Page Ten
TRSPECTIVES
EPISODES IN THE PERPETRATION
OF A DASTARDLY CRIME
Continued from Page 9
and powerful. Finally George turned
and walked out of the dance hall.
With a look of angry but satiated
pride Catherine turned to Jack Bishop
and said, "If he gets any more wise ideas
'ike that you'd better tell him to keep
them to himself."
Episode Three .
FTER HE WENT AWAY to college
Jack necessarily saw George only at
intervals of vacations, and even then
not very often. However, he thought
considerably of George and Catherine,
particularly because he at one time tried
to write a short story about them. The
theory he had developed concerning the
reason for their relationship was not
very thorough: he said merely that
"Catherine's fascination for George was
the same as the fascination of the
tongue of a snake for a rabbit." In view
of the theory he was not surprised to
find George and Catherine together
again.
One of his infrequent encounters with
them had been his last, in the preceding
summer, when he had met them in a
Vountry night club called "The Black
Cat." It was on a Saturday night, and
Jack had stopped there because he en-
joyed the atmosphere of spurious revel-
ry, and also because he had nothing else
to do. He watched them for some time
before he caught George's eye, noticing
that they were speaking to each other
only rarely. He finally sat with them re-
luctantly, already formulating excuses
so that he could leave, because he was
afraid of the possibility of unpleasant-
ness between them, particularly since
the agent of liquor would make the
possibility of unpleasantness so much
greater. He was not sure why he wished
specifically to avoid such unpleasant-
ness, because, since he fancied himself
as a writer seeking experience, it might
have proved interesting.
It was George who spoke first. "Well,
Jack, how are things going in Ohio?
Isn't that where you are?"
"I'm out in Indiana, George," Jack
said, "but I'm getting along fine out
there. How about yourself?'
"Oh, me? Fine. Fine and dandy. Me
and the wife here . . . " Jack looked at
him with sudden interest.
"No fooling?" Jack said.
"No, we aren't married," George
laughed. "That's just a way of speaking.
No, we aren't married. Are we, Cath-
erine?" A look of annoyance crossed
Catherine's face.
"No, George, we aren't married."
Jack was somewhat surprised at the
new glibness of George's conversation,
but thought that perhaps it was because
he had been drinking. At any rate he
though of this, along his previous line
of thinking, as "the complete departure
from George-ness." He noticed that
Catherine was very quiet, and even
somewhat morose, and that she was
drinking very quickly. As the evening
progressed, however, she spoke oftener,
but not pleasantly. George, in turn, was
becoming quieter.
During the evening Jack wnt into
the bar in the next room to get a pack-
age of cigarettes, and was surprised to
hear someone cal his name. It proved
tp be Tom Heller, the milk truck driver.
"Hello, Tom," Jack said, with false
heartiness, "how's it going?"
"As well as I could expect, I guess
. . I suppose your old man's told you
that I still haul out there by your
place."
"Yes," Jack said. "He was just telling
me today, as a matter of fact."
"You have time for a beer?" Tom said.
"Sure would like to, but I guess I
have to get back to the table. I'm in
there with George Albertson and Cath-
erine Shepherd.
Tom looked at him quickly. "Yeah,
I guess George is a pretty good buddy
of yours . . . I have a pretty good idea
that George is still pretty mad at me
for that time ov'er at the high school
dance. That's too bad, ecause if I'd
known he was going to get mad I would-
n't have done anything. Christ knows
she isn't worth it."
"Just don't seem to get along, do
they?" Jack said.
"Let me tell you, that boy's making
a big mistake, that's all. He's been suck-
ing around for almost three years now,
and doesn't even get a look in, where
I know guys who make time with her
all the time . . . I guess it's just his
tough tit, though. If he was smart he'd
forget about her. I figure she's got it
in for him some way, at least that's
the way she acts. She tells other guys
that she doesn't like him, but still she
lets him hang around."
As he sat down at the table Jack
heard Catherine saying, "Georgie-Por-
gie is the dangerousest man. I opened
the dash compartment in his car to-
night and there was a gun in it." Jack
remembered that George often carried
a .22 caliber automatic pistol in his
car, and that he was very proud of his
skill with it.
"I had it out in the woods this after-
noon, shooting squirrels," George said,
annoyed.
"Oh, come on now, Georgie. 'Fes up
that you've just got it to shoot big bad
mans who makes eyes at poor little
me."
To Jack, George said, "I don't carry
it for that, Jack. I want you to under-
stand that."He spoke with a look of al-
most childish seriousness. "I just had it
along to shoot squirrels."
"Oh, George," Catherine said, "do you
think anyone cares if you carry that
gun in your car. You coudn't shoot any-
thing even if you wanted to."
Angrily, George said, "Oh, I couldn't.
eh? . . . I think I've taken about enough
of that stuff from you." He stood up
abruptly and went into the next room.
Jack and Catherine sat quietly for a
few minutes, until Catherine said, "Why
don't you go in there and bring him
back, Jack. He'll probably just stay in
there and drink too much."
At the bar, George said. "Oh, she
wants me to come back, eh. I knew she'd
come crawling as soon as I went away.
By God, I will come back, but I'll show
her a thing or two." George came back
to the table, but only momentarily. He
took his chair and set it a few feet out on
the dance floor, which was near them,
and sat down, in conspicuous view of
everyone.
"Oh, what does he think he's doing
now," said Catherine. "Sometimes he
does the craziest things." Jack didn't an-
swer, but watched George, astonished.
"Well, he can stay out there," Catherine
said. "I'm not going to ask him back."
The music had started again, and the
floor filled rapidly with dancers, most
of whom looked at George with good-
natured smiles. George himself was grin-
ning fatuously, and tapping his foot
with the music.
"Oh, look at him," Catherine said.
Louder, she said to George, "Oh, come
back here, George. You're just making
a fool of yourself."
George cupped his hand behind his
ear and leaned forward. "Hey, what's
that? What's that you say?" he said
with exaggerated humour.
And today, which is Sunday, Jack is
reaing the LUnsdal Daily Intelligencer
in bed,'which is his custom on Sunday
mornings. He finds it mildly amusing,
just as he always has, even when he
reads the headline of the following cur-
ious news story, but his amusement does
not last long. The headline, typical of
the headlines in the Intelligencer, reads:
"LOCAL GIRL WAS FOUND MUR-
DERED NEAR THE ESTATE OF J. E.
BEAN." The subhead continues: "Body
Was Found In Drainage Ditch By The
Caretaker Of The Estate," and another
subhead, "Town Has Been Aroused By
The Perpetration Of This Dastardly
Crime But The Police Force Caniot Lo-
cate Murderer."
The story itself proceeded: "The body
of Catherine Shepherd, popular and at-
tractive member of Linsdale's unmar-
ried set, was found yesterday at 9 a.m.
in a field adjoining the estate of the
noted philanthropist, J. E. Bean, by
Cornelius Schmidt, caretaker of the es-
tate. Miss Shepherd's death was caused
by a bullet entering the brain from the
left temple, is the opinion of Dr. Ed-
win G. Nye, county coroner.
"The news of their daughter's death
came as a distinct shock to Mr. and Mrs.
The Soviet Power
Hewlett Johnson
Modern Age Books
Galileo was dragged before the Holy
Inquisition for suggesting that the earth
is not the center of the universe but
revolves about the sun. The Dean of
Canterbury has been pilloried by the
largest organs of the press for writing
a book in praise of the Soviet Union
and for suggesting that England and the
United States might learn a great deal
from the success and errors of that
country. With the primary purpose in
mind of promoting better relations be-
tween Moscow, London and Washington,
the author is fully aware of the enorm-
ity as well as the importance of this
task. He wishes to dispel many of the
illusions about the "socialist sixth of
the world" fostored by professional
journalists like Eugene Lyons of by the
sinister hack Jan Valtin (alias Richard
Krebs, Gestapo agent). On page 9, he
points out Lyons' own admission of fact-
juggling and forgery and asks if we can
believe anything that this self-confessed
mis-reporter writes today. On page 280
he answers an English critic of his book
with quotations from the personal ex-
perience, from the reports of friends and
scientific men who have worked in Rus-
sia, and from statistics which he has
discovered by personal research to be
authentic. "I confess, frankly," he says,
"that I am more at home in the com-
pany of experts like the engineer I quote
than with unscientific journalists like
Mr. Lyons." He does not consider the
Soviet Union a Utopia nor Russians the
paragons of virtue, but so much has
been written painting the black side
that a wholly distorted picture is ob-
tained. The Dean endeavors to paint the
good side which he finds far more im-
portant and valuable to us.
His approach is, first of all, personal.
He describes his middle-class back-
ground, his work as a mechanic, and his
apprenticeship in the Church. Through
contacts with the wealthy factory own-
ers of Manchester as well as with the
laborers, he grew to distrust, he says,
that system which might provide plen-
ty for all, but does not. which is essen-
tially inmoral and denies those values
which he, as a Christian, believes to
be mest necessary. After several visits
to the Soviet Union, the Dean became
convinced that communiSm was not only
Frank E. Shepherd, who live at 39
Ridgeview Ave. Although Miss Shep-
herd had been missing from her home
for almost three days, her parents had
not been alarmed, since this was not the
first time she had been away from home
for short periods without, their know-
ledge.
"Chief of Police Fred Ziegler bent
every effort today to apprehend the
murderer of Miss Shepherd, but con-
fessed that a difficult task confronted
him because there were at present no
clues unearthed. However, Chief Ziegler
said that the force had many promising
leads to work on..
When he finishes this Jack gets out
of bed and stands at the window in
his pajamas, running his fingers
through his hair. In a sense it is death
which has made him sad, but it is not
the death of Catherine Shepherd.
He is sad because he knows who
committed this dastardly crime, as you
do, and because he recognizes this as
the end of the cycle of the destruction
of a personality, which, in a very real
sense, is a death.
compatible with those ideals which he
held, but an economic change in society
such as he saw taking place absolutely
necessary for the realization of those
ideals. "It has struck the death-blow,"
he says, "to an immoral order in which
we have tacitly acquiesced."
Two fields of inquiry occupy most of
the Dean's interest. These are science
and the care and education of children.
Perhaps the most exciting chapters in
his book are devoted to the recent dis-
coveries of Soviet agronomists and tech-
nicians. Science has been encouraged and
allowed to expand until now, unham-
pered by the profit motive and industrial
rivalry, Soviet experimentators have far
outstripped their co-workers in other
lands. The electrification of the outlying
provinces has proceeded at astonishing
speed from remote Kazakstan to Tad-
jikistan and Armenia. Whole new cities
have sprung up over night. Magnito-
gorsk, in the Ural Mountains, settled
60,000 workers, built a dam, hospitals,
schools and a steel industry with the
most powerful blast furnaces in the
world over the period of a few winter
months. The scientist has become the
hero of the hour.
As for the care of children, the Dean
describes in detail his visits to children's
nurseries, homes, playgrounds, museums,
and theatres. Everywhere he saw the
child as the first concern of the govern-
ment, not, as in Germany or Italy, to be
raised as cannon-fodder, but to be
raised as useful working citizens with
the inalienable right from cradle to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
College students, considered as respon-
sible and useful citizens like industrial
workers, are paid a fixed wage! The
expenses of education to the individual
are few, the opportunities limitless.
There is no class discrimination and no
racial discrimination in education. The
experiences of Paul Robeson and his
young son demonstrate the new equality
and its accompanying freedom, the Dean
points out.
If there is any fault to be found with
this book, it is in the Epilogue, which at-
tempts to summarize Soviet foreign pol-
icy from September 1939 through 1940.
The analysis, while competent, is too
brief for the average reader and needs
to be supplemented with outside ma-
terial.
- E. G. Burrowis