Stupid Superiority

Back to French Guiana by his own choice sailed in high dudgeon last week Benjamin Ullmo, hailed by all France six months ago as a Second Dreyfus.

"I was a 'sleeper' for 26 years, a man removed from the world!" cried M. Ullmo. "What has pardon brought me? Am I favorably impressed by the changes which took place during my quarter century of exile? No! After six months in Europe, I depart forever. Oh, the profound, the illimitable stupidity of a human race which believes itself to be so superior!"

An obscure nurse named Madeleine Poirier slaved for years to get Life Convict Ullmo pardoned. She had never seen him, but his sentence impressed her as unjust. She proved that as a young sublieutenant he had sold French military secrets of no great importance, not because he was a black-hearted traitor to his country but because he had been seduced by an adventuress, La Belle Lison. After Nurse Poirier had obtained Lifer Ullmo's pardon all France expected them to fall in love.

Citizen Ullmo showed not the slightest interest in Nurse Poirier. "What most strikes me," he declared as his parting shot on sailing back to French Guiana, ''is the formidable weakness of the world spiritually, the lowering of standards of conscience and even of intelligence since I was sent away 26 years ago. You have lost your sense of values. You take quantity for quality. You think size is greatness!"

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