"PLAUSILLE PUNDITRY"

Out of the haze of legal phraseology and latinized please which hung over the Superior Criminal Court of East Cambridge yesterday the average uninformed layman can discern three points: one, the court's decision, is a fact and therefore serious; the second is an analogy and consequently a bit whimsical; the third might be called subtle and is certainly rich in allusions.

In the first place, the students are placed on probation, the imposed fines are translated into "court expenses", and the records read that the accused plead Polo contendere. Black may be black and white may be white but in this case both the prosecution and the defendants are not to be denied the privilege of claiming a victory. As Luigi Pirandello so well phrases it--"Right you are--if you think you are."

The analogy is that there are probations and probations, and that some emanate from college offices and others from more worldly sources. Up to this time "Pro" has had only one connotation in academic circles. But times have changed, and cloisters have been temporarily uncloistered and definitions grow ominous and inclusive.

The last item in the account of the trial is the court's advice to the students: "You will refrain from molesting policemen and, as you grow up to be professors, you will refrain from attacking the courts and the police". Who shall forbid stern Justice from her lighter moments? A humorous touch gaily concludes a mass of legality. It makes little difference whether or not the reference is applicable, or even well chosen. One ceases to quibble when one hears the welcome notes of "Case dismissed."