This town is still chuckling over that Jewish business man who believed in paying his fine for speeding, even if it meant giving away his right eye.
Harry Richman, who hails from Monticello, N. Y., was arrested for speeding here and the police judge penalized him to the extent of $20.
Richman informed the judge that he didn’t have that much money with him.
“Well, what do you expect me to do?” the magistrate asked.
“I suppose you’d take my right eye if you had the chance,” Richman commented somewhat insolently.
“Yes, if it’s available,” said the judge.
Richman (can’t you just guess?) calmly lifted his eye from its socket and placed it on the bench. The glass orb stared up at the magistrate and the magistrate stared back, but finally had to admit he had been outstared.
“Dismissed!” he shouted somewhat petulantly. “And take that thing with you!”
Richman smiled broadly.
“No offense meant, Your Honor,” he said. “I was merely obeying that stern old Hebraic law: An eye for an I. O. U.”
Thus endeth the Hackensack chronicle. The Hackensack correspondent has told his story, and you can take it or leave it.
The question is, what place has a story like this in a newspaper at a time when the universe is in the throes of a mad upheaval, which will fatten the history books of tomorrow and will have repercussions perhaps beyond even the wildest predictions of the most jittery alarmist?
The answer might well be, none at all.
Still, tales such as these serve their purpose. They help us to realize that the world is not quite as topsy turvy as it might seem to the casual observer.
So long as the Hackensack and the Seattle correspondents serve up such fare as this, there remains hope for a return to normalcy.
If the incident had occurred in Nazi Germany, it undoubtedly would have been told somewhat differently.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
