® 3? £iijIXTY YEARS AGO (from the "Star” of November S, 1874) : From the Lyttelton news. Nautical.—“ I say, skipper, where do you hail from?” This question was asked by a gallant lieutenantcolonel. The reply was, “My young and beardless cuss, I would trouble you not to call me ‘Skipper.’ siree! You can call me captain or nothing when I enter a room. Do you know I am a captain who has traded down from ’Frisco to Pe-rue for some considerable years. Call me captain, sirree! Do you know skippers generally inhabit dug-outs, and trade on fresh waters. I am a real catto wamper chawer from Boston, Massachusetts. Therefore, siree, when you see a gent who is captain of .one of the tidiest crafts that ever entered Port Cooper, even since your founder, R. Godley, emigrated through them heads, address him as * captain,’ not as * skipper.’ ” After this grandiloquent peroration the gallant lieuten-ant-colonel blew his aristocratic nose, and in a commanding voice said, “ Burrell, bring me some beer ; and whilst conveving the tankard to his lips, he stood like Alexander the Great, and said, “ Your very good health, gents. I must say I am disgusted. It there is one thing I have a holy horror of, it is to hear any individual articulate the English language with a squeak through his nose, like drawing a damp cork over glass."