Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 155, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 June 1910 — Page 3

HUMANITY’S REVOLT AGAINST PROPERTY.

OW many mute. Inglorious John Carters I languish In Stillwater or other prisons £ I I through their best years for taking a few dollars under the spur of hunger In the HIUMEXjI first despairing moment of a blameless life? The real Interest in this romantic youngster Is ethical, not esthetic. They

who suppose that he was pardoned because his Jingles pleased editors seeking alluring novelties, in order serve the purpose of publishers seeking advertising), cannot see the forest for the trees. He whs pardoned because these trivialities' cast the perilous light of publicity upon ancient abuses'of the law of offenses against property for which civilization blushes and of which contemporary justice is itself ashamed. Why should not the same publicity cast a side light upon other cases as atrocious as his? Our criminal law of property is descended by coverture of the English common law by the brutal statutes of Norman feudalism, from the most extravagant subordination of the rights of persons to the rights of possessed things the world has ever known. It retains traces of the justice that punished poaching more severely than murder and the taking of a loaf more severely than the ruin of a life. This traditional cruelty can be alleviated only by such instinctive movement of public sympathy as that which gave Carter liberty, till a scientific system of dealing with the criminal according to nature and possibilities rather than with the crime according to some medieval measuring stick -shall come to make law the servant of humanity instead of property.—St. Paul Tribune.

AS TO POISON MYSTERIES, c

N when the murderous nrt of I ▼ the poisoner is so often brought to public I notice, the case of Mary Kelleher of Boston a is enlightening. Mrs. Kelleher was accused of slaying six members of her famWjS* ily by the use of arsenic. Poison was found in the bodies of her victifhs. The

police loudly denounced her and claimed to have indisputable evidence of her guilt. Yet, after more than a year in Jail, she was honorably discharged at the request of the State. In no case did the body of any victim show enough poison to have produced death. In several instances it was shown that the dead person had absorbed arsenic from a renovated hair mattress. In one instance epsom salts, improperly clarified, were blamed for conveying arsenic into the human stomach. “It turns out to be the fact that in this part of the country there is not a human body where arsenic would not be found, if examined,” said the district attorney, in asking for Mrs. Kelleher's discharge. There are many poisons that may be absorbed into the human system, although arsenic is probably more frequently employed in everyday purposes where it

TEXAS FIRST IN IRRIGATION.

SyMein lined by Indians Lons Before the Coming of the Whites. Texas, although one of the youngest states In the Union In development, is the pioneer 'fn Irrigation, a Fort Worth correspondent of the New York Herald says. The beginning of irrigation in western Texas antedates any records so far found and it is probable that in no portion of the United States is the practice older, is the claim made by J. C. Nagle, who is professor of civil engineering at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. Scanty and irregular distribution of rainfall was doubtless the cause of its use in the beginning and even at later dates, when unnumbered acres of fertile lands could be had for little more than the trouble of preparing them for cultivation. Coronado, on his journey northward in the early part of the sixteenth century, so history tells us, found well-established systems of irrigation in the vicinity of El Paso, utilizing water from the Rio Grande on both sides of its present channel. Tradition tells us that the Pueblo Indians of Yseleta claimed that ancient irrigation systems of great extent were built centuries ago by the Yuma Indians on the Pecos river in the vicinity of Pecos and Grand Falls, but the constant raids by the Commanche and Apache Indians caused them to move on to the valley of the Rio Grande, only to be followed there by their old enemies and forced to move out to the Colorado of the West. In the vicinity of the Toyah springs evidence is found indicating that these waters were used for irrigation purposes long before the first white man found his way there. At San Antonio, where the Franciscan fathers founded their missions, they directed the construction of canals by the 0 Indians. These canals were used not only for supplying water to the missions for domestic purposes, but for irrigation as well. Among the ditches constructed between the years 1716 and 1774 may be mentioned the Conception, Alamo, San Jose, San Juan and Espada. In 1730 the San Pedro ditch was built by Immigrants from the Canary Islands and was used for conducting water to the cultivated fields. For many years this ditch was conducted for field irrigation on farms and even to this day this old ditch is in operation and being used constantly. It supplied water for a large percentage of the city lawns a few years ago in San Antonio, and was extensively used for domestic purposes. At old Fort San Saba, near Menardville, the present home of James Cal- . president of the Texas Cattle Raisers’ Association, the remains of an irrigation system constructed in 1774, also by the Franciscan fathers, can still be traced. At this time Texas was under Spanish rule, but since then has sworn allegiance to and floated live different flags. Am early as 1852 the fourth legisla-

EDITORIALS

Opinions of Great Papers on Important Subjects. ’

ture passed an act relative to irrigation. In 1882 the seventeenth legislature passed an act making large grants of land for the construction of irrigation ditches. There were several classes and a number of sections of land mile of ditch varied with the {lass. In 1889 and 1895 additional regulations were established with a view of encouraging irrigation. The result of some of these enactments was the projection of numerous irrigation schemes, many of which were "boom” propositions from the start, while others proved failures when constructed because of the lack of sufficient hydrograhpic and other data. As west Texas was pioneer in ancient irrigation so it is in modern, as irrigation along the lines now practiced began to develop first in this section of the State. The first ditch in the vicinity of Del Rio was constructed in 1868. On the Pecos one of the present large systems was built in 1875, another in 1887 and another in 1896. It might have been expected that the older systems in the vicinity of El Paso would have suggested earlier extensions under present methods, but work of this character did not become active until about 1889 or 1891. At Fort Stockton and for the Nueces drainage area it began as early as 1876. On the Concho, San Saba, Llano and other tributaries of the Colorado river irrigation systems bvgan to spring up about 1875, and possibly earlier, and these were added to about 1879, bus this work became most active in the ’9os.

Trouble for Hubby.

At a recent tea party where .the fare provided could not by any means be termed palatable a guessing game was instituted, and the lady who won it was asked to say what she would have a« a prize. She greatly flattered her young hostess by requesting a slice of the cake with which some of them had desperately struggled at tea time. "Why did you ask for that stuff?” a disappointed and still hungry youth asked her. "You know very well It isn’t fit to eat.” "I have a definite purpose (n view,” answered the young lady, carefully placing the piece of cake where there would be no possibility of her forgetting eat It—if necessary, to force it down his throat crumb by crumb—and thus convince him that somewhere in the wide, wide world there is an even worse cook than he imagines his inexperienced young wife to be.”—Pearson’s Weekly.

More Equal-Pay Talk.

There Is a proposition in New York to make the governor’s salary as large as that of a big league president.—Toledo Blade. , If men bought shirts that wouldn’t stand washing gny better than shirtwaists, how the women would howl about their extravagance. -

would be likely to come Into contact with people than any other. Therefore in cases of supposed poisoning it behooves the State,.as well as the defense, to rigidly investigate all circuttistances, lest grave Injustice be done some Innocent person.—Chicago Journal.

SIZE OF THE COLLAR.

E ARE not referring now to brass collars, but to those bands of white which are regarded as quite an essential part of the wearing apparel of the average man. It WSSrragn will doubtless be of interest to many of our readers to learn that an eminent medical authority of England has reached the

conclusion that too tight collars are the real source of many bodily, disorders hitherto ascribed to other causes. As a result of his own experiences this medical scientist declares that he has adopted a collar several sizes larger than his shirt, with the happy outcome that headaches, rheumatism and other ailments have entirely disappeared. Personally we find ourselves quite unable to take this illuminating person very seriously. If a man is idiot enough to wear a collar three sizes to small he ought to be afflicted with a liberal allowance of aches and pains. On the other hand, if he will persist in wearing one three sizes too large he ought to be haled into some sartorial court and heavily fined for being an allround slouch. There is a happy medium which any man with the intellect of a snowbird should be able to discover, and then appear among his fellows in reasonable harmony with the dictates of comfort and good taste. We fear that some of our medical scientists are wasting much valpable time.—Des Moines Capital.

THE DANGEROUS HATPIN.

INCE the Chicago City Council took the -"matter up reports of action against the dangerous hatpin have been coming from all parts of the country, and a startlingly jKaSftj large number of serious accidents from njCrWl 16n 8 hatpins have been recorded. Dev--otees of the rapier style of pin may con-

tend that it sometimes serves useful purposes of defense. So does the six-shooter. Yet wise lawmakers refuse to permit everyone to carry a gun. The other day a Chicago man was granted a divorce from his wife, whom he accused of stabbing him frequently with hatpins. The accusation was not disputed. In what respect does a woman who jabs her husband with an eighteen-inch hatpin differ from the husband who threatens his wife with a carving knife? At first sight the agitation may seem ludicrous. In the light of actual hatpin casualties and the menace of phrenetic females armed with depdly weapons, the argument of those who would prohibit hatpins of undue length seems well founded.—Chicago Journal.

MORE FARMERS WANTED.

te Danger Q f an Oversupply for tear* to Come. There is no great danger that the supply of farmers will be a drug on the market for some years to come. The treasury department’s actuaries estl mate the population of the countrj now at ninety million. At an average consumption of 5% bushels of wheat a year for each person, it will take a little less than 500,000,000 bushels to supply white bread for the country, to say nothing of other varieties. This means something more than one hundred million barrels of flour to be ground, distributed and baked into bread for delivery at the consumers’ tables. But this is only one of the many demands which a population moving rapidly toward one hundred million souls makes every day of the year. The country consumes probably not less than thirty million head of live stock a year. This includes cattle, hogs and sheep, but takes no account of poultry and poultry products, nearly all of which have to be supplied from the farms of the country. The two branches of farming which require the least labor for their successful prosecution, and the most thinking, are those which have much to do with the increased cost of living. They are poultry and poultry products and live siock growing. Within an hour's ride by rail of nearly every eastern city there are lands which lend themselves readily to occupation for these purposes. With modern facilities for transit to and from the cities and towns the possibilities of development of these particular sources of future supplies would seem at this particular time to be especially inviting. As for the alleged drawback that schools and other institutional advantages are inferior in rural and suburban communities, there are some seriqus doubts in the matter. City schools are crowded because of having to work by the wholesale, in contrast with the personal atentlon which is possible and practicable in the rural and suburban schools. Moreover, the conditions of living make greatly for the physical if not for the moral advantage of the rural over the urban life. —Wall Street Journal.

Too Soon for Her.

Apropos of those who never enjoy the luxury of a carriage Rave when the death of some one makes for a free ride to the cemetery a clergyman told of a little gtrl standing at sth avenue and 30th street. New York. She was a ragged little thing, and she was watching the carriages rolling pa b t with the most wistful blue eyes. .“Well, little one," he said, “would you like to own one of those carriages?” The blue eyes turned up, and there were tears in their corners. "I never rode in a kerridge,” she said Boftly. “Me little brudder died afore 1 was born.” -

SAW COMET IN 1835.

Dr. Matraey- of Atlanta Remember* Former Visit of •‘Halley.” “Afraid of Halley’s comet, negress loses her mind.’* over the possible dire results of Halley’s comet coming In emu tact with the earth, Jane Godfrey, a young negress, has lost hen mind and to-night Is locked in the county Jail preparatory to being transferred to the state asylum. "Other negroes in this community are more or less alarmed over what some of them declare is ‘the Visitin’, of God’s wrath’ in the of the comet.’’ The above clipping and similar notices in the daily papers bring to mind some of the sensational scenes that happened when this same comet appeared in the year 1835, says Dr. B. J. Massey, in the Atlanta Constitution. The whole country had Just recovered from the impression made upon it by the failing of the stars only two years before. At that time almost all the negroes of the south and a great many illiterate and ignorant white people felt that when the stars fell the world had come to an end or would soon do so. j Although quite a child, only 7 years of age, I remember distinctly some of* the startling, although very amusing, Circumstances that happened in good old Georgia about the middle of November, 1835. About the time pur good people were recovering from the shock of the stars falling Millerism had, begun to hold its sway. William Miller, after whom Millerism got Its name, was a premillennialist and thousands of followers expected the immediate return of Jesus to reign upon the earth, believing in the literal fulfillment of the prophecies. They claimed that the first judgment would take place not later than 1840, or perhaps several years more. So firm was the faith of many that they disposed of all their worldly possessions preparatory to this event So far as I could learn, no one in Georgia did so, but thousands In other parts of the country prepared "ascension robes,” ready to be fully clothed for the occasion. When the comet appeared many felt that this was a token that judgment day was close at hand and that the world was coming to an end. Negroes held meetings at ■ various times and became very much excited over the subject. At these meetings, in order to be ready when the world comes “ter er een,” they wanted to be ready to go. Here they confessed their sins to one another, and to their good “old Marster above.” Old Aunt Esther, one of my father’s servants, confessed to "cussing” the cow because she kicked over the bucket of milk, while Aunt Esther was down on frer knees praying and she asked her “Heavenly Marster” to forgive her for it. ' Old Uncle Martin asked to be forgiven for eating the chicken pie which his wife had cooked from a chicken that he stole the night before from Miss Sophia’s chicken coop, and all such other ludicrous scenes were being enacted. Among the lower class of white people things almost as ludicrous were daily happening. I remember well one of our neighbors, old Mr. Baird, came over and got very mad, almost uncontrollable, because my father would not agree with aim in his extreme Millerism, and because he would not help him get ready “and buy ascension robes and prepare for judgment day." In that day and time, compared to the present state or science people were very Ignorant of comets, always dreading their appearance. When Halley’s comet made Its appearance, in 1835, Gen. Andrew Jackson (Old Hickory) was then president of the United States, and at least three-fourths of the area of the present country was still a wilderness. So there were few scientific workers in that day. Not even a single observatory had been established in all America, consequently the masses knew little or nothing of scientific matters, especially astronomy. This comet was named for Sir Edward Halley, the son of a soap boiler of London. Although of a very humble lineage, Halley soon became a leading English astronomer, an intimate friend and companion of Sir Isaac Newton. Of all the scientists he was the very first to identify this comet as a periodic visitor and to predict its return In 1910.

A Boston Economist.

She —I’m not going to throw away all my long hatpins, not if I know myself. He —But the law, my dear. •” She —Hang the law; I’ll get some bigger hats!

Hookworm In Virginia.

The hookworm disease is- spreading in Virginia to such an extent that the authorities are becoming worried. The first death to occur was that of a boy of 16 at Newport News the other day. When a rattlesnake is annoyed, 11 shakes its rattles, and people quit annoying It We wish we had rattles to shake at the approach of a book agent. “7 Cartages may roll up to a house for a reception or a wedding, but they never have the same sound as when they roll up for a funeral. The principal asset of the dog and some gentlemen in politics is the ability to make friends, and let the friends do the rest We hope some man will finally b« found who never loved but one woman.

THIEVES WHO HIDE THE LOOT.

■om >r Recovered Later and the hsxcrlminal Ltvea In Affluence. It is well known to the police that there are a number of ex-convi«;ts who are literally rolling in riches and driving about London and the provinces to-day in their own motor and carriages, said a detective, according to a writer in London Tit-Bits. The majority of these men are old embezzlers and there seems to be little doubt that they are able to live well and keep going lavishly furnished residences because the money they stole was hidden by them before being arrested and sent to prison. It may surprise you to know that thousands of pounds worth of valuable property looted by thieves from various sources lies buried in odd corners of Britain and will probably only be recovered by the men themselves on their release. Cases are constantly occurring where an embezzler after running off with a large su>m of gold refused to divulge the hiding place of his ill-gotten gains. He is sent to prison and the loot remains unrecovrred. In nine cases out of ten the embezzler finding arrest imminent buries^.his stolen property and digs it up again when he comes out of prison. A man who was for many years an inmate of one of our prisons is now living in affluence in a town up north. He was Imprisoned for embezzling £70,000 from his employers and he declared at the trial that he had spent every penny of it. For some time after his release from Jail he lived In a cheap lodging house at Hoxton and then one day he declared he had come into a fortune, a brother in Australia having died and left him some thousands. As a matter of fact, although the police had no proof, he had recovered the money which he had embezzled years before. A man of considerable means now living in the States served a term of imprisonment for forgery, having obtained £15,000 by means of false checks. Not a penny of the money was recovered by the police. During the forced confinement of the thief his wife, in pursuance of a previously agreed plan, went out to service in v a gentleman’s family. As soon as the husband was liberated, however, his wife resigned her position and tho pair sailed immediately for the colonies. It ultimately came to light that the money which had been stolen by: means of the forged checks had been buried under the flooring of a Soho bouse. Some fifteen years ago a Hindoo merchant who had come to London to make purchases of gems was robbed of many thousands of pounds. The thieves carried their ill-gotten wealth to a cheap tenement in Whitechapel, but, finding the police hot on their track, they carried the loot one dark night to a remote spot on the Essex marshes and secretly buried it. They then disappeared and have not been seen since. It is believed that the money remains to this day where it was buried. ~. * ID Not very long ago a burglary was committed by a couple of well-known thieves, who got away with about £SOO in coin and bank notes. They were arrested, but refused to stato what they had done with the money, although one darkly hinted that it had been burled in a garden in a suburb of London.

Wit of the Youngsters

Teacher—What is ignorance, Bobby? Bobby—lgnorance is when you don’t know anything and somebody finds it out. One day small Margie was standing at the window when it began to hail. "Oh, look, mamma!” she exclaimed. "It’s raining pills!” Papa—l hear you were a bad girl to-day, Flossie, and mamma had to spank you. Little Flossie—l wasn’t bad, but I got spanked Just the same. I don’t see what you ever married a school teacher for, anyway. Stranger—Are there any fish in this stream, little boy? Little Boy—Yes, sir. Stranger—Will they bite? Little Boy—l dunno. None of ’em ever bit me. Small Johnny—Mamma, I can’t tell a lie. I took a piece of pie from the pantry and gave it to a poor little boy who was nearly starved. Mamma— That’s right, dear. And did the poor little fellow eat lt7 Small Johnny— You bet I did. "See here, young man,” said the Btern parent, "why is it that you are always behind in your studies?” "Because,” explained the youngster, “If I wasn't behind I- could not pursue them.”

Deceivers Ever.

They were arguing about the alleged Inborn strain of deceitfulness in woman, and she retaliated by citing the instances of men deceiving their wives. “I suppose” said he "that you hold that a man should never deceive his wife.” "Oh no” she smiled back at him; ”1 shouldn’t go so.far as that How would it be possible for the average man to get a wife if he didn’t deceive herT” , Call “Girls!” and those of 60 look around Just as quickly as those of 16. - ./ y ; _L, „ iir ,_ Our idea of a hopelessly sissy man is one who can describe a woman’s bat

NEWS OF RECENT BOOKS

Arthur Radkham's fall illustrations will Include pictures for “Rhinegold” and ‘“Phe Valkyrie,” translated by Margaret Armour from the Wagner libretti Among early novels will be a new book by Edward C. Booth, author of “The Poet Girl.” It also is a story of life and love In the author's native Yorkshire country, and it will appear under the title of “The Doctor’s Lass.” A novelist of a generation ago, Mrs. Marie Walsh, has just died in New York. She was the author of “Wife of Two Husbands,” “The Lost Paradise” and “The Romance a Dry Goods 1 Drummer.” She dramatized Miss Braddon’s novel “Three Times Dead.” Why do women writers favor the pseudonym “George?” There were “George Eliot” and "George Sand,” and at present there is “George Fleming,” Julia Constance Fletcher. “Georg Schock,” a Harper writer, completes the “four Georges.” But there is now room for a George V. Under the will of Mark Twain, Clara Langdqn Clemens, wife of Ossip Gabrilowitsch, sole surviving daughter, inherits his home at Redding, Conn., and all other real and personal estate. This she will enjoy “without power of anticipation and free from any control or interference of any husband she may have.” Walter Pulitzer, son of Albert Pulitzer, formerly proprietor of the New York Journal, whose death was some montba ago recorded, announces that he will take up his father’s "Memoirs” where the latter laid off and incorporate them in a biography of the Journalist and an account of the progress of journalism In his day. Mrs. Humphry Ward has not scored an English success with “Lady Merton, Colonist.” The Saturday Review thinks the story very thin and threadbare. "We never read a novel of Mrs. Humphry Ward in which, the characters were so sketchily outlined and so uninteresting. But the book will be popular because it idealizes the cant of the hour.” The publication of the complete edition of the works and correspondence of Galileo, undertaken by the Italian government in 1890, is at an end, the concluding volume having just been issued. It is the twentieth. It contains indexes to the whole set and an “indice biografleo” of Galileo’s contemporaries. The edition is published at Florence, where Galileo died. Its full title Is "Le Opere di Galileo Galilei: Edizione Natlonale sotto gli auspicii dl Sua Magesta il Re d’ltalia.”

FATE OF AN ORCHARD.

A Tragedy in Kaiuu That Haa a Pathetic Side. A tragedy was enacted in Kansas the other day, namely, the deliberate burning of 800 acres of trees. It was not the sort of destruction that is so harrowing to the soul of Gifford Pinchot; it was worse than that, for the trees burned were not those of the forest, but of an orchard. They were apple trees —65,000 of them or thereabouts. i These trees were planted twenty-five years ago, and were in the very prime of life at the time of their destruction. The man who placed them there looked forward to the time when the fruit from their branches would bring him a fortune, and he cultivated and cared for them to the best of his ability. They grew and flourished for a few years, but when the time came for bearing they produced little or no fruit. Then the soil was examined—a proceeding that had been overlooked Iff the beginning—and it was found not to be adapted to apple growing. The subsoil Into which the roots of the trees penetrated did not supply the elements necessary to the formation of fruit. The owner experimented a hoping to furnish the needed elements through fertilizers, but to no effect. Ocaslonally there would be a light crop of apples, bul the orchard as a whole was a failure; finally he gave up in discouragement and sold It to a man who proceeded to burn up the trees and turn the 800 acres into a cornfield. The man who had planted the orchard looked on and felt sorrow at seeing those trees burn, though he knew it was the proper course. But they were trees that represented hope and labor and satisfaction In their growth. And they were living, and In going down by the ax and by fire they seemed to reproach him, for no one with imagination can work with trees and plants without feeling that they all have a certain sentient life. It was a real tragedy, the burning of that orchard, and the one consoling reflection is that possibly the apples It might have grown were Ben Davises. —Terre Haute (Ind.) Star.

A Frank Answer.

“John Jones,” said the magistrate, with severity, “you are charged with habitual drunkenness. What have you to offer In excuse for your offense?” “Habitual thirst, your honor.”

Keep Out of Debt.

Think not your estate your own while any man cab call upon you for money which you cannot pay. When a man sits-and looks absently out of the window, his wife steps softly up and looks over his shoulder to see what woman he is looking at now.