Twenty-Seven in July

One night last week Garry Davis, self-appointed Citizen of the World, rolled up his sleeping bag and put on his scuffed leather flight jacket. Then he headed for Cherche-Midi military prison, on Paris' Left Bank. He told the prison concierge that as a gesture of protest against injustice, he wanted to be locked up with Jean Moreau, a young French conscientious objector whom the French police had recently jailed. The concierge was very sorry, but the director of the prison was not around; perhaps, if M. Davis came back the next morning, the director might accommodate him.

Next day at 8 a.m. Davis was back. He laid his camping equipment on the sidewalk and got ready for a siege. Presently le panier a salade (the paddy wagon; literally, salad basket) picked him up and hauled him off to the mairie (town hall) of the sixth arrondissement. There he talked things over with urbane Andre Michel, commissaire of the arrondissement. The conversation went like this:

Michel: Monsieur Davis, I am not one of the crowd that listens to your words with religious fervor. And I want you to know, my dear Monsieur Davis, that I am not impressed with the antics of a decadent actor. Do you follow me well?

Davis: I think I get the sense of what you say.

Michel: Some do not believe in order. But I do. You are an American?

Davis: No, but of American origin.

Michel: I am not of American origin, nor of British. I am French, Parisian as well. And, my dear Citizen of the World, I do not believe in buffoonery. Do you know the meaning of the word? It is something like what a little dog does, but not quite. France has given you privileges. That is the way France is . . .

Davis: Does the French government believe in reason and conscience?

Michel: I am a simple functionary. I follow my orders and do not question my superiors.

Then Michel, without questioning his superiors, gave Davis his wish and locked him up. The charge was vagrancy. Concluded Davis, who was 27 in July: "Six months ago I was an unconscious fool. Today I am a conscious one."

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