Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 155, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 June 1910 — EDITORIALS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

EDITORIALS

Opinions of Great Papers on Important Subjects. ’

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

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.