Life — February 28, 1907 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

—— Show Mercy to Cancer Patients WOMAN has been arrested in New York on the charge of admit ing poison to her mother, who was slowly dy- ing in great suffering of cancer. ‘The case, it seems, was absolutely hopeless, the patient’s sufferings were dreadful and she begged to be released from them. If the facts are as represented, and as we have stated them, and if it is true, as charged, that the patient’s daughter helped her tortured mother out of the world, the case seems an excellent one for the District Attorney's office to overlook. For the daughter, if she is to be credited with the action charged, under the cir- cumstances stated, did only what love would naturally have prompted and courage would have risked. ‘The doctor should have seen to it that the patient did not suffer useless agonies, and if the do¢- tor would not interfere, it was a mercy if there was some one else at hand who did.” There is no sort of sense in letting can- cer patients drag out their last days in excruciating torment. When surgery has done everything possible, and nothing remains except to wait while the gnawing sore slowly eats the patient’s life away, every motive of humanity demands that the process shall be stopped when patient ae ON Bile and physician agree that there is no rea- son for its continuance. The Roman soldiers, when they thought the two thieves who were cruci- fied with Christ had suffered long enough, mercifully broke their boneyand set their spirits free. At least as much mercy as that is due to cancer patients. Aslongas it is necessary to brave the law in order to show such mercy, there will be coura- gcous spirits who will brave it. Immaterial “DYID Perkins die a natural death?” “Oh, yes. But I can’t remember now whether he was murdered, killed in arailroad accident or hit by an automo- bile.” - HE attention of the S. P. C. A. is re- spectfully called to the following: No milk can be sold in Boston that is shown to con- tain over 1,000 germs to the cubic centimetre. Why stop at 15,000? Why this unjust discrimination against 20,000 or 30,000 or 50,000? Why should 5,000 or 10,000 or 20,000 helpless, defenseless little germs be heartlessly prevented from making an honest living, while a paltry 15,000 are regarded as a privileged class, entitled to feed in pampered luxury? “COOD HEAVENS, ALONzo! HAVE YoU HAD 4 rit?” “NO, MY DEAR; BUT AT LAST I HAVE CAPTURED A SPECIMEN OF THE UMBILIPTERUS, THE ONLY BUG NEEDED To COMPLETE MY CASE OF THE LOPTEOPLERA.”” “com, AND SHARE THIS WORM WITH six.” MY, WINLIAM BIRD | DON'T YOU KNOW IT's. LENT? The Majesty of the Law* MINENTDISTRICTATTORNEY (ajter short adjournment): Your Honor and Gentlemen of the Jury—I am requested by certain members of the press to apologize in their behalf for the poor pictorial showing made in some of the morning issues of their respective papers. For instance, what appeared to be a violent rain storm in the hitherto unpublished picture of the prisoner's mother printed on the first page of this morning’s Screech, was in reality a good portrait of the whiskers belonging to Professor Heinrich Highbrow, of Heidel- berg University, who inadvertently got in front of the camera operated by one of that paper’s special staff photographers on the spot. And what was mistaken by some to be a vivid pictorial impression of the most recent fatal w on the B. R. T., taken by moonlight, was a snap- shot of the jury photographer taken through the shirt-bosom of Court Officer Mulligan, who was holding one end of the camera and who neglected to get out of the way when the button was pressed. ‘These gentlemen desire me to state that they fully appreciate the efforts made by the Court to furnish them every privilege and promise that no mistakes of this nature will again occur. Now that the author of “Three Years in the Death House” has arrived, and the Western Union wires have been mended and are again in working order, with your Honor’s permission we will resume MATHEMATICIAN—A figure-head. Blood-relations—War stories. ‘See cattoon, pages 306-7. comicbooks.com