THE JAIL
"And did you slip anything into his hand?"
"Why shouldn't I ? Everybody did it."
"Yes, but you see that this is a punishable offence."
But Mr. Lamm became excited: "A punishable offence? But the lad had to join, he has the silver medal, and his left arm's off—what's a punishable offence? Tell me, what's a punishable offence?"
"You have attempted to corrupt a military official for the benefit of your son, and—"
"But then it is the military official who ought to be here, and not me. As a father it was my duty to do everything possible to protect my son from being crippled,—I felt from the very beginning that he wouldn't get out of it safely, and he didn't,—nebbich,—and is that what I'm to be kept in prison for? I don't understand it."
I explained again and again the principle and reality of the punishable offence,—but in vain; Mr. Lamm did not grasp it and did not understand it. The Polish Jews have their own logic, their own code of morals, their own opinions,—and their own heads. Messrs. Fels, Goldenstein and Wilder, who joined us in the course of the conversation to which they listened, also declared unanimously that Mr. Lamm was right, and that in any other country not he, but only the military official concerned, could and should be in prison.
After all,—what do I know of the paths along which military justice proceeds in other countries! I have made the acquaintance of that prevailing here, and I am so sick of it that I really do not desire to become acquainted with any other.
Dr. Povich-Rosetti returned from the superintendent. He had again driven the rheumatism out of his back. The superintendent promised that he would give us a new orderly. For curious things
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