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APRIL 9, 1909
The Commoner.
1
county for the infirm and helpless. They are
blessed institutions and I believe are in most
cases self sustaining. " If 'each county had an
institution calldd'the 'Farm and Factory Home,'
or with some such euphonious name, every
tramp as soon as he landed could be loaded up,
brought to the 'Farm and Factory Home' and
put to work. Tills home might include five
hundred to one thousand acres of land, and be
provided with a- broom factory, brush factory
and such other factories as might be found suit
able. If there was a 'Home' in each county,
no tramp could escape to annoy, and those
who wanted to work could he comfortably taken
care of until they found employment, I say
none could escape, because as soon as a tramp
escaped from one county he would necessarily
turn up in another, and be apprehended. To
prevent frequent escapes a workhouse penalty,
could be given for a. second escape followed by.
a return to begging. This is necessarily a crude
conception occurring to my mind after this
morning's experience, but I insist that some
such scheme is feasible."
NEW YORK is just now interested in a man
who bids defiance to the electric chair. The
New York "World says: "At a private exhibi
tion yesterday in a small room at No. 1416
Broadway Charles Quill, a man of twenty-two
years, allowed himself to be strapped into an
electric chair, similar to the one in Sing Sing
prison, and a direct current of electricity drawn
from a nearby feed wire was turned into his
body to the amount of 1,800 Volts. This is 100
more volts than are used in executions at the
prison. Quill seemed to enjoy it. He endured
this huge voltage for fully a minute. During
that time his assistant touched various parts
of his body with an alcohol soaked handker
chief, which immediately burst into flames. Quill
asserts that electricity will not kill unless it
burns, and he explains his immunity by the fact
that his body contains an unusual amount of
carbon. Yesterday he played with electricity
as though it were the most harmless thing in
the world. 'With 1,800 volts sizzling into one
hand, he would light a candle, or set aglow an
incandescent light with the other. He applied
a piece of carbon, held between his teeth, to a
similar piece attached to another wire and sup
plied a perfect arc light. He drew forth a cur
rent of such intensity with one finger, that he
lighted a cigarette from the heat. Quill said
he first came in contact with a voltage of elec
tricity in San Francisco, when hewas employed
by the gas and electric light company. He got
too close to one of the dynamos, and a 'shunt
off' of 2,300 volts entered his body. 'Although
apparently dead,' he said, 'I was conscious
through it all. I could neither move nor cry
out. It seemed as though I was, tied between
two dynamos with the currents flowing through
my body and burning me up, and I was powerr
less to help myself. When I was revived I felt
no ill effects.' Quill has offered to go to Sing
Sing and make a test. He says that when a
man is electrocuted he is only in a comatose
state and that death comes when the autopsy
Is held. A peculiar effect Quill attributes to
electricity is the extreme lassitude it creates.
After a shock he loses'from two to three pounds.
The electric chair feat he would not undertake
oftener than once a week."
THE FIRST editorial written for the Outlook
magazine by former President Roosevelt
deals with the subject of "Journalism." On this
subject Editor Roosevelt says: "Every owner,
editor or reporter of a conscientious newspaper
Is an asset of .real value to the community. We
have many newspapers, big and little, of this
kind. But we also have many that are em
phatically not of this kind. During the last
few years it has become evident that certain
newspapers are controlled by men who have
gained wealth in evil fashion, who desire to
stifle honest public opinion and find an instru
ment in the purchased mendacity of those who
edit and write; forT such papers." Mr.- Roose
velt then pays his respects to "the apostles of
that hideous yellow journalism which defies the
cult of the mendacious, the sensational and the
inane." In conclusion he refers to "another
type of .temptation which has much fascination
for men of cultivation, and which is quite as
fatal to their usefulness as yellow journalism."
He says of these: "A newspaper which avoids
vulgar sensationalism-which appeals to -people
of .taste ' and intelligence may, nevertheless, do
them grave harm and be within its own rather
narrow limits an element of serious mischief.
For it may habitually and consistently practice
a malign and strenuous untruthfulness which,
though more refined, is as immoral as sensa
tional. A cultivated man of good intelligence
who has acquired the knack of saying bitter
things, but who lacks the robustness to feel at
ease among men of action, is apt, if his nature
has anything of meanness or untruthfulness, to
sit in cloistered aloofness and to endeavor, by
an unceasing output of slander, to bolster up his
own uneasy desire to be considered superior.
Now, a paper edited by men of this stamp does
not have much popular influence, but it may
exert a real influence for evil by the way in
which it teaches young men of good education
decent and upright men are as properly the
subjects for foul attack as the most debased
corruptionlst; that efficiency and wickedness are
interchangeable and that the correct attitude to
adopt in facing the problems of our time is one
of sneering and supercilious untruthfulness."
MUNICIPAL Judge McKenzie Cleland speak
at a banquet given at Chicago denounced
what he called "unequal and oppressive justice
for the rich and poor." The Chicago Tribune
says: "Judge Cleland took decisions rendered
in Chicago within the last few days as showing
what he meant, and stirred his audience with
the declaration that in Chicago men and
women arc sent to bridewell, not because they
aro criminals but because they are poor" Judge
Cleland added: "The crowning injustice of our
law is done to the poor, God help them! Last
year in our house of correction there were
locked up, with the scum of the earth, 8,326
men and women, not because they were criminal
but because they were poor. Of these, 1,173
men and women were too poor to pay a fine
of $1, and 2,750 men and women were too
poor to pay, or to borrow, $5 or less. So we put
them in the 'Black Maria' and hauled them
away. We brought humiliation upon their suf
fering wives and misery upon their children.
Yesterday in the United States circuit court the
Illinois Central railroad and I need not re
mind you that this road cleared $57,000,000
over all expenses last year the Illinois Central
railroad was fined $700 for seven violations of
the, national law. Probably Judge Landls gave
the road what was coming to it. But there is
too much difference proportionately between
the rich and the poor in the administration of
the criminal law. It would be laughable, if it
were not so sad, to see the way wo send a man
to school, to reform him. Wo send boys to
Pontiac and lock them in cells and put guards
over them to shoot them with rifles if they
escape, and teach them arithmetic. What a
travesty. The other day In South Water street
a woman, the mother of seyon children, was
arrested and locked up for picking up decaying
fruit. This mother, trying to feed her starving
children, is treated as a criminal. Of 1,231
prisoners whom I paroled at the Maxwell street
station, 1,134 quit drinking, went to work, and
became good citizens. Every man branded as a
thief was engaged in lawful employment two
months after I had released him on charge of
petit larceny."
THE NEBRASKA legislature passed a bill pro
viding for the daylight saloon. This bill
provides that saloons throughout Nebraska-,- In
cluding Lincoln and Omaha, the large cities,
must not keep open longer than from 7 o'clock
in the morning until 8 o'clock at night. The
bill was passed after the warmest kind of a
contest. Great pressure was brought to bear
upon Governor Shallenberger to persuade him
to veto the measure. A special train carried
delegations from Omaha, the members of which
urged him to veto the measure. The governor
gave extended hearing to both sides.
TIE HEARINGS before Governor Shallen
berger on the daylight saloon bill were ac
companied by a tragedy In the sudden death In
the governor's office, of former Governor Wil
liam A. Poynter, who had just completed a
speech in which he urged the governor to ap
prove the bill. The Lincoln (Neb.) Star tells
the story in this way: "As If to imbue with
vital import the carefully spoken words of his
deliberate and judicial speech upholding the
moral and political necessity of the daylight
bill, ex-Governor W. A. Poynter dropped dead
in the office of Governor Shallenberger at 10:40
o'clock this morning. There gathered early in
the state house two hundred or moro of thoso
who wished to impress on Governor Shallen
berger the need of signing tho daylight saloon
bill. These stood in groups, then wore preaaed
into close formation, massing themselves In tho
reception room and in tho hall. Then the door
to tho governor's office was opened and In rushed
the embodied sentiment of a temperance Ne
braska. The men .and a few women stood
quietly about the long table in the executive's
office. Then from them came a man. He spoke
slowly and to the point. There was about his
speech no incoherence, no momentary lack for
words; only slowly spoken, carefully nhrasod
was his speech, very much to the point. 'Wo
come to you not because wo believe you do not
know your mind, but because wo wish to im
press as wo may tho need of this measure. It
will benefit tho morals of the state. Nor is tho
measure a local one. About you aro men from
different parts of the state. Tho protest comes
from the metropolis of tho state but this Is
not a local matter. Tho daylight saloon bill is
merely an amendment to tho Slocum law. It
is not presumed that any city will conduct Its
affairs without regard to the laws of tho state.
I am heartily in favor of a city managing its
own affairs, I favor municipal independence, but
this measure is state wide and is not an intru
sion upon the rights of any local government.
A large part of the evil arising from drink is
done in the night. The saloon is tho Incubator
of crime. When an officer goes about to seok a
criminal he first visits the saloon. There arises
the greater part of our crime and thence comes
the influence that keeps from his family, from
his wife and his children, the worklngman. If
this were put up squarely before the people a
majority of them would vote In favor of such
regulation. But this need not bo made entirely
a moral Issue. On political grounds this meas
ure is needful. Tho saloons aro trying to In
dicate the politics of this state. Thoy have
gathered about thorn strong political influence
in the past.' Then, speaking with oven a little
more deliberation, the ex-governor of tho state,
one who knew what political considerations were
and knew how closely Interests could press their
desires, said firmly: 'The saloons are an un
American institution. Their attempt to control
politics is un-American because It is the attempt
of a special Interest to run our government.'
With only a few moro words, all carefully
picked, all to tho point and all deliberate, ex
Governor Poynter closed. Ho Was lost in the
crowd in the office, retreating to a place near
the fireplace on the west side of tho room. Mrs.
Heald, representing tho W. C. T. U began to
speak. While she was talking stertorous
breathing was heard from near the door on the
north. A few ' had seen the ex-governor sink
suddenly near tho . fireplace. They hurried to
him and supported him and carried the pale
faced man to the door. There he groaned and
breathed heavily. Those near Governor Shallen
berger knew not what was the matter. Tho
governor thought some one was whispering
hoarsely and he was about to rap for order. But
something restrained him and he sat still. The
door was seen to open and through It was borne
the body of the ex-governor. With his cry for
liquor regulation ho died. Across the hall was
the adjutant general's office. Into this the
stricken man was carried. Three doctors, T. M.
Merry man, J. M. Birkner and E. A. Carr, were
there. They examined the man but he was
dead. They worked his arms back and forth
to induce respiration but the breath of life was
gone and could not be lured back. A hypo
dermic injection of nitro-glycerlne was tried but
to no effect. Apoplexy had claimed another of
that spare lme of men, the former governors of
Nebraska."
WILLIAM A. POYNTER was born at Eureka,
Illinois, May 29, 1848. His father was a
well known clergyman of that section. After
completing his high school course, he was grad
uated from Eureka college In 1867. Two years
later or In 1869 he was married to Miss Marie
McCorkle and soon after removed to Nebraska
where he has resided since then. His first en
trance into public life was in 1885 when he was
elected as a member of the Nebraska legislature.
He made such an excellent record that he was
elected to the upper house of the legislature in
1890 and as state senator made an enviable
record. He was elected president pro tern of
the senate. . In 1898 he became governor of
Nebraska and served ono term, being succeeded
by C. H. Dietrich. Two years later he be
came a candidate for congress but was defeated.
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