Conditions in Lawrence, Massachusetts
By Editor
Gambling.—The gambling craze is not confined to China, nor to America, but it is seemingly sweeping away the very foundations of society everywhere. For instance, a despatch from Berlin under date of September 28 declares that “the craze for gambling among the wealthy and aristocratic classes of Germany and Russia has reached such a pitch that the authorities are at their wits’ end how to combat it.” Raiding of private gambling dens is of no use. Players caught there are of such prominence that prosecution is thought inadvisable. Every effort is made to keep it from the kaiser; but when a recent case came to his ears, he summoned the court-marshals of the empire, and asked them to use their influence to suppress the craze; and in consequence, it has been found necessary to send private letters to all members of the German nobility, asking them to stop the high play which goes on in their circles. Some of the nobles of the empire have been stricken from the court list, and one nobleman has committed suicide because of the disgrace. But the thing seems to go on just the same. While there is great danger in declaring that every criminal is insane, yet doubtless there are cases of that kind, as there seems to have been one in the Marquette, Michigan, prison. There was imprisoned there a bandit, Holzey by name, sentenced November, 1889, for murder in the first degree. He and his gang terrorized Northern Wisconsin, holding up railway trains and stage-coaches, even single-handed, and robbing their passengers. In one of his raids, a banker shot at him, and Holzey returned the fire and killed the banker. For years after his imprisonment, he was morose, and subject to spells of insubordination, during which time he was treated with harshness, and regarded as a dangerous and incorrigible criminal. Some time back he underwent a surgical operation, which was followed by an improvement in his mental state, until he has become entirely sane; and he declares that during his criminal career he was completely under the domination of a criminal obsession, produced, he declares, by profound dejection arising from a nervous breakdown. Since his operation, he has studied the English language, and read practically everything in the prison library, and is now said to be a well-informed man, with unusually sound views on subjects which are engaging the attention of thinkers in this country and abroad. Because of his later good conduct, his sentence has been commuted to forty years, with good time, which gives him his freedom on November 3, 1913. He has recently written a book on penology, so the Chicago Daily Tribune of September 27 tells us, said to be one of the best works on that phase of the subject which has been written. “It possesses a unique value because it was written by a man who has educated himself to think logically and write with rare lucidity on a subject in which he has had practical experience.” He believes in the indeterminate, or indefinite, sentence system, and believes that many could be reformed if this were carried out. Speaking of recent conditions in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the Salt Lake Tribune of October 1 says: “This present Lawrence strike, therefore, is a strike against law, against adjudicature, and against the orderly procedure of the government. It is a strike for anarchy, a strike to turn over the processes of the government to an irresponsible mob. If successful, it would take out of the hands of the court, before the court has done with them, two men accused of a heinous crime. This is something that can not be tolerated, and it is of precisely the same character as the mob rule, which would take12out of the jurisdiction of the court an accused person and lynch him without trial. That is a shocking tragedy, utterly indefensible and wholly to be condemned, whatever the offense that is committed. But the other offense which this Lawrence strike seems to stand for is equally to be reprehended, referring in this to the fact that the strikers object to the arrest and trial of two of their leaders with a charge of being accessories to the murder of a woman mill-worker.” The Tribune admits that the leaders may be innocent altogether, but if so they will be acquitted, in all likelihood. The Tribune further says that “there has been altogether too much of the mob spirit everywhere, and especially in connection with the procedure of the courts.” “Where an organized society undertakes to exercise this mob government, then there is nothing to do but to condemn that society and its leaders without reserve; and whenever they commit an overt act, that act should be punished with the rigor that the law demands.” It would seem that all good citizens would agree with these words. It is not held that the courts are infallible. It is not held that judges are always pure, and above influence and corruption. But orderly government is certainly better than mob rule. Conditions in Lawrence, Massachusetts
It is stated that the whaling industry is about doomed. It is only since the Russo-Japanese war that the people of Japan have taken any great interest in whale fishery. It is said that they have made the most of the whale not only by preserving the oil, but certain portions of the creature are canned and eaten in the place of canned beef, which is very expensive in those Oriental countries. You may be able to tell what the label on the outside of the can says, but the label is no evidence by which you can be sure of the contents within. There is no assurance that canned whale would be so labeled. There are far better foods for the human race than canned meats. Mrs. Russell Sage has purchased Marsh Island, on the gulf coast, southwest of New Orleans, to be preserved as a guarded refuge for all migratory birds. No sportsman will be allowed on the island with either trap or gun.