Life — February 19, 1903 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

‘* While there is Life there's Hope.” 1 FEB. 19, 1903. 19 Wrst Tutkty-Finst St.. New Yous. - 1060, Pablished every Taursday. $300 a year in ad ‘ostage (O forein Countries in the Postal Moa year extra. Singh pies, Bach pers, after thi rou ion till be returned untess accompanied by stamped and addressed envelope. The illustrations in LIFE are copyrighted, and are not to be reproduced. Prompt notification should be sent by sub- scribers of any change of address. UR bumptious contemporary, The Philistine, asserts at some length and with fervor that society ought to pay for some of the law’s mistakes. When a man is hanged for a crime which it is finally discovered he did not commit, it would be graceful, at least, to pay something to his h If aman is imprisoned for an offence of which he is presently found to have been innocent, there is nothing to do now but to pardon him, and turn him back into the world, broken, impover- ished and disgraced, That is wrong. In so far as money can make up to him for what he has suffered, his sufferings should be salved. He should have a right to sue the State for heavy dama- ges because it made a mistake, Even when it merely happens that a man is arrested and held a long time, and tried for a crime, and manages to dem- onstrate his innocence, and is ac- quitted, there should be some repara- tion coming tohim, At least he should be reimba:«- for his loss of time and the expe.ises of his defense. That limi- ted degree of justice is done, it seems, in only one country in the world— in Utopian New Zealand. The terrible hardships that innocent individuals occasionally suffer by the blunders of courts and juries have always been rec- ognized, The inconvenience of fram- ing laws which provide for reparation LIFE for such hardships is appreciated. But in an advanced state of society such laws should be framed. Justice that ignores its innocent victims is not justice, Woe are the State, and the State is rich. When we do a great wrong we ought at least to pay dama- ges. It is mean, as well as brutal of us, to say there is no law that punishes our mistake, and that we will give no redress. (HERE is a difference in the Red Cross. The merits of it have not fully transpired, but Miss Clara Barton is on one side, anda number of very respectable people are on the other. These respectable people have pro- tested to Congress and the President that Miss Barton has managed to make herself the sole tyrant of the Red Cross, and that no one else has any power. Miss Barton’s friends say that she has done nothing wrong, and had particularly good reasons for all that she did. The public di ’t like to see disputes in the Red Cross, and it par- ticularly dislikes any dispute by which Miss Barton seems likely to. suffer. She is a veteran, and is honored as a veteran. If she can be backed up, she should be backed up hard; if she must be let down, she should be let down Ladies and gentlemen, please arbitrate this matter. A war in the Red Cross is unbecoming. Nobody wants tosee the Red Cross managers carried off the field on their own stretchers, c MARE TWAIN continues to dis- cuss Christian Science in The North American Reciew. His deliver- ances have the merit of originality. Christian Science is a nebulous sort of persuasion, about which almost anyone can say almost anything without pre- vious preparation, and with little em- barrassment for want of knowledge. What one doesn’t know about it makes. just as good discourse as what he knows. Mark Twain has drawn heavily both on what he knows and what he doesn’t know to make his articles, and has pieced out his knowl- edge and lack of knowledge with imaginings that for scope, size and in- credibility beat anything The Review ever printed before. pH New York State Legislature has been discussing whether it ought not to restrain the patent medi- cine business. The State Constitution says the freedom of the press shall not be abridged. Nine-tenths of the news- papers of the State lean very heavily on the patent medicine advertisements for support. Anyone who thinks that the patent medicine business can be restrained without abridging the free- dom of the press is grievously mis- taken. Patent medicine is often bad for takers, but is always good for newspapers. It won't be restrained. Cc SOME of the Pennsylvania legislators want to abolish caricatures, No wonder, but no such half - measure would help them. What Quay’s pup- pets need is a law that no one shall look at them, nor speak of them, Nothing less than to be ignored will make them safe. At this writing New Mexico and Arizona have not yet been made States, They are utterly unworthy in character and importance of such a dis- tinction. The time may come when they will be fit to become States, but at present the sort of distinction they are worthy of is to have Senator Quay for their champion. He wants two more rotten-borough States in the Union. Sit tight, good Congressmen, and keep them out! comicbooks.com