Poetic Treatment

When four stanzas of rough-hewn verse by Reader Lee James Burt first appeared in the column of Chicago Tribune Sports Editor Arch Ward, they caused no comment. But last week the twelve-year-old verses by the forgotten contributor to "In the Wake of the News" rated a whole column in the Trib's news section, and stories in the opposition papers to boot.

A framed copy of Burt's The Real Victim, a tearful protest against domestic discord, had been hung by Judge Cornelius Harrington just inside his courtroom in the Cook County circuit court. Last week, when a pretty blonde named Lorraine Eliasen, 25, appeared in court with her husband seeking temporary alimony pending trial of her separate-maintenance suit, Judge Harrington thought that the Eliasens looked ripe for the poetic treatment. He called the couple into his chambers, told them what a "beautiful-looking couple" they were and what a "gorgeous-looking boy" little five-year-old Roy was. Says Harrington: "Their chests always swell up, and they feel real proud. Then I say, "I have another matter on now. Suppose you step outside and look at the poem on my wall.' " The Eliasens looked, and lingered tearfully over two of the sentimental stanzas:

Their marriage was wrecked and they

parted,

Now in a court trial they appeared,

The suit that the mother had started,

Asked that by her their child might

be reared.

"Would you happier be with your

mother?

Answer me," asked the judge, "on your

oath"--

The man and wife looked at each other--The boy sobbed, "I'd be

happy with

both!"

A few minutes later the Eliasens, husband & wife, were back in Judge Harrington's courtroom; the separate-maintenance suit was dismissed. In the dozen years since it has been hanging on the courtroom wall, said Judge Harrington, the Burt poem has helped to reconcile no fewer than a hundred couples.

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