JUDGMENT DAY

Before the presses that had spread the luscious face of Harvard's Cinderella over the newsprint to furnish prime fodder for the dusky sweepers of Boston's subways, had cooled, the Daily Record triumphantly announced that the next in its series of true confessions would be the glamorous love story of Norma Brighton Millen. Not satisfied with the chance of exploiting the comely bride of the Needham bank-robber in a legitimate fashion, the Record sought its more devious and revealing method.

The bail dangled before the avaricious eyes of the counsel for the defense was $2500 and the sale gave the Record the right to publish any tidbit it wished over the signature of Norma, until she should be released from the custody of the state by acquittal. In the case of conviction it is not too fantastic to suppose that the serial could go on indefinitely.

But at last the trap has sprung on the Record's over-eager foot. For on Saturday, the voice of the law, in the form of Judge Nelson P. Brown, under whose guiding hand the case will be conducted, served an ultimatum on George Douglas, attorney for Mrs. Millen, and professor at the Suffolk Law School. Brown delivered the notice that anyone connected with the publication of the story--provided that after the ultimatum the Record's feet were not frostbitten--would be hailed into court for contempt. This judgment was rendered on the point that publication of such an article would be the same as allowing a witness to testify in public before the case had come to trial.

Two of the articles have appeared and one man's guess concerning the outcome is as good as another's. One thing is certain. There is no appeal from a sentence for contempt of court, and if the penalty is inflicted, the Record's now famous ghost writer will be given a chance to get his information first-hand.