Volume 8, Issue 8, page 12

(CONTINUED

ARTHUR J. BURKS - - FROM PAGE 8)

as to motive and everything, and wondering why , for example,
three males would get together, or three women. If
you have a person of the other sex come in on two who were
together, you begin to see where the problems are. of
course, he went into this business of sexual attraction to a
considerable extent in a way that just made you wonder
whether or not your atti

tude towardsex was reasonable or wrong, wheth: er it was a
horrible thing or a beautiful thing I spiritual orwhatever.
I think perhaps it would make you think about it to the point
where you'd be almost afraid to perpetrate the act of
sex, even with someone you loved tremendously

Pro6bly the part of the book ' that has stuck with me the most
thru this period of time was the story of the
lynch mob going to the prison to take out somebody to be lynched.
He puts you with the person who is waiting to
be lynched. The warden comes and looks at the person and says,
"Well, they're coming for you. Bud. I don't know
whether I 'm going to be able to stop them, but I 'II tel I you
one thing , it's not going to cost me my life to do it.
If they come in and get you, they'll get you." The warden just
looked and sort of gloated over the person who
couldn't get away. He enjoyed the sadistic feeling of seeing a
person who was bound and hog-tied and couldn't get
away. He goes on with this to the place where you were both the
warden and the person in the cell, and you really
get to feel pretty terrible for everybody connected with it.

Then you take a look at the stiff-legged march of the lynch mob.
This is something I'll never forget. I don't
remember a single word Ron used, but he started back from there
with showing how a lynch mob started -
somebody got up and said something, and somebody pulled others
together - and as soon as they were together, the
person who had started it might or might not lead, but the
chances were that he would vanish into the mob that he
had started in order not to be responsible. Each person knew that
very dreadful things were going to be done, but he
scarcely would be responsible. He would be there but he wouldn't
actually do much taking part in it. Each one felt
he was going along for the ride, so to speak, but he walks just
as stiff-legged as the other fellow.

Ron has them marching down the street at night, blazing torches
to show the way. And when the mutter or the
growl, of this crowd comes to you, it's something that just
simply makes the shivers move up your back from your
heels to the top of your head. It really ate into you. Not one of
these persons was real if you looked at him from the
outside as an observer, yetwhen he'd take you into the heart of
each one, you'd find each person going along because
the others were going to do it, and he had to go and see. If you
would go into each person's mind this way, you'd
find each had exactly the same idea. Yet they were moved along by
something and they went and, I suppose, got the
guy out and lynched him. I don't remember whether they did or
not-all I remember actually is the march.

I was so impressed with the book I wanted to publish it. I was
interested in a small publishing company called
Egmont Press. I took it to my associates. I-took it to my
managing editor, whosat down and started to glance thru
it. When he realized he couldn't get any place by thumbing thru
it, he went back and read a little of it. I could see a
strange look come

12 The A

.ffietrt~rs of

II %

nnamonit4,

By GEORGE W. LAGUS

(ED. NOTE - Don't take our word for it; look up these crimes
against humanity in any good encyclovaedia.
Thousands of others never were recorded.)

(10) GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA

IROLAMO SAVONAROLA was born in 1452 of a noble Italian family in
Ferrara. At the age of 22, he joined the
Dominican order after hearing the fiery sermon of a monastic
recruiter~ In due time, he became a church dignitary
who. as a monastic recruiter, persuaded many persons to accept
the austere terms of ecclesiastic servitude.

In his zeal, Savonarola organized "decency committees" that
collected the alleged tools of Satan: cards, dice,
erotic books, paintings. However, he discovered that his
superiors were leading a life of"sin", which they financed
by confiscations, often accompanied by murder. He consequently
accused the Roman hierarchy in the course of his
sermons, until Pope Alexander VI ordered his execution.

For some time, Savonarola was protected by the people of
Florence, but they deserted h im when he refused to
submit to a fire-walking test suggested by papal agents. He was
then arrested by inquisitors, who broke his arms in
an effort to make him confess that he was a charlatan.

On May 23, 1498, Savonarola was strangled together with two of
his friends, before a large crowd in Florence.
Minutes before his death, he challenged his bishop's authority to
bar his soul from entering Heaven.

His body was burned and the ashes were cast into the river. So
ended the life of a man who was so indoctrinated
that not even his teachers could stop him from overdoing his job.
The bishops had shown they could make or break
a fanatic.

Savonarola entered history as one of the greatest orators of all
time.

into his face as he read it. Then,he passed it on to a reader,
and after awhile, there were several people involved in it
ard it was being passed, page by page, to others, and they were
having all kinds of results. It was a squirmy thing -
and I watched it. I watched. in fact, until that manuscript was
scattered all over East 41st Street in New York.

The upshot of it was that they were afraid to publish it. Ron was
angry, and threatened: "You will publish this
book and I will have a half-interest in the company that
publishes it or we' 11 know the reason why." But it never
came to that. Ron did something that he's frequently done: he
went sour on the idea and went back to Seattle.

I don It bel ieve " Excalibur 11 ever would have sent anybody
insane - altho you can't be sure. I have the feeling
that, unquestionably, if "Excalibur" were in the hands of every
person in the world. the world would be that many
times different than it is right now. But whether it would make
it worse or better, I have no way of knowing. 4

-Some persons are so intent in looking "over the border", they
can't see the boredom.

E DECEMBER, 1961

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