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Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, February 11, 1906, Image 51

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THE FASHIONABLE
DRESSMAKER
BY MARGARET E. SAJiOSTER.
(Copyright. ipne. by Joseph B. Bowles.)
A dressmaker's business 1? to make for
her customers gowns and wraps In the
latest fashion. Hence the moat modest or
village dressmakers from her own point of
view Is well entitled to the epithet fash
ionable, as If she were the most exclus.va
and high-priced member of her profession
In town.
A woman whose means permit her to pay
the rather alarming rates charg-;l by a city
dressmaker, who brings her models trom
Paris and works for the ultra-smart set,
told me that on one occasion she carried
n gown which needed a few s'.lgtit repairs
to the home of a little seamstress on a oack
p'.r' < t of a small suburb, and indicated to
her what she wanted done. To her sur
prise and* amusement the s-vamstrcss was
not In the least Impressed by the magnill
< ence ami style or the lady's garment, sne
criticised It unsparingly, round fault with
Is cut and ltB garniture, and poin.-'d with
j.rlde to a creation of litr own, which she
liad Just finished and was about to send
home to one or her patrons. The Inference
was that she felt herself d stinctly on a
level with the town dressmaker, whom she
looked upon as k rather lo.midable rival, to
wn<;m Airs took trade which might
Just as well tlnd its way Into her Utile
workroom. Having asked various people
and made a few notes of my own, 1 am in
clined to think thai professional Jealousy
of this kind niny be found in every line cf
business, and that dressmakers, being as a
rul*> women, and or course human, have
their little weaknesses precisely as every
body else has In some special line.
*
* *
In fact, although the village dressmaker
may not be able to afford an annual trip
across the Atlantic and visit to the great
establishments or Kurope, the headquarters
of the pomps and vanities, known to the
initiated in Fails, Vienna and Berlin, and to
some extent In ixindon, yet she Is not with
out her opportunities and advantages. The
fashion journals of the world come lo her
door, those not only that are published
abroad, but tho that emanante from ex
cellent . .Hire s on this side the water. Mi.ny
ami brilliant pons from week to weeii and
month to month write up and fully de
scribe current fashions, while artists <f no
mean ability devo e time and talent to the r
adequate illustration. In the city the latest
and loveliest fashions are seen on the stage
sind In the provinces a touring company, It
of any note, need not be ashamed of the
wardrobe of Its leading lady.
Women with brains, eyes and hands. If in
11: busine-- of dressmaking and endowed
with quick perceptions and good ideas, get
great profit from an occasional Jaunt to
K " York, <'li! igo. Philadelphia. #>r what
ever city they can most conveniently reach.
Annual and semi-annual displays by whole
sale dealers and the importations of the
1 iff department stores are entirely at their
f' rvioe. and a little woman who goes out
li> the day and has her round of clients re
tail from an outing of this sort fully pre
1 tied to enter on a successful campaign.
*
* *
Tl. fashionable dressmaker who charges
ri rmous prices for the costumes that bear
her name has in reality no monopoly of
taste and none of style. Nevertheless, in
her chosen line she is a lofty personage, and
to her. as is meet and right, the daughters
of our millionaires will turn, the wives of
ow city magnates look, and the brides of
the coming season. If their fathers have
1 inc pur." s, will accept her dictum as to
their trousseaus.
When a bride centers upon herself the
admiring attention of a nation, when the
rich brocade for her wedding gown is
wo\ ? n as if she were a queen, on an exclu
sive loom by an exclusive pattern, never to
t reproduced, It Is in the order of things
: ? finery -hall p-merge from the hands
?.f some dressmaker of renown.
Su h artistes. ;!ie fashionable dressmakers
?t lie p? ri> d. have their distinctive place
at the top of the trade. They rank with
the great chefs the great statesmen, the
great leaders, and th" great people in gen
era! of their time. Whether or not others
WHIPPING POST
OF BAI
Condemned at the Capitol
Fail Next Monday?H<
on in the Past for
NEXT Monday, in all probability,
the members of the House of
Ki pr? sentatlves will be called
to vote on the proposition to es
tablish a whipping post In the
]?; triet of Columbia for the punishment ot
ife beaters. The action of the House Dls
: immlttc in reporting, without rec
?h! ition. the bill introduced by Hepre
? ilive Adams of Pennsylvania has given
measure a place on the calendar. Mon
day is Irtstrlct day, and It Is the present in
tention of the author of the bill to have It
considered at that lime.
It Is the confident opinion of those ac
quaint! 1 with the situation that the meas
ure \\ 11 not pass. The House of Repre
sentatives is composed of men of different
p Utl'al parti. of varying political faith,
<if widely divergent views on the many
questions that come before them. But in
the main they are men of common sense,
uccustomed to arguing from cause to ef
fect. wise In the ways of legislation, swift
to talk and slow to act. After obtaining
the views of those members of the House \
of Representatives who reflect in large
ii. isure the wisdom and Intelligence of the
working majority?tho majority of common
sense, without respect to political affilia
tions ;t is safe to assert that In all prob
ability the bill will not pass.
It seems, however, to many of those who
have given serious thought to this attempt
ed modern revival of an ancient and dis
credited [tract i< e that the advocacy of a
measure of this sort Is In the nature of a
reflection upon the Intelligence. It is not
MS if the whipping post were a thing new
and untried; it Is not .is If Its vices and
virtues were entirely theoretical. Its actual
effect upon the matter and morals of a
community still remaining to be worked
out In the fullness of experience. For the
whipping post has had Its day.
Years ago, when our great-grandfathers
were young and our grandfathers yet un
born. whipping iK>?ts stood In the public
square of hundicds of cities and towns In
what are now these United States. Brutal,
<1 graded, drunken wretches were dally
lashed on the bare back for the edifi
cation and amusement of a hardened pop
ulace. The stocks held fast their shameful
quarry to the gaze, to the Insults and abuse
of the ll?:ht-minded and the cruel. The
scold's bridle clamped Its heavy curb upon
the unruly, loose-hung tongue. The duck
ing stool at river's edge dipped merrily
with shivering freight of shrewish virago.
And a dozen other engines, relics of th?
public Ang!o-S.ixon inquisition, played their
little part In the old regime of retaliatory
punishments.
It is very doubtful whether any one of
the ten members c f the House District com
mittee who by their votes were Instru
mental In placing the Adams bill upon the
calendar subject to being called upon on
Monday would deny that the establishment
?-f a whipping isist In Washington would
be a sti p backward toward the olden days
when the post and the pillory, the bridle
ard the brank. the siool and the plough
share s. held sway. Of all the ten there Is
probably not a man who sincerely and
earnestly believes that. The manner in
which the bill was reported Is evidence of
this fact. It was placed on the calendar
without recommendation, and In Its report
the committee mentions that owing to the
difference of local opinion tranlfested us to
the advisability of establishing a whipping
post here it was deemed best to let the
recognize this they themselves are not slow
to Insist upon their prerogatives.
^ our fashionable dressmaker of eminence
is a personage with whom one does not
take liberties. Great ladies, so to speak,
sit at her feet. Her house has nothing
about it of the air of the shop. Callages
drive up 10 her door, elegant women de
scend. flutter up the steps, ring her bell
and float out of sight, wlthlrt" the magic
portals. Those portals are opened by a
page in buttons, who is as dignified as a
well-trained English butler, and as solemn
as an American undertaker. His face has
the immobility of a graven image, and yet
h ' knows to a nicety, and apparently by in
tuition, which of madame's customers is to
be treated with resafict, which with affabil
ity and which with toleration. It is amus
jngr to Observe the faint interrogation mark
In the eyes of such a functionary- when a
new customer appears who has unfortun
ately not yet attained the hall-mark of
fashion, and wno has something of the
stamp of the frump or the dowdy.
*
* *
But madame's orders suffer no discourtesy
to a visitor, except, perhaps, from herself.
She has almost a sixth sense In determin
ing at a glance whether a stranger Is to be
welcomed with effusion or gently discour
aged. Occasionally, but very seldom,
her discretion is at fault and she blunders
Into a rebuff to some one who might have
proved a most desirable patron. Her draw
ing room is well furnished and has nothing
of the gloom characteristic of boarding
h> use parlors. On the contrary, its an
pointinents arc comfortable, conventional
A RELIC
tBAROUS TIMES
-The Adams Bill Likely to
3w the Lash Was Laid
Various Offenses.
aasxs-jSKr
*
To some members of the House the re
huge joke t" b,? a, a
th'rt J ,ers 11 appears as a re
action upon the committee and upon Con
gress thilt 8Uch a W11 haa lain fo';?tnv^"a
TW>Pfl0d U|Hm UlC bualneas calendar
who hat""0 8eVera' members the body
'-ring JLnTC'U"CCd th6lF '"^tlon ->f of
fering amendments to the bill. One mem
ber from a southern state savs that 1
enough of the sajs that he saw
civil war to last him ? 1* "?St before the
and he suggests that' In'thebin the^"/'
;;LXk:n^^hin""^wbLSStSto?
ment to the Adams bill, to put into ut
once more all the various engines of re
tallatory punishment which were onc6 in
favor and which have been rustv fr? t
use ihcs. hundreds of ?"rsOt?r' mem!
tli? wff on the subject, and while
the bill may have some defenders there
are those who have not given serious con
sideration to the alternative propo8It?on
hi^Hrf ?? 1 w'th the Question of wife
beating It appears from present indica
tions that Mr. Adams will have but a for
th? lash l? * W"h h'm f?r the P?8t and
In view of all the discussion concerning
the whipping post and its virtues Just now
h.."v^r<'SS.,t, 'S rather interesting to turn
the > ellowed leaves and view the post in
its proper setting. It cannot be denied that
the post and the pillory were patr and
parcel of the old regime of retaliatory pun
ishments, a simple and natural outgrowth
of the conditions of other times. It may
be said at least, that the system of pun
I lshment was notable for its sweet- slm
P h y' I. a,raa? took what di<l not belong
. ,8. . waa lopP,<5 off- w<th the
jaen that the maimed stump would remind
Mh ,r rt'8t of hls days that the way
of the transgressor was hard; if he offended
the second time and was caught, his otaer
hand followed the first, and he was left a
helpless cripple for life. If his hearing
proved too acute at the wrong time an ear
was sliced from his head; on slight provo
cation the second followed the first.
V talked too much the pincers tore
out his tongue: If his vision proved too
keen at some unfortunate moment, a red
hot poker destroyed his sight. And in ad
triv'iai trifling punishments for
trhial offenses there were 200 capital
crimes for which the penalty was death
1 ertainly it would seem to the average
man as If sufficient Inducements were of
fered to the dwellers in those days to stick
to the straight and narrow path. But evi
dently the desired end was not served, for
y t* ?f nV that lonfr llst ot maiming
and burning and branding and beheading?
Mw ^ pun.lsl"nenta without number and
that beggar description-there is no record
that crime and license were any less nreva
lent than at the present day P *'
*
Prior to the nineteenth century the whip
ping post was an English political institu
tion of great antiquity, the direct out
growth of "whypplng at the cart's tayle."
All through the middle ages It held sway
LVfVS?* a"d navy 11 was continued
uruil not so very long ago, and it was of
course, considered t/ie Indispensable exoedl
eut for enforcing discipline among
and a little stately. This Is madame's re
ception room, and here she bears herself
with the suave and gracious manner of a
Associated with it as corrective measures
were the ducking .stool for the lewd and
the "iron bridle" for scolds. The church
and city records of England show how con
stantly i lie post, and the pillory?for the
two were usually found together?were in
voked to perform their large share of legal
and restrictive duties. In the reign , of
Henry VIII a famous "whypping act" was
passed, by which all vagrants were to be
whipped severely "at the cart's tayle until
their bodies become bloody by reason of
such whypping." Certainly there could be
no fault found with that statute on the
ground that it was ambiguous. The enact
ment was in force nearly through the
reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the whip
ping post became the usual substitute of
the "cart's tayle." But from all contem
poraneous accounts it does not appear that
the force of the blows wa?a whit lessened.
As a good sound British institution, and
in order that there might be familiar and
Ik rr.elike surroundings in the new and
strange land, the whipping post was
promptly set up, and the nine-thonged lash
started to work. In all the American colo
nies. In an order sent over from England
for the government of the first settlement
at Salem whipping was prescribed In the
phrase, "correccon is enjoined for the fooles
back." Scourgings were made a feature of
the Sabbath and usually occurred oil lec
ture days as well. From that time on the
whipping post was a leading feature of tlrt:
system of punishments in the blue laws
of New England. In Boston in particular
the post was early in operation. The rec
ords of that city show that at the session
of the court on November 30, 1630, one man
was sentenced to be whipped for stealing
half a loaf of bread; another for swearing
on the Sabbath; another for leaving his
vessel without a "pylott." For "stryklng
his mother and deriding her" John Pease
was sentenced to be severely "whipt."
*
* *
In 1631 an order of the general court ol
Boston provided that "Philip Ratcllffe shall
be whipt, his ears cut off. fined forty pounds
and banished out of the limits of this juris
diction for uttering malicious and scan
dalous speeches against the government."
Strangely enough, the sentence was not ap
proved of in London, although Infinitely
worse punishments were carried, out there
every day in the year. It was only In the
previous year, 1630, that John Taylour, the
"water poet," wrote;
"In LodiIou and wltblu a tulle. I ween.
There are gaols and prisons full fifteen,
And s:ity w hipping posts and stocks between."
It is not of record that the sympathy of
the English people was received with grati
tude by the unfortunate Ratcllffe, who had
already received his lashes, and lost his
tars and his citizenship.
In Boston in 1643 a pious regard for the
Sabbath, in appearance at least, was en
forced with the lash. Roger Scott, for "re
peated sleeping on the Lord's day and for
stryklng the person who wakened him,"
was sentenced to be severely whipped. The
gift of prophecy was also subdued by simi
lar means about this time.
Every week in Boston there were fresh
whippings, and forty lashes was the ordi
nary dose. The post was on the Boston
Common near State street In revolutionary
times. In 1771 Samuel Breck, a resident of
Boston, who was evidently a good deal
ahead of his generation in his views with
respect to this particular phase of eight
eenth century civilization, wrote to a frifend
in New York the following brief account of
Us observations:
"The large whipping post, painted red,
stands conspicuously in the most public
street of the town. It Is placed on State
street, directly under the windows of the
great writing school which I frequented,
and from there the scholars were indulged
In the spectacle of all kinds of punishment
suited to harden their hearts and brutalize
their feelings. Here women were takenln
a huge cage, in which they were dragged on
wheels from the prison, and tied to the post
with bare backs, on which thirty oi forty
lashes were bestowed among the screams
of the culprit and the uproar of the mob."
In New Haven. Conn., the city magis
trates were early in favor of the whipping
post, and declared that "stripes and whip
pings is correct, fit and proper in some
cases, when the offense is accompanied with
brutish or childish folly or rudeness, or
with stubborn lnsolency or beastly cruelty,
A
duchess* just tinged with sufficient aristl
cratic aloofness to keep her customers prop
erly subordinate In their places. She sug
or with Idle vagrancy or faults of a like
nature."
In Rhode Island, even under gentle and
tolerant Roger Williams, the whippin g post
v/as kept busy a good part of the time. It
is rather difficult to realize at this time that
in Newport, until the nineteenth century,
malefactors were dragged around town at
the tail of a cart and then taken to a public
square and whipped on the naked back in
sight of all who cared to gaze.
In New York city a whipping post was
. "",mni'
set up on the strand In front of the "Stadt
Huya'' under Dutch rulo, and the sentences
were many and severo. One little para
graph In aNewYork newspaper published at
that time throws a keen light on the cold
blooded selfishness and brutal indifference
of the people of that day to human suffer
ing, and illustrates, almost better than any
argument could possibly do. one of the prin
cipal reasons why, -with the advance of civ
ilization end enlightened sentiment, the in
stitution of the whipping post gradually fell
from favor. The newspaper, in discussing
a number of whippings that had taken place
the day before In front of the Stadt Huys,
says that one woman who was under the
lash "created much amusement by her re
sistance."
Of course, so far as the correction and
j
i
The Prize Winners.
FIRST PRIZE, $5.00?Awarded to
H. N. Thornburg, 215 3d St. s.e.
This remarkable picture of the
fireworks display on the Monu
ment lot was taken the night of
March 4, 1905. The display of fire
works was in connection with the
inauguration of Theodore Roose
velt as President of the United
States. The photograph is espe
cially remarkable for the faithful
reproduction of detail. The ray of
light extending from the top of
the Monument is from a powerful
searchlight.
SECOND PRIZE. $3.00?Awarded
to Alvln R. Meissner, 140 Q St.
n.W.
One of the most unusual char
acteristics of this photograph is
that It was taken by lamplight.
THIRD PRIZE, $2.00?Awarded to
Arthur O. Fowler, 117/z Todd
pi ice n.w.
"The White Flyer" was built
and is owned by William Allpress,
145 T street northwest. The actual
cost of the material used was $G6.
The truck weighs 500 pounds and
is 21 feet 9 inches long. It will
carry twenty-four persons.
gest, dictates and ordains what the people
who come to her are to wear, and if they
happen to be favorites she lays herself out
punishment of slaves were concerned, the
whipping post was a southern institution
until the close of the civil war. At that
time slavery and the whipping post may
be said to have vanished hand in hand, the
latter disappearing from every state with
the exception of Delaware. And now this lat
ter commonwealth has, as before stated, the
unique and questionable distinction of be
ing the only state in the Union where the
whipping post is, and has consistently re
mained throughout all the years of progress
the Cart'iT&ylc
and advancement, a feature of the penal
system. It must toe said, however, that Del
aware Is not the only civilized state of
modem times to approve of whipping for
certain crimes. Thirty years ago. when gar
rot ing became so frequent and so greatly
feared in England, the whipping post was
re-established and the lash became oace
more an authorized instrument of pun
ishment.
And in 1882 there was a revival of this
form of punishment in Maryland.
?
* *
The history of the whipping post in Dela
ware is particularly Interesting, In view of
the fact that It is a well-recognized mode
of punishment at the present time. In 1719
to do them honor and so to dress thi?m that
they shall honor her.
Formerly this potentate was somewhat
noted for mendacity In the matter of prom
ising gowns for occasions, hut in these days
she- is likely to keep her word, an J a
promptly paying customer Is measurably
sure to receive her toilet's in pood season.
The little matter of price is seldom intro
duced until a choice has been made and the
gown ordered. Madame names a high fig
ure. hut the people who come to her do not
expect anything cheap, and would be some
what disgusted if their things did not cost
money. All rhings 011 this earth are rela
tive. and today in this rich land we have
many men whose incomes permit their
wives and daughters to spend large sums of
money on their dress without their l^ing
in the least extravagant. Indeed, their
spending puts money in circulation, and
helps to kindle hearth-fires in the homes of
the poor.
*
* *
Every fashionable dressmaker has a large
corps of workwomen, each of whom attends
to only a single portion of a dress. There
is a highly paid fitter who earns as much
money in the course of a year as is paid to
the average college president. There are
women who attend only to sleeves, to skirts,
to embroideries, to finishings. Madame her
self does nothing at all beyond exercising
the office of critic, which she does with an
exactness and swiftness of conclusion that
show her to be mistress of the situation.
When finally she sends home to its fortu
nate possessor a gown that will be called a
dream, it is carefully packed In enveloping
folds of tlssi is boxed with care
and dispatched with as much detail as
though it belonged, as it really does, to the
realm of decorative art, of priceless lace, or
of costly bric-a-brac.
William Keith, governor of the counties on
the Delaware, with the consent of the as
sembly of Breemen, passed an act direct
ing that "all crimes be tried and punish
ments adjudged according to the laws of
Great Britain." In this act the phrase "such
corporal punishment as the court sh ill think
fit to inflict" evidently refers to the whip
ping post and the pillory, and it is the first
mention of either in the laws of Delaware.
A few years later. In a succeeding act, it
was provided that twenty-one lashes on the
bare back should be given to slaves found
carrying their masters' weapons without
permission. Fy>m that time on the post
has held free sway In the state. In an act
of 1708 is a list of sheriff's fees for "whip
ping every person by order of the court at
(57 cents each." The present sheriff is much
better off than his predecessor, as he re
ceives $1.50 for each whipping he adminis
ters.
The present law under which the pun
ishment is administered provides that
"the punishment of whipping shall be in
flicted by strokes on the bare back, well
laid on." Women are now exempted from
the lash, the last female to be publicly
whipped in the state having been pun
ished in 1864.
More than twenty years ago, when the !
lash was used much more freely in Del
aware for the punishment of various
crimes than it is at the present day. Gen.
Brlnkerhoff. president of the seventh na
tional conference of charities and correc
tions, who had studied the penal system
thoroughly, said that Delaware, despite
Its posts and pillories, had the largest
prison population with respect to com
parative size of any state In the t'nion.
"The lash," said Gen. Brlnkerhoff, as the
result of his observations, "harrows up
the worst feelings of the soul and drives
from the being of the man undergoing
punishment every remnant of better na
ture. And, more than that. It makes him
desperate enough for the accomplish
ment of any evil deed."
Two years ago at the thirtieth na
tional conference of the same organiza
tion Warden Meserve of the Wilmington,
Del., workhouse, who has studied the sys
tem at close range for many years, and
who has wielded the whip on occasion.
: declared that the system was all wrong.
| "We have a whipping post where whlp
1 ping is a part of the sentence of the
I court," he said. "I would be very glad to
1 have the state rid itself of this relic of
i barbarism, but which will exist until pub
I 11c opinion la worked up to the extoat of
i demanding that it shall be abolished. In
I the last year thirty-nine persons were
whipped, and It was a very unpleasant
duty. A bill was Introduced in the Del
aware legislature last winter for the
j abolishment of the whipping post, and
was making very satisfactory progress
toward ultimate passage, when one after
noon in the corridor of the state house a
New York crook put his arm around n
1 certain member of the legislature and
; took a diamond stud from his shirt
i bosom. He was arrested, and In the course
of his examination said he would rather
commit suicide than undergo the ordeal
of the lash. The legislature said that If
the post had that effect on crooks It was
certainly worth having, and so the bill
did not pass. The members of the Society
of Friends In the state are now taking
the matter up and are raising money to
pay good speakers to go up and down the
state to work up public sentiment against
It, so that these forms of punishment may
be abolished by legislation."
One of the best utterances on the subject
of the whipping post?brief, clear-cut and
convincing?was made more than twenty
years ago by a foremost student of penal
systems, who, during the agitation which
resulted In the temporary revival of the
whipping post as an Institution In Mary
land, wrote as follows:
*
*
"Under the designation 'cruel punish
ments' are Included all ?uch penalties as
are designed to Inflict direct physical suf
fering, accompanied by circumstance of
Ignominy. Of this form the whipping post
is an example. The infliction of such penal
ties Is on the theory of retaliation and Is
Improper and vicious for this reason. The
legitimate province of all laws relating to
penalties for crime Is punishment simply,
and anything inflicted beyond this, whether
Wants to Prove Man
Can Live on Wood
Sperial < "orreapocdenre of The Htsr.
LONDON. February 11**.
In the Infirmary of the Mils Knd wort
house. L<ondoo. Is row lodged John Maglnn,
who declares that he has made a great dis
covery, which would prove of Inestimable
benefit to mankind If the doctors would
permit him to demonstrate Its efficiency
on his own person, and thereby convince a
skeptical World. Before the doctors got
hold of him Maginn announced his liscov
ery In a letter to the Times.
??Working In th-s kindling deportment,"
he wrote, ""1 have discovered that common
deal wood Is a valuable food and medicine
If cut small and eaten. Brown hreed can
not be compared with It for tonic and In
vlgorating effect."
The doctors say that Maginn has so de
pleted his system and Impaired >>ia vitailt]
by eating wood that It he wore not le
strained from Indulging In It he would kll
himself. As It Is. they are ex tamely doubt
fill whetlier they can save him. Maginn as
serfs that all ho is raftering from is th<
deprivation of his favorite diet and th<
treatment of the de? "i ? I It- -cays ne ha>
so accustomed himself to living on wooc
that he cannot thnv.- on anything else
and If only allow d to tat it he would poor
be well again. Anyhow, lie maintains, <t
the Interests of science, he should be per
niltted to continue his experiment to lh<
end, uid is quite willing 10 taK< nls chnncci
of finding that end death.
"As It is,1' he adds. I don't net a fall
chance to prove the truth of :ny theory
and a discovery of tremendous important
Is in danger ? ?! i>< nlost to ti e world; foi
If I die It will, of course, be said that 1
kilh-d myself?that 1 was a victim of mj
own folly, and all that sort of thin*. Bu
I am going to try to set well, despite tlu
doctors, and then I'll go somewhere when
I can eat wood without running any tlsk o
being interfered with by them. 1 want M
prove that nolody need starve In this cotin.
try as ^ong as thTe Is any wood to tx
picked up. That will go far to solving tin
unemployed problem sind the ,>auper prob
lorn and a lot of other problems There ar?
forc-ts running to waste In this world 'ha
would stippl} with io. it ten tunes man)
poor people as are now living In It."
*
+ *
M.'iginn is nn Illiterate crank. He Is I
man of some education who ha? fallen 01
evil days. Therein fate s ems to hav?
played a large part In Ills discovery. Koi
If- he had not been driven to take refug*
In a workhouse he would never have beet
set to work on a wood pile, and it is con
ceivable tnat his great discovery mlgh'
have l>een delayed for some centuries?nay
perhaps never have been made. Mag nn I
remarkable powers first came to ilgh
through a strange shortage being notice*
in the wood department. Bundles of fire
wood seemed to disappear in a mysterious
way, and at the same time It was ohservei
that Maglnn's appetite for the ordlnarj
workhouse fare steadily diminished.
It was not. however, until he was dC'
trcted surreptitiously ego wing piece* of flre.
wood, after lie had rejected a plate 01
Irish stew, that ti e real stile of affairs be.
came known. He was then taken oft th?
woodpile and set to work In another de
partment; hut still he contrived to procure
abundant supplies of his favorite diet. Till
other inmates, who regarded him as a
greater wonder than the human ostrich ot
the man with the cast iron stomach, took
delight in ministering to his singular appe
tite.
The workhouse authorities stmt hln ui
In a room by himself to try to b-eak him
of the Iiablt, but there lie nibbled at a
cliair. and was starting In to sample the
washfltand, when they clapped him Into thf
infirmary, where, according to the latest
bulletins, he is making a gallant light
against the doctors for his great discovery.
What Makes Shoes Shine.
From the Technical World Magazine.
The philosophy of polish on any sub
stance Is simply the production by friction
of such smoothness of the surface layer Ol
its particles that they readily reflect the
rays of light falling upon them. Different
articles arc used to aid In procuring thin
smoothness on different substances. With
leather the best substance seems to be a
paste containing bone-black?that is, the
powder obtained from charred bones -ot
ivory?to which Is added a small quantity
of acid to dissolve it, oil to preserve the reft
texture of the leather and treacle and gum
to render the mass adhesive.
against the law. as mob violence, or by leg
islation. exceeds the legitimate scopo of
penalties for crime. Punishment in its
proper acceptation means the protection of
society, as represented by a state, against
the inroads of the individual upon Its wel
fare. It is only when the encroachment of
the Individual upon the rights of others
amounts to a public wrong that they are
punished criminally, and then It Is the
wrong to society, and not the sin, which Is
cognizable by the courts.
"Crime cannot be stamped out by these
methods of treatment. A physician would
tie ttfought extremely unskillful who, in Ills
efforts to cure a patient of a single and rel
atively unimportant disease, completely
wrecked the patient's constitution by his
violent medicines. It may safely be slated
that a husband, before he beats his wife to
the brutal extent that is contemplated by
the authorized lashes, has already shown
his evil character sufficiently to warn his
wife that he is no fit husband.
"She is entitled by law to a separation. If
this separation were accomplished in ail
cases the occasion for crimes would be
avoided, the wife and society protected.
But must the wife suffer because the hus
band is a brute? Must she seek divorce,
leave her home and deprive her children of
parental support? Should the brutf: not
rather be Hogged and made to bear his pun
ishment. Instead of punishing his wife and
children by enforced separation? Through
no fault of theirs they are made to perhaps
suffer bitterly.
"If the whipping post could obviate all
! this it would be the strongest kind of an
argument In favor of its establishment In
every city and In every municipality to deal
with this class of crime alone. But its re
sults have not I:e*-n satisfactory. It prac
tically deprives the man of his citizenship,
and banishes him; his usefulness as a mem
ber of society is destroyed; all the good
ever in him is driven out. With every lash
?his soul is seared, and bitterness and hate
that can never be effaced distilled into his
heart."
*
* *
Punishment administered at the whipping
post. If it is to have the desired corrective
and suppressive effect, must of necessity be
brutal. In the language of the famous act
of the reign of Henry VIII, criminals must
bs whipped "until their bodies are bloody"
if the punishment is to do them any good.
The mere fact, as has been Illustrated time
and again, of exposing a hardened criminal
or brutal wife-beater to the gaze of the
populace, to place him In a position of ig
nominy and lash his bare back gently for
the moral effect involved, U worse than
useless. Only a short time ago a spectator
at a whipping at Newcastle, Del., com
mented upon the fact that the lash was not
used severely enough
"I am not an advocate of the whipping
post." lie said, "but I do think that this ex
hibition Is a farce. With persons of ordi
nary breeding and susceptibilities to b?
placed in such a position and subjected to
the whip the moral effec. might be of some
avail as a corrective measure, but this af
fair is ridiculous and worse than useless
for the purjiose intended."
And in order to gain further Insight into
the matter he approached a negro who had
been whipped for wife-beating and released
after his punishment had been adminis
tered. It added to his astonishment and
disgust, and his disbelief in the efficacy of
the whipping post, when the negro offered
to go through the "terrible ordeal" again
for the modest sum of '& cents.
And In summing up the situation it oaa
truly be *ald that the very circumstance*
that whlping and similar punishments have
had their day of trial and were abolished
by the very generation which had wit
nessed the working of the system in all
Its full-blown beauty, is the best posalbU
argument against It. The adoption of the
whipping post and the pillory by any com
munity In the United States would cer
tainly be considered. If the trend of public
sentiment is to be taken into account, a
step backward to the obsolete system of
former days, which was thoroughly tried
and found wanting. The history o| all
times and the testimony of the moat ea
lightened students of the quMtloa apeak for
advance, not retrogression.

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