FRANCE: Madding Peepers

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Among characteristic U. S. luxuries are jail cell doors of iron or steel bars. Considered fantastically extravagant abroad, these permit the U. S. jailbird to see out, give him a feeling of proximity to other human beings as they pass up & down the corridor. In Europe cell doors are solid, cheap, have a peephole closed by a metal flap. Day & night, usually at 20 minute intervals, the prisoner hears the flap click, knows that he is being peeped at by his guards. This makes most prisoners nervous, has come to be accepted as a prison commonplace. In Marseille last week one of the Balkan terrorists arrested after the assassination of Yugoslavia's King Alexander finally cracked under the strain of being peeped at.

"I can't bear it!" wailed Terrorist Mio Kraj. "The click-click of that metal flap gives me no sleep night or day. The eye that peers through that peephole hypnotizes me. It makes it impossible for me to eat or sleep. I can't bear it! I can't! I CAN'T!"

Since all European prisoners must bear it, Marseille prison physicians certified Mio Kraj to be "slightly unbalanced." They then returned him to his cell and the peeping continued, despite irate protests by Mio Kraj's lawyer: "You are driving my client mad!"

Shrugged a weary warder: "What about the other two terrorists arrested with him? We peep at them all the time and they don't mind! Why should he?"