"Che Conservative.
had a wide and profound influence in
educating prison officers and the general
public , while the international peniten
tiary congress , which also owes much to
the energetic initiative of Dr. Wines ,
has rendered the highest form of service.
The character of officials is rising. The
merit system is supplanting the shame
ful and costly spoils system. In the
fields of anthropology , psychology , juris
prudence and international law the best
minds have made contributions to penology
elegy from their own particular studies.
The leaders of prison reform rejoice
in the recent acts of congress providing
for the establishment of federal prisons
for federal prisoners Instead of the in
ferior accommodations of local prisons
and city bridewells ; and the Fort Leav-
enworth penitentiary , under Warden
McOlaughry , promises to become a
model for the nation. The reform
schools , industrial schools and municipal
parental schools separate juvenile offend
ers from hardened felons and habitual
misdemeanants. Manual training and
sloyd methods of education have passed
beyond the stage of experiment and be
come permanent factors in reformation.
Cities have substituted fines and proba
tion for corrupting incarceration , so
that occasional offenders may keep up
the saving relations of family and in
dustry and still be under rigid control.
Michigan led the way in establishing
a most enlightened and complete system
of child care , the admiration of philau
thropists in all the world. This system
includes supervision and control of all
public and private institutions for dependent
pendent and neglected children , that all
may be protected by law. No child is
to be placed in an institution except
on judicial approval and finding that it
is delinquent or dependent. All institu
tions are required to place dependent
children in approved family homes with
in a reasonable time. During minority ,
indentured children and youths are
supervised and protected. No subsidies
are given from public funds to private
institutions , but they are encouraged
and simply required to give evidence of
efficiency. Ill-treated children are pro
tected by stringent provisions of law ,
and parental custody comes to an end
when authority is abused. Dependent
and delinquent children aje carefully
separated.
Private societies for aiding neglected
children have made great advance in
methods and results. Hugh barracks
are no longer approved as permanen
homes of children , and the natural en
vironment of fostering parental affeo
tion is sought for the homeless. Kind
ergartens and day nurseries are agencies
of philanthropy for touching the very
beginning of educational life. Reformatories
matories are mere repair shops as com
pared with these forming schools. The
most hopeful effort is in the nursery
while attempts to straighten crooked
recs are discouraging.
Philanthropy has taken a wider and
nobler view of its mission. It has be
come preventive and educational. Miss
Carpenter said : "A hospital cannot
cleanse a poison-infected district , nor
diminish the constant supply of patients
from an undrained and malarious lo
cality. " It is well to remove the weak
and tempted from a bad environment ,
better still to improve the environ
ment. Charles R. Henderson , Professor
Sociology , Chicago Universityin Chica
go Record.
A PARALLEL CASE.
Repentant democrats , who , after
gayly planning a fusion of democracy ,
populism and silver republicanism , are
now trying to get their party separated
from the mixture and straightened out ,
can perhaps find some comfort in a story
from Binghampton , New York , of a
case in private life having a misery
parallel to their own. It is another
warning of the folly of mixing things
for the purpose of practical joking , and
since misery loves company it may
please the democrats to hear of it.
The story goes that a young wife in
Binghampton , who had just given birth
to her first baby , thought the occasion a
good one to play a merry joke on her hus
band , and accordingly she borrowed two
other new babies , placed them with her
own , and on her husband's return home
presented him with the triplets. The
report continues :
"The joke was a lovely one , but , as
jokes sometimes will , turned inside out
into an alarming tragedy when the
mother discovered that the three babies ,
who had been dressed alike for the hil
arious occasion , had got their several
identities inextricably entangled. No
body could tell which from t'other , and
the denouement threw three women and
a nurse of the usual comic opera intelli
gence into rapid hysterics. "
There is one broad difference between
the case of the Binghampton woman
and that of Bryan. In the woman's
case there is a certain element of pathos
which will prevent unlimited hilarity
but in the Bryanite case there is nothing
beyond the ridiculous pure and simple
With what eagerness did the astute
democrats of 1896 hasten and hurry the
work of fusion. They tricked out silver
republicanism and populism in garment
so much like those of democracy itsel
that none could tell one from another
and they were delighted when their
fusion brought about in the public mind
a hopeless confusion. For them there
can be no sympathy. They " mixe (
those babies up , " and now if they can
not tell one from another the public
don't care. It is a political fare
of big proportions , and the laugh is on
the right side. San Francisco Call.
1'KINLEY AND THE PENNSYLVANIA
AIACIIINE.
Mr. Quay , following the example of
Gov. Stone , journeyed to Washington
and besought the president to give the
office of director of the Bureau of
Engraving and Printing to that faithful
ervant of the machine
, Ex-Represen-
; ative Brnmin of Sohuylkill county.
Within an hour after Mr. Quay's de
parture from the White House the presi
dent appointed Captain William M.
Meredith of Illinois to the place.
Does this snub mean that Mr. McKin-
ey has determined to out himself loose
altogether from the Pennsylvania
machine henceforward ? In the past
the president has subjected himself to
nation-wide criticism , as severe as it has
seen just , for his course in turning over
; he federal patronage of this state to
the men who are the worst enemies of
the republican party the republican
Orokers , who care no more for repub
licanism than Croker cares for democ
racy. This course served to ally the
Administration with bossism in its foul
est forms , and so caused it to seem an
tagonistic to the efforts of the real re
publicans of Pennsylvania to purify the
party Philadelphia North American
( Rep. )
SOUTHERN REPRESENTATION.
If anything is said or advanced in the
coming congress relative to cutting down
the representation in southern states it
will be by irresponsible members of that
body and their speeches will be only de
clamatory. At the present time it is
popular for politicians to dilate upon
the injustice of basing a representation
on the population rather than on the vote
in those states , but soon as they observe
that nothing of this kind springs from
the fountain source of the republican
party , they will subside. The south is
not as it once was. In many of the
cities manufactories have increased pop
ulation to a wonderful extent and this
population has become as radical in
union labor sentiment as it was always
democratic. Let the representation in
those states be cut down and union labor
is going to cut a bigger .figure than men
having invested their money in those
factories would care to see. By control
ling the cities , union labor would 'con
trol the congressional delegations for it
would be the country districts that
would suffer from a cut in the repre
sentation in those states. As long as it
does no harm , politicians can roar all
they please about the injustice of disfranchising - .
franchising the negro vote , but the
commercial interest , or at least those
controlling them , will hardly stand to
see their properties confiscated simply
for the sake of a false sentiment. There
will be no cutting down of the represen
tation in the southern states at least in
the immediate future. Alliance Pion
eer Grip.