Page:The Jail, Experiences in 1916.pdf/181

 Karl brought in Mr. Simon Lamm; the accused had his straw hat on his head.

The supreme provost marshal called upon the chairman of the court to request the accused to remove his hat.

Chairman: "Prisoner in the dock, remove your hat".

The accused removed his hat, but asked to be allowed to state that his head was quite bald, and as all the windows were open, he was afraid that owing to the draught, his head might succumb to its usual pains, and he therefore pleaded to be allowed to put his hat on again.

The military prosecutor announced: "The windows are open, and they will remain so throughout the whole of the proceedings as a proof that a court-martial in Austria does not shrink from publicity; I call upon the chairman to draw the attention of the accused to the fact that he is not permitted to waste the precious time of the court with quibbles and clumsy attempts at speeches, for every squandered minute is a direct infringement of the interests of the Empire".

Chairman: "I draw your attention to these matters".

The supreme provost-marshal: "Further I call upon the chairman to order the accused to sit down in the dock".

Chairman: "Sit down".

Mr. Lamm sat down, the defence-corps man stood behind him, at the other end of the dock sat his defending counsel. Mr. Lamm sighed: "I‘ve been in plenty of law courts in my time, but nowhere have I been treated like this."

The supreme provost-marshal: "I call upon the chairman to explain to the accused that civil courts have not the least idea of trying cases. Civil courts pamper everybody, and the scales of civil justice are not at all sensitive. We see the consequences in this war; before the very eyes of the civil courts the weeds of evil-doing have grown so rankly