The Smith and the Baker

Johan Herman Wessel (1742 – 1785) was a Norwegian-Danish poet known for his many humorous and satiric verse tales, referring to man’s foolishness and injustice. In “Smeden og bageren” (The Smith and the Baker), ridiculing Dano-Norwegian court procedure, a peaceful baker is executed instead of a murderous smith, because the village has only one smith but two bakers:

At once the smith they did detain.
A surgeon checked the man he’d slain
And wrote he met a violent death.
The killer, questioned, did at once confess.
He hoped his foe in th’other life
Would there forgive their erstwhile strife.
But now the fun starts! On the day
Before the judge shall have his say,
Four citizens up to him went
And of them the most eloquent
Did thus address:

“Oh judge most wise!
We know the city’s welfare you most prize;
This welfare though depends upon
Our smith not being dead and gone.
For can his death the dead man bring to life?
We’ll never find so competent a man again,
For whose crime we must pay so cruel a price,
If help he begs in vain.” –
“Consider though, dear friend! The price for life is life.” –
“A baker old and frail lives here.
Whom pox could take within the year.
We’ve two of them, the old one won’t be missed?
Then life’s by life repaid.” –
“Yes,” said the judge to them, “the idea’s quite well-made.
To slow things down I now must strive;
For in a case like this the arguments are rife –
If only I could spare the smith his life!
Farewell, good folk! I’ll do all that I can.” –
“Farewell, wise upright man!” –

He leafs through all his law books with great care;
But he finds nothing written there
Forbids him changing smith to baker, if inclined;
So he makes up his mind,
And here’s his sentence clear:
(Let all come forward who will hear!)
“’Tis true that blacksmith Jens
Can offer no defence
And has confessed here in this court
He Anders Pedersen t’eternity has brought;
But since we have but one smith in this town
I would be something of a clown
Should I desire to see him dead.
But there are two here who bake bread.”

“The sentence of the court:
The baker who is now of older years,
Shall for the murder with his own life pay,
A fitting punishment and one that’s clear,
A dire warning to all those that go astray.”

The baker cried such bitter tears,
As he was led away.

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“I’m supposed to be responsible for making all these people do all these things. I’m supposed to have this awesome power to move people to destruction and have the power of the presidency, that I can put troops in the field and have them go out and fight and die and take other peoples lives, for me. I didn’t tie anybody up. And I was never on a scene where anyone was killed. I think the law says you can only keep me seventeen or eighteen years if I was never on a scene where anyone was killed. I was never on the crime scenes. I didn’t kill nobody, I didn’t tell nobody to get killed. I didn’t get no trial, but we don’t wanna hear that.”

Charles Milles Manson (Nov. 12, 1934)