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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1904)
"wpywe"" i . - C3T0BER 21,1004 The Commoner. W j"- "" 'v'T ltr. JHCCURR8NT Iwdla Jgi . L . "Nh? ff .i.a yL-- XCr mmmwmmmmmmH ' '" I 0 THE kiss is playing an important part in Mon tana politics, according to a Butte dispatch to the St Louis Republic. In that dispatch it. is said: "Because Senator William P. Myers of Red Lodge stole a kiss from a pretty society girl of Carbon county a few days ago, Roosevelt may lose Mon tana and the republicans are liable to lose control of the state' legislature, and therefore fail to elect a republican United States senator. Senator Myers has previously won the name of 'Kissing Bug' Myers. Saturday evening he met on the streets of Red Lodge the young lady, whose identity ia shielded, and forcibly kissed her. She cried for help and was released. Slie ran homo, told her brother and since then the entire eastern part of the state has heard about the affair and has been increasing in indignation." ACCORDING to the same dispatch, the Red Lodge Picket, a republican papor, has bolted the ticket, ascribing its action to the stolen kiss. L. 0. Caswell, candidate for county attorney, has withdrawn from the ticket, saying that he will not run on the same ticket with the kiss stealer. The chairman of the republican county central com mittee also threatens to resign. The Butte dis patch further says: "Ex-Senator T. H. Carter, a candidate for election to the senate again, has been appealed to to pull Myers off, and his con tinued candidacy is threatening the success of the ticket in Carbon county, as well as in the state. Lee Mantle, chairman of the state committee, has also been asiced to use his iniluence to get Myers to retire into oblivion. Myers is a prominent poli tician and banker, and is rioted as one of the four republican members at the legislature who refused to vote for.W. A. Clark." NEW York newspapers are full of advertise ments like the following: "Bureau for Legal Marriages, 2143 Seventh avenue, corner One Hun dred and Twenty-seventh street. Telephone 2272L Morningslde; evenings by appointment." The New York correspondent for the St. Louis Republic says that this Is due to the domestic relation law recently passed by the New York legislature which law legalizes the so-called common-law marriages, thus enabling anyone to be married without the necessity of having to go through any ceremony in the presence of witnesses. They have only to declare their intention to become husband and wife. - THERE are at least fifty of these bureaus scat tered through different parts of New York and the Republic's correspondent says that at these bureauscouples are married by the whole sale for the small fee of ?5. The Republic's cor respondent, says: "It is predicted by some that when once the general public grasps the plan whereby they can have the nuptial knot tied le gally for so reasonable a sum, without any objec tion being raised as to religion, disparity in years? or the unwillingness of hard-hearted parents to allow their daughters to be taken away from them, the clergymen and aldermen will be hard pressed to get enough of that portion of their perquisites known assthe marriage fee to make it pay." ALL that a happy pair seeking to be tied, by the bonds of matrimony have to do, accord ing . to the Republic's correspondent, is to sign their names and a lawyer does the rest. This cor respondent explains: "The domestic relation law makes a marriage legal and binding upon the par ties concerned when a certificate blank, forms of which can be obtained from the county clerk's office, is signed by them, two witnesses and a notary public. The certificate's then placed on file in the .county clerk's office and a duplicate is given to the couple who have been married. The husband and wife are then as responsible for their marriage vows as if they bad been through a long and elaborate church ceremony. 'Harlem, per haps, is the place where most of the marriage ; bureaus are situated. There are twelve within a few blocks there, nearly all of them being in s real estate dfflces where there is a notary. The notary always has legal counsel to fall back on should there be any question raised as to the lt gallty of the marriage and the proceedings are all fair and above board." ONE of these matrimonial bureaus was visited by the Republic's correspondent. Tho man ager, whoso name is Charles Forst, was Inter viewed. In thi3 interview the manager said: "It is tho easiest thing in tho world to get married, although many couples go about It with a great deal of preparation and hesitation. In tho old method it is customary for tho bride to get up an elaborato trousseau; tho bridegroom, aftcY spending a lot of money on an engagement ring, has to buy a wedding ring, and much time Is taken up in sending out invitations. None of these things are necessary when a couple Is married under tho domestic relation law. We don't care whethor they have a wedding ring or what their condition m life may bo. Instead of having to spend most of tho money thoy have saved for housekeeping in a needless expenditure for the wedding cere mony, all they have to do is to make an appoint ment to come hero and bring two witnesses and pay $5, after which they are married in a few moments. There are many men, also, who hesi tate giving a clergyman less than $10 or $15 at tho least, and several give much largor fees. Differ ences m religion, as, for instance, a marriage be tween a Catholic and a Protestant, make it very hard sometimes for couples to be married by any body connected with the church. Hero religion doesn't count for anything. Very few questions are asked, and tho ceremony, which they have to go through, while simple, is just as binding upon tho contracting parties as any other. The public, I have found, however, are a little afraid of tho new system, especially tho women. They want to be sure they riro doing it right and that there will -not be a chance of any hitch taking piaco after all has been said and done. It Is hard to get them to believe that they can do away safely with tho clergyman, tho ring and the marriage ceremony read from the Bible. MdBt persons believe that tho marriage ceremony is a spiritual contract and one wherein the church must take a part. In spite of thia general belief, however, we do a largo business here. At first the people came very slow ly, but the public appears to be catching on to tho idea now and more are coming every "day." A WOMAN whose skin is a patchwork of pieces of epidermis taken from persons represent ing every nation on earth, Is Miss Emma Gallagher of Evanston, Ind. The Chicago correspondent for the New York American tells tho story In this way: "Miss Gallagher inserted an advertisement in tho newspapers through which she hopes to obtain enough money through tho sale of sewing machines to enable her to buy another square foot of human epidermis for skin grafting purposes. Twenty-three skin grafting operations have been undergone by Miss Gallagher since she was burned from the neck to waist in a gasoline explosion eight years ago. Her left arm is still without skin and has grown to her body. 'Skin is higher priced than oilcloth,' commented Miss Gallagher sagely yesterday, when she was asked to tell about her efforts to buy skin. 'The average cost of human skin Is about ?1,000 a square foot. When I onco advertised one hundred men volunteered to sell theirs. Many of them faltered when they carao to the test. The best live skin should be taken off in strips about nine inches longhand one and three quarte inches wide. Negro skip, the doctors say, will turn white when grafted on a white person. When I was in St. Elizabeth's hospital for two years thirty-three nurses volunteered to give mo skin, but I refused to leathern do so. The doctors got some from amputations, but that kind is not so good for grafting purposes. AH the nations of tho earth are represented in the skin that covers my back. You can call mo Chinese or Eskimo if you like and the chances are that you will not be. far from right in some measure. I was originally an American, but my skin is cosmopolitan decidedly so. If people will give me orders for sewing ma chines I will be able to get together enough money to secure some more victims for tho skin sacri fice.' " - THE city pound master at Sioux City, IaL re cently witnessed what he calls "one at tho saddest occurrences in the history of the pound," and a reporter for tho Sioux City Journal nays that tho poundmaater "actually sat down on a cotton wood log and contributed his in I to to tho waters of tho river." Tho Journal tells tho story in this way: "A man with a wiggling dog under hla arm and carrying a sack approached tho river unnk. Ho had como thoro to drown tho family pet, Tho dog was put In tho sack and thrown far out into tho current. Standing In front of tho pound was a spaniel. This dog which has wltnossod tho pub lic assassination of hundreds of canines jumped into tho cold wator and retrieved tho sack con taining the struggling little dog. Holding tho sack as far as possible out of tho water tho dog cumo to tho shore. Tho man who had thrown tho dog Into tho river could not contain himself and opening tho sack ho pulled tho littlo black fellow out. He was dead. Tho dog had suffocated while tho spaniel was bringing him to shore. With big wistful brown eyes tho spaniel watched the dog taken out of tho sack, and had to bo held when tho body was thrown back Into tho river. The man who had brought tho dog to the river was visibly affected. Poundmastcr Crulkshank said it was tho most pathetic case he has seen, and he has been busily engaged In arresting unlicensed canines for a number of years. Many times he takes pet dogs away from children whose parents are too poor to pay for a tag. Ho has watched tho tearful young sters bid farewell to tho dog doomed to dio at tho dog jail unless ho was given a license to live. Many times Mr, Crulkshank has been so touched by the fondness displayed by children for their dogs, that quite accidentally ho has allowed tho dog to escape. Of course the dog went homo and the dampness In the eyes of tho children disappeared as the canino capered gleefully about thorn. But yesterday when a man throw tho family pel into tno river Poundmastcr Crulckshank was up in arms, (io watched tho noblo spaniel bring the doomed dog cut of tho river, and then ho ap proached tno man. Tho man broke down. Ho wished the poor dead dog could bo rcsusltatcd. Ho said that ho had told his children, of whom tho dog was a pet, that tho dog had run away. They were watching pationtly for the dog to ro turn." AFTER lying helpless and almost completely paralyzed for three months and unconscious for forty-live days, Miss Elizabeth M. Bath, a New Yck society hello died. Concerning this caso the Now York American says: "For weeks Dr. Kelly and other physicians have been puzzled over Miss Bath's condition, and heroic but vain meas ures were taken to save her life. On July 7 Miss Bath, who was twenty-seven years of age, and the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Bath, was visiting her aunt, Miss B. K. Donahue, of Manhat tan. While laughing heartily over a joyful inci dent she was relating she suddenly fell to tho floor in a swoon. She became unconscious, and though four experts were called In, she remained in that state for thirty days. She was finally taken to her Mount Vernon homo, and for a time she was conscious, but again lapsed into a comatose state. Several times It was thought she was dead. Dr. Kelly, who attended her, said Miss Bath was suf fering from cerebral hemhorrhage, brought on by her sudden laughter, and that a blood clot had formed on the brain, paralyzing the nerve centers. When she finally became conscious almost her entire body was paralyzed and she was helpless. A short time before she died she told her relatives that sho suffered no pain. She showed remarkable vitality, but tho physicians truly prophesied that tho blood clot would finally kill her. For days she was fed through a tube." FROM Sir Archibald Gelkle's Reminiscences the folIowln&-i'ood story is obtained: "A coun try doctor who Tras attending a laird had Instructed the butler of the house In the art of taking and recording his master temperature with a ther- ' mometer. On repairing to tho house one morning ho was met by the butler, to whom he said: 'Well, John, I hope the laird's temperature is not any . higher today The man looked puzzled for a moment, ani! then replied: 'Well, I was just won derin' that mysel'. Ye see, ' he died at twal o'clock.' " ' ykrttfkfljjjHtfbf