Don Before Deemster

Among the other diversions which the curious little Isle of Man otters tourists is an annual automobile race. There one evening last May famed British Sportsman Kaye Don, in preparation for the race, was speeding around a corner at something like a mile a minute when his car scraped a Manxman's sedan, jumped a hedge, landed upside down 75 yd. away. Don's mechanic, Francis Taylor, was killed. When Kaye Don hobbled out of the hospital last week, he hobbled straight into an ancient courtroom where Manx Deemsters are sworn to uphold justice "as indifferently as the herring's backbone doth lie in the midst of the fish." The charge was manslaughter.

A "lockman" started the trial by "fencing" the court in the name of the King. The jury was taken to the scene of the smashup. Attorney-General Moore outlined the case: ''If we find there is an explanation of this accident we will all be very happy. But if you are forced to the conclusion that this happened because Kaye Don chose to race 60 m. p. h. on the public highway in failing light and caused this man's death, then it will be your unpleasant duty to find him guilty."

The three-day trial brought out that Don's car had no lamps, license, horn. Sportsman Don assumed full responsibility for taking the fatal trial run, said that he had done so at the suggestion of his young mechanic, that he knew that the steering gear was faulty.

After deliberating an hour and a half, the jury found Sportsman Don guilty. Don was sentenced to four months' imprisonment in a Manx jail.

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