Mechanical Justice Page #3

"Mechanical Justice" is a thought-provoking novel by Aleksandr Kuprin that explores the intersection of morality, law, and human emotion in a rapidly industrializing society. Set against the backdrop of early 20th-century Russia, the story follows a courtroom drama that examines the implications of mechanized justice versus true moral understanding. Through compelling characters and intricate plot developments, Kuprin delves into themes of corruption, the failings of the legal system, and the quest for personal redemption, ultimately questioning what constitutes justice in an increasingly mechanized world. The novel serves as both a critique of societal norms and a poignant reflection on the human condition.

• Novel

								

increase or diminish the celerity, until that moment when justice has
been accomplished. It would be physically impossible, not having the
key.

"Officer! Bring in the mannikin!

"Will the esteemed audience kindly indicate the number of the
strokes.... Just a number, please ... three figures if you wish, but
not more than 350. Please...."

"Five hundred," shouted the governor of the fortress.

"Reff," barked the dog under his chair.

"Five hundred is too many," gently objected the lecturer, "but to go as
far as we can towards meeting his Excellency's wish let us say 350. We
throw into the urn all the coupons."

Whilst he was speaking, the attendant brought in under his arm a
monstrous-looking leathern mannikin, and stood it on the floor, holding
it up from behind. There was something suggestive and ridiculous in
the crooked legs, outstretched arms, and forward-hanging head of this
leathern dummy.

Standing on the platform of the machine, the lecturer continued:

"Ladies and gentlemen, one last word. I do not doubt that my mechanical
self-flogger will be most widely used. Slowly but surely it will
find its way into all schools, colleges and seminaries. It will be
introduced in the army and navy, in the village, in military and civil
prisons, in police stations and for fire-brigades, and in all truly
Russian families.

"The coupons are inevitably replaced by coins, and in that way not only
is the cost of the machine redeemed, but a fund is commenced which
can be used for charitable and educative ends. Our eternal financial
troubles will pass, for, by the aid of this machine, the peasant will
be forced to pay his taxes. Sin will disappear, crime, laziness,
slovenliness, and in their stead will flourish industry, temperance,
sobriety and thrift.

"It is difficult to probe further the possible future of this machine.
Did Gutenberg foresee the contribution which book-printing was going
to make to the history of human progress when he made his first naïve
wooden printing-press? But I am, however, far from airing a foolish
self-conceit in your eyes, ladies and gentlemen. The bare idea belongs
to me. In the practical details of the invention I have received most
material help from Mr. N----, the teacher of physics in the Fourth
Secondary School of this town, and from Mr. X----, the well-known
engineer. I take the opportunity of acknowledging my indebtedness."

The hall thundered with applause. Two men in the front of the stalls
stood up timidly and awkwardly, and bowed to the public.

"For me personally," continued the lecturer, "there has been the
greatest satisfaction to consider the good I was doing my beloved
fatherland. Here, ladies and gentlemen, is a token which I have lately
received from the governor and nobility of Kursk--with the motto:
Similia similibus."

He detached from its chain and held aloft an immense antique
chronometer, about half a pound in weight. From the watch dangled also
a massive gold medal.

"I have finished, ladies and gentlemen," added the lecturer in a low
and solemn voice, bowing as he spoke.

But the applause had not died down before there happened something
incredible, appalling. The chronometer suddenly slipped from the raised
hand of the pedagogue, and fell with a metallic clash right into the
urn.

At once the machine began to hum and click. The platform inverted, and
the lecturer was suddenly hoist with his own petard. His coat-tails
waved in the air; there was a sudden thwack and a wild cry.

2901, indicated the mechanical reckoner.

It is difficult to describe rapidly and definitely what happened in the
meeting. For a few seconds everyone was turned to stone. In the general
silence sounded only the cries of the victim, the whistling of the
rods, and the clicking of the counting machine. Then suddenly everyone
rushed up on to the stage.

"For the love of the Lord!" cried the unfortunate man, "for the love of
the Lord!"

But it was impossible to help him. The valorous physics teacher put out
a hand to catch one of the rods as they came, but drew it back at once,
and the blood on his fingers was visible to all. No efforts could raise
the cross-beam.

"The key! Quick, the key!" cried the pedagogue. "In my trouser pocket."

The devoted attendant dashed in to search his pockets, with difficulty
avoiding blows from the machine. But the key was not to be found.

2950, 2951, 2952, 2953, clicked the counting machine.

"Oh, your honour!" cried the attendant through his tears. "Let me take
your trousers off. They are quite new, and they will be ruined....
Ladies can turn the other way."

"Go to blazes, idiot! Oey, o, O!... Gentlemen, for God's sake!... Oey,
oey!... I forgot.... The keys are in my overcoat.... Oey! Quickly!"

They ran to the ante-room for his overcoat. But neither was there any
key there. Evidently the inventor had left it at home. Someone was sent
to fetch it. A gentleman present offered his carriage.

And the sharp blows registered themselves every second with
mathematical precision; the pedagogue shouted; the counting machine
went indifferently on.

3180, 3181, 3182....

One of the garrison lieutenants drew his sword and began to hack at
the apparatus, but after the fifth blow there remained only the hilt,
and a jumping splinter hit the president of the Zemstvo. Most dreadful
of all was the fact that it was impossible to guess to what point the
flogging would go on. The chronometer was proving itself weighty. The
man sent for the key still did not return, and the counter, having long
since passed the figure previously indicated by the inventor, went on
placidly.

3999, 4000, 4001.

The pedagogue jumped no longer. He just lay with gaping mouth and
protruding eyes, and only twitched convulsively.

At last, the governor of the fortress, boiling with indignation, roared
out to the accompaniment of the barking of his dog:

"Madness! Debauch! Unheard of! Order up the fire-brigade!"

This idea was the wisest. The governor of the town was an enthusiast
for the fire-brigade, and had smartened the firemen to a rare pitch. In
less than five minutes, and at that moment when the indicator showed
stroke No. 4550, the brave young fellows of the fire-brigade broke on
the scene with choppers and hooks.

The magnificent mechanical self-flogger was destroyed for ever and
ever. With the machine perished also the idea. As regards the inventor,
it should be said that, after a considerable time of feeling sore in a
corporal way and of nervous weakness, he returned to his occupation.
But the fatal occasion completely changed his character. He became
for the rest of his life a calm, sweet, melancholy man, and though he
taught Latin and Greek he was a favourite with the schoolboys.

He has never returned to his invention.
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