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H The author is one of the ouly two ( visited the Russian prison-island of Sj ight thousand murderers among its E a most impressive picture of the territ Q of despair and desolation. ? lirrri iril^ a" tbe PeaaI settlements B III "II llCltl i? tlu Icl n ii/l n f 1 1 I ' XII OiWlia IUC ACIUUU V? 0 Sakhalin* lias the worsl reputation. This is not m n urpr sing when we re member its great distance from the central administration and that it is the prison-island to which all the worst criminals are sent. There are probably not a dozen free-born individuals outside of the convicts, exconvicts; their wives and children, and the officials and native tribes. On January 1, 189S. there were on the Island 22.107 convicts and ex-couvicts. | Of these 70S0 were engaged in hard I labor, and of this number alone nc | fewer than 2S36 were convicted of I murder, so that out of the total number J of convicts and ex-convicts a moderate I estimate would give SD00 as murder[ ers! L_ Of the 28oG murderers the large proW portion of G34 were women. Perhaps * this is to be explained by the brutality of husbands- under the influence of drink and passion, for many of these women had stabbed or poisoned theit partners in life. It is not surprising, therefore, that Sakhalin is a name not to be mentioned in St. Petersburg. To do so is a greater faux pas than to talk of Botany Bay in Sydney. But tad as things were reported to be, I t was fully aware that great strides had been made in the reform of prisons and prison management since the time when Mr. George Kennan visited them on the mainland in 18S5. but I thought It extremely probable that the footsteps of reform had lagged behind the farther east one tracked them, and that on Sakhalin?if one could only get there?the condition of affairs would reflect the state of things that existed on the mainland ten years ago. And so I found it. No Englishman, with the exception of Mr. de Windt, who paid a flying visit to the island In 1896, when his ship called, had visited the prisons, and none had ever penetrated Into the far interior. After sundry adventures and many difficulties overcome, I succeeded in getting away from Nikolaevsk, which Is situated on the mainland, near the mouth of the River Amur, to the Island. At the very last moment I was pacing the deck of a tramp steamer which stood in about two miles from the shore, and the captain was signalling again and again. He despaired of being able to land me. though he goodie naturedly delayed, and at length a tiny | tug, used for dragging lighters loaded with convicts, put out, and to my surprise I was allowed to board it; but r.o sooner had I ascended the steps of the wooden jetty than a military officer Stepped forward and demanded my business. To him I made reply in the scantiest of Russian that I had a letter of introduction to an ex-convict merchant. His was a strange and sad story, for in early days he had been heir tcrlarge estates, through which ) the traveler from Berlin to St. Petersburg passes. The only answer I received was that the ex-convlct merchant was now at the coal mines and would not return for another twentyfour hours, and that I must remain there in custody. I looked around the log-bui!t room and thought I had slept In much worse places than that: then I went to the door, but was stopped by a sentry, of whom, however. I demanded my baggage. From the window I could see my ship preparing to leave, ana m tms lay my great uope: * for although the authorities might lock me up they would not be a hie to send me away for some time. Here I was a prisoner, hut how en ^ THBEB I1ONO-8BNTENCE CONVICTS. viable was my lot to that of those who had to spend the remainder of their lives on the Island. As I s'ood looking out to sea the sun was setting behind a Aery-red cloud-bank. To me it pictured the passionate longing of those exiles whose eyes were straining ever westward to the land of the sunset, to the homestead, the land of friends and loved ones, so long ago left behind. Some weeks later I shared the loghouse of a petty official engaged oc l the Jetty, and so was able to wend inj .way to the place of my late detentlor to watch the batches of convicts arming. One lot from Siberia had trumpet the two thousand and seventy-live miles from Nertchensk to Nikolaevsk with an occasional lift from a steamer and the journey had occupied ttien itbree months. ^ I know what it Is to have had t( Struggle for a bare bench in a fourth Class Russian railway carriage where on to sit and try to sleep at night, ant Itbis was my home for a couple o! ;weeks through a frozen country. Bui * What was this to the lot of those pool Convicts who, hungry and weary afte] ' * ' >r three Englishmen who have ever ikhalin, which numbers no fewer than small rmulation! Mr. Hawes paints ile life fed by convicts In this grim land i J a long day's march, failed in the wik ' I scramble to obtain one of the miser : able plank resting-places allotted them : and had to lie on the filthy floor. Evei there a stronger neighbor often crushec > them, for the most brutal tongue, th< [ hardest fist, got the best place, an( t the timid and weak went to the wal > ?or the floor. Such is the descrlptloi we have heard in the past. Is It tru< to-day? In the main?no; but In rnj I experience?yes! 1. One of the Native Trackers. 2. 1 victs Chained 1 Russian convicts are dressed in unbleached cotton sbirts and trousers, with socks?or pieces of cloth wouud around their legs, puttee fashion?and shoes. Over ail they wear the "khaiat," or long, ulster-like frieze. All are in chains. One degrading form of pun ishment, that of chaining the convicl to a wheelbarrow, which is never de tacbed either by day or night, has been abolished on the mainland; but on Sak halin to-day there are still two mec who are undergoing this miserabU punishment. This form of punishment, the officials say, is necessary to keep them from escaping. The clean shaving of hall the head is also intended to rendei escape more difficult and identiflcatioi easier. Only one hundred out of the six hun dred convicts in the worst prison were l>eing sent out to do hard labor in tlu mines or road-making; it was not sur prising, therefore, that the dreadfu ennui drove some of the remainder lute risking attempts at flight. The night t< choose for an escape was when a storn was raging. It was on one such nighi of my stay that six in the Aiexan drovsk Testing Prison, under cover ol the darkness and the howling storm lassoed the tops of the twenty-fool stockade and. clambering over, dropped down and successfully evaded tlx patrols. The storm that night did us as good a turn as it did the convicts for returning from a seven hundred mile journey, mostly accomplished in <1 dug-out canoe, Ave (my interpreter and I) hail entered on our last stage whicl took us through the forest into which tnese SIX convicts naa piuujieu. ?m-rt were two roads before us. one travers ing the forest and the other bein? merely the sandy beach. The lattei was impassable at high tide, and had this advantage, that one had only tc defend oneself from human?or, rather, inhuman?assailants on one side. An ex-convict who had given us hospitality begged us not to take this forest road. Now, of course, there is free masonry among the convicts and ex convicts, and while he told us that thej were armed with guns more particu lars he would not divulge. Seeing us i still unpersuaded he backed up his statement by telling us how the post ; which I have seen leaving Aiexan I drovsk, twelve miles distant, carryinj . beside the driver one armed official ant , two soldiers with bayonets fixed, wai . held up on this road, a few miles ou , of Alexandrovsk. So we determiner I to take our clianees of the rising tid< and try ths beach route, though w< . had just heard that the youth who livet i with us at Alexandrovsk had been mur dered on the sands for the sake of thi i gun lie carried. We started in darkness with no inn I tern, for that would have rendered u: ; a mark, and the wretched telega raove< , along at a snail's pace. We sat bad , to back, revolvers and daggers hand} i in our belts and loaded rifles in hand We had instructions from the polio > to Are if we should see any movinj - form. Little, indeed, could we mak( - out?though we could imagine a grea I deal?as we peered into the dark for r est on our way to the beach. We ha< t dragged on at this raiseraDie pace to r about a mile and a half, longing for i : troika with its galloping steeds, wiiei suddenly the storm burst upon us. To keep our guns dry and be ready for an attack was impossible, and I confess I was not sorry to be compelled to take refuge in the hut of a convict. wbi?h the howling of dogs announced to be near by. It is almost impossible for these "brodyagas" tpassportless vagabonds) to get away from the Island. From the prison they escape into the forests, and there in summer they manage to exist on bilberries, cranberries, mushrooms and roots, and add to the little given them by comrades, whose sentences have expired, by waylaying passers-by. But when winter comes on. with its seven feet of snow and a temperature occasionally touching forty degrees (Fahr.) below zero, with no food to be obtained and rags for +li/w find tlipir xc*flv hanl* to WlUlUlUfe, J the prison. After giving themselves up here they are flogged with the cruel 1 "plet," and received back again with - an additional sentence. The photograph shows the tnstru1 ments of the executioner?the "kobila," J or bench, on which the convict is ? strapped; the birch-rods, which are 1 dipped in hot brine, and the heavy, 1 three-thonged "plet." with leaded ends, l These are the instruments in use at ? Rikovsk Prison. i Another photograph shows the public executioner at Alexandrovsk, Go rVio Vv?rnfinni>r'ic Instrumen'S. 3. Con to Wheelbarrows. 1 linsky by name. The "palatch," or , executioner, is chosen from among the [ convicts themselves. Prisoners wlio [ are refractory in prison are birched, .. but sometimes this punishment is given > for no other reason than that the chief . of the prison, of whom it would be t difficult to say anything too bad. hap ^ ~~ ~~ ''' ' ^ I GOLINSKY, THE EXECUTIONER, WITH THE . I TroiiTRT.F "PT.FT." , pens to be in a fit of ill-hunior when . they go before him to prefer some sim[ pie request. My own interpreter, hlm( self a man of rank, told me that in common with all the rest of the con[ victs and political exiles he paid tribute . money In the shape of food to the exCITY KITCHEN , J s 9 o nf tho hoof- mimlcinnl insHtntlo t kitchen in Christiania, opened last year. - no less than 1,024,240 meals were served 1 sold at six cents a meal. The building is r ventions and most up-to-date machinery * laundry machinery, etc. Our cut sbov 1 where eight boilers ere installed for the < ecutioner, so that, sLouId he be ordered the "plet." the leads should be brought .3~*1. ? 1-n/loMl/ln nf tho llfia r-<i UUWU UU iuc uuuv-ioiuc VI. wv- and not on his bare body. Corpordi punishment for worsen has been done away with by law In Russia, but in February of last year two women were flogged with birch-rods dipped in brine, and afterwards put in chains for refusing to obey their villainous overseers.?World Wide Magazine. MURDER CROSSES. Gruesome Memorials That Dot New Mexican Plains. I r a- C iU. in It 13 one UL lue unarms vl uarci m the out-of-the-way districts of the , United States to encounter picturesque customs undreamt of in the philosophy j of the well-populated regions tributary to the great cities of the North and East. Particularly rich in these quaint ways la the Southwestern couutry, of .flVurfof Cress,IfawffigXKo which New Mexico is the geographical centre and which draws its traditions from old Spain. Among the peculiar customs, of that territory is the practice of planting crosses on spots where murders have I beeu committed. Not infrequently, as one rides across some lonely plain bare of vegetation save for the ubiquitous sagebush and greasewood, or through some wild pass in the hills made wilder still by the desolate ruins of an abandoned adobe hut or two amid the cactus. Such crosses are met with rising out of small piles of stones. They are constructed of wood, without inscription of any sort, and often being taken to the church by the relatives and friends of the murdered man and blessed by the priest, are set up upon the scene of the murder, there to remain a continuing memorial of the unholy deed and a mute appeal to fall nir>iic. nncaora.hv tn onntrihntp a nraver t,.?Uo ? for the unshriven soul that has gone beyond. An Aruiclialr Formed by Natural Growth. The armchair pictured in the accompanying illustration may be said to have partly grown out of the ground, although its shape was furnished by twisting and turning a vine out of which most of its framework was formed. It was brought to the United States by a sea captain who saw it in a Korean city. The chair is studded CHAIR FOBMED BY NA.TUBAL GBOWTH. or ornamented with seeds of tne gingko tree of various sizes, which have actually grown to the fiber of the vine. A Korean gardener, familiar with the adhesiveness of the seed, took a native vine, noted for its toughness, and rudely made it into the form of a chair, holding it in place with branches of small trees. The seeds, fresh from the tree, were bound to the vine until they had firmly fastened themselves to it, the vine being allowed to grow in the meantime. After the seeds and boughs had become attached, the vine was cut from the roots, and this natural chair exposed to the sunlight until the sap had dried from the fiber and all of the material had hardened into a substance as solid as oak. It was then polished until its surface glistened like mahogany. Although but three feet four inches in height and twenty-five Inches in width, the weight of this curiosity is over a hundred pounds, on account of the hardness of the material of which it is composed. The armchair may well be regarded as a striking example of the gardeni 4-V.zv TPnt. Poof Q/tUnMfU IUg sum Ui. IUC JL- C4i. ^UOl. WCiCUUIiV; American. You can't liquidate a debt by paying compliments. IN CHRISTIANIA. ns in Norway is no doubt the city During the last six months of 1902 to the poor, while 7G.000 meals were i throughout fitted with the latest In. Including a dish-washlnc machine. 7b one of the large klteban rooms supply of heat and hot water. I TRAIN KILLS EXCUBSICMSTS" Men, Women and Children Mown Down by a Flyer. THE VICTIMS ARE TOLEDO POLES A Large Party Waiting For a Train at Detroit Struck by a Grand Trunk Eipreat?Bodies Strewn Along the Tiacki For Two Block*?Warning* Not Heard ?Scores Killed and Injured. Detroit, Mich.?Late, and thundering In from the West at high speed, the famous Grand Trunk Pan-American flyer plowed through a crowd of a thousand excursionists at the crossing of Dequinder and Canfleld streets. From seven to ten persons were killed outright and forty more injured, some of -whom 'will die. The accident was terrible, its results horrifying. The swift train tore through, the crowd like a flasn, and without warning, crushing persons in mere masses, or hurling men, women am/1 rtUllrltiAn f/i ann ftlrlrt a t* fl\a af lnni* 1 UliU LUiiUJ.cn iu uuu omc vi lxjo uiaci, as a snow piow would cut its way through a drift. Some of the victims were thrown, thirty feet by the Impact, and scores not on the track were knocked down by the flying bodies. In an Instant the merry party of excursionists were transformed from a laughing, chatting group into a riven, borror-strLcken, hurtling, shrieking mass, while the crossing ran with blood from the many victims. The excursion was given by the Polish Lancers, a society connected with a Toledo Catholic Church. There were fifteen cars filled with men, worn- 1 en and children. Their train, which was on the Lake Shore Road, was ; scheduled to leave the Canfleld avenue ! station at 7.30 o'clock, but was late. Finally it hove in sight and the tired people, anxious get seats, rushed I i?ATrrn -ft*o n\ra fn If A freight train was on the west track, while their train was on the east track. ( The gateman, who had been warned by the electric bell of the approaching j train, says that he yelled at the crowd to get out of the way, but they paid no , attention to him. It Is alleged, however, that the fare- ] wells between the Detroiters and their guests were so noisy that the voice of the old man at the gate was . drowned. So in the shadow of the approaching excursion, which was slowly coming up and the freight train on the opposite side, the crowd stood on the middle track. Then the Grand Trunk passenger train, due at the station within a few minutes after it left Canfield avenue, came along. Witnesses insist they did not hear any bell on the Grand Trunk engine i or any whistle. All they know is that the. train bore down into the crowd j and the slaughter followed. ] Patrolman Shultz sent in a ceneral I 'call for doctors and ambulances. Along the tracks for two blocks the mangled bodies of the dead were found. The victims all came from Toledo. John Synda, a wealthy Polish brewer of this city, who was present insists ' that the crowd was not warned in the. least of the approach of the Grand Trunk train. t "It was simply dreadful," said he. "There never was a happier crowd of people. All of a sudden that train rushed down almost In the centre of the crowd. The crying could be heard for blocks." The railroad officials and crews say that the gates were down and tho police verify this statement. KAISER AT THE VATICAN. Tope Grant* the Emperor a Private Interylevt Luting Forty Minutes. Rome, Italy.?Kaiser Wllhelin was entertained at a state luncheon at the German Embassy. After the luncheon the Kaiser was driven to the Vatican in a magnificent four-horse landau, escorted by a detachment of carbineers. . Surrounded by his entire court the Pope received the Kaiser in the throne room, and then granted him a private Ititprvlntv wliir>h lncinrl fnvfw miniitoo This interview over, the Kaiser pre- < sented his sons. Crown Prince Freder- ( ick William and Prince Eitel, who iiave t just returned from a tour of Egypt and Palestine, where both were ill with I measles. The Pope expressed great * pleasure at meeting the young princes, * and when the audience was terminated J he presented to the Kaiser and his 1 sons three very costly mosaics made in j; the Vatican factory. TWO NECROES LYNCHED. Hanged to a Railroad Bridge For the 1 Murder of a Met chant. Vicksburg, Miss.?Ben Bryant, aged twenty-one, and William Morris, aged 1 thirty, two negroes who murdered c William H. Legg, a merchant and c planter, at his store at Adams Landing, 0 sixteen miles north of here, were ar- Jrr?CfoH on/1 nAnfnecfl/1 fho mnr/lor T'ViOrr 4 VWV.U uuu VVU1COCCU IUV UlUiVIVIi A ?iv-j were taken from three deputy sheriffs s and hanged to the iron bridge near the scene of the murder, just twenty-four x hours after the assassination. * o rtimsla Anorei Great Britain. c Announcements were made in Par* c liament that the British Government ? has received authoritative information 0 that Russia had no new designs in J1 Manchuria. J. Poitnl Robbers Get 810,noo. ? Nearly $10,000 was secured by bur- * glars from the ppstofflce at Ravens- a wood, W. Va. * * Beoleced Town Kellcred. Six hundred troops have relieved the * besieged town of Arzila, Morocco. Two 0 hundred and lifty fugitive Jews from s that place have been taken to Tangier ^ in steamers. They are in a miserable fl plight. Salonlca Bank Blown Up. The Ottoman Bank at Salonica, Eu ropean Turkey, was blown up by dyna- a mite, bombs were thrown in many c places throughout the city, and two M men were killed in the disorders. / ? News of the Tollers. Union printers at Huntington, Ind., e will ask for an increase in wages in June. P Bakers at Albany, N. Y., bave Inaugurated a movement to abolish night 1 work. Blast furnacemen in Lancashire, 11 England, have been given notice of a 01 reduction of three and one-fourth per :ent. ? lr The textile strike at Charlotte, N. C., P /s said to be the first strike that has ever occurrred in the North Carolina A mills. ir - ;; "> * : > ( FATHER WALSLR FREED Priest Exonerated of the Charge of Killing Miss Agatha Rsichlin. Brothers of the Girl Swear at CoronerV Inquest That Thoy Believe Him Innocent of tlie Crime." ' Elyrla, Ohio.?At the end of an iarestigation into the cause of ihe death ~a ? TT-or, milL/lnro/l UL il?UlUtl I\CIL'UIIU, >1 uu nuo uiuiucttu, Coroner French, of this county, gave as his conclusion the verdict "That Agatha Reichlin came to her death from wounds inflicted by a ston-? in the hands of a person unknown." The conclusion reached by the Coroner resulted in the freeing of Father Walsei from confinement later in the evening The witnesses examined included policemen who had been called to the Reichlin home and Caslmir R-eichlln, a brother of the murdered girl. The Rev. Charles Reichlin, another brother, alsc testified. The consensus of the testimony of the witnessesswas ^-favorable to Father Waif ?r'p claim of innocence and in support of the theory that a burglar or some other desperate man had committed the crime. Caslmir Reichlin, the younger brother of the murdered girl, who was In the house when the crime was committed, said he was awakened about 1 o'clock by the priest rushing into his room and excitedly saying that burglars were in the house. He arose and ran to his sister's room and found hei lying in her bed, covered with blood and life extinct. He then searched the house, but found no one. Casimir said he notified the police and took them Into the attic, where they found fresh muti on tiie attic noor unaer toe atuc window and afterward on a ladder which stood outside under a window ol' the murdered gii:l's room. "You have every confidence that Father Walser Is not guilty of the crime with which he Is charged?" he *vas asked. "If Father Walser is guilty, then I ;im guilty. If he should hang, then rhey had ousrht to hang me. I know he Is innocent." Later the same question was asked of Father Reichlin. He said: "I have absolute faith in Father Walser. I know he is innocent." The Rov. Charles R?ichlin said as to 1 possible motive: "My first thought was that it might have been a jilted lover. A Mr. Rospert was her last lover. I think the notive for the crime was robbery. My sister never expressed to me any love for Rospert. He called twice since November." Maitin Reichlin, another brother of the girl, testified that Rospert had come to see Agatha last summer, but 3b? refnsed to accept his attentions. Father Walser was brought from the county jail and discharged from the charge of murder. Mayor Kins svent through the formality of reading the warrant for Walser's irrest, and his attorney. E. G. Johnson, sntered a plea of not guilty. Prosecuting Attorney Stroup, addressing His Honor, said that, after having listened :o the evidence presented at the inquest he could see that there Is not sufficient jvidence to hold the defendant. Mayor King then announced that, as the Prosecuting Attorney had said there was not sufficient evidence to bold the accused he had nothing to do but discharge him from custody. Father Relchlin, brother of the murlered girl, listened attentively to the proceedings. and upon adjournment of :ourt wa3 the first to approach Father Walser with a hearty handshake, af:er which the handshaking became general, and the freed priest was the recipient of congratulations on all hands. ^Bv/ARO ATHLETE I ONC MISSING Wealthy N'ew Yorker Disappeared in Febrr -Feared That He 1* Dead. Cambridge, Mass.?It was learned :hat William Scollay Whltwell, a wealthy New York youth in the senioi Mass at Harvard and a member of last rear's football eleven, has been-missing 'rom Cambridge since February 27. At the time of Whitwell's disappear* inee his father, Dr. Whitwell, was ill n their home in New York City, and he common belief was that the young nan had hastened to the invalid's bedilde. As he left no word and as nothng was heard from him as time went m fears were entertained that he had ;ommitted suicide or had be<?n the vielm of foul play. i His father died soon after his disapjearance, and it is said that death was lastened by grief over the youth's disippearance. The fact that Whitwell j ook neither money nor clothes with j lim and that he was always of a more >r less despondent nature leads to the i tellef that he committed suicide. . I WELCOMED BY "ROUGH RIDERS." , looiovelt Assists at a Pictnresqae Chris, tsntng at Sauta Fe, S. SI. Albuquerque, N.M.?President Roose- j elt was made welcome by the ancient ities of Santa Fe and Albuquerque, reeived greetings from hundreds of his , Id Rough Riders, assisted at the chris- | ening of a baby boy named in his i lonor, and had a splendid time from i tart to finish of the day. < The christening of Theodore Roose- ' elt Armejo, son of Sergeant George ' Lrmejo, of the Rough Riders, was one J f tb? prettiest affairs of the day. The , eremony took place in the ancient athedral In Santa Fe. The President ' tood at the baby's head and the moth- 1 r at bis feet, while the venerable 1 irlest read the long service and applied J be sacred ointment and holy water. ^ Jnrprnor Otero, of the Territory; . ilnyor Parks, of the city, and Secre* { ary Loeb held candles In a semi-circle bout the chief actors during: the func* 1 Ion. l 1 Jim Howard'i Brnther-lc-I.fiw Killed. Sid Baker, a brother-in-law of Jim < loward, who was recently convicted < f the murder of William Goebel, was 1 hot and killed in a light on the high- ' ray near London, Ky. The man who ] red the fatal shot is William McCul- , nm. Hugh Barnes, a companion of ] loward, was shot through th? arm. i Cuba to lame Independence Stnmpg. y Th? Cuban Congress has authorized n issue of 7,700,000 postage stamps in i oniineinoration of the installation of i je Cuban Republic. j Ncwiy Glean lags. Austria lost nearly 4S,000 persons b> migration last year. The London Times prints daily dis- ' .itches by Marconlgraph. The German Government operates ; 5,200 central telephone exchanges. J Sheepmen of the Sweetwater country ( i Wyoming have opened war on the , ittlemeu. t The Texas legislature has passed a 1 iw providing for the extermination of 1 rairie dogs. Spanish will he studied at American .rmy posts where there are qualified istructors and the men desire It. j v-hwi'-. 'O. ' THE GREAT DESTROYEB ' .V SOllflE STARTLING FACTS ABOiyi the vice of intemperance. - i ; g ' H . m 1 4? ? ~v. *.)* Tho New Tort Evening Journal*! An?we? to A Pnth?f(A T.iiH'AV.WhA Women to Drink? A Man Usually? and Monotony Helps Also. | . Editor Evening Journal ? For read&n* which I hope you deem sufficient and -respect (being myself the responsible editor of a newspaper), I cannot sign njy name.to this communication, whose purport is to secure the aid of the New York Journal in re-establishing a home whose ruin was practically accomplished through whisky. In this case, it is a woman's unfortunate habit, the result primarily of heredity, that I chronicle. Your paper has had many editorial sermons directed against the awful results of too much indulgence, but the male offender has invariably been the object of attack. Their directness has attracted me, their sincerity encourages me to this. Won't you direct your batteries against the spreading habit of whisky drinking in the ranks of well-bred, well-eaucated women, many of whom are to-day making wanderers from home of the men who are only too eager to aid in their restoration? I write this under restraint. No man, even under a nom de pace, can put on c..?: ^ .W pa^JCl bllC BCClCtB U1 Alio SUliUff. UUUICC tV say that I have held high public office and am well known in the circle I most frequent a9 a devoted home lover. For my child's sake, a9 well as from a sense of my responsibilities as a husband, I hid the freedom of che divorce courts, and am thankful indeed for that, though the struggle seared my soul. The unfortunate one in this case lost a father, a mother and twobrothers directly through alcoholism. At the present time a sole surviving sister is rapidly following the rest. The habit grew on my wife, a beautiful young woman, to k ; such an extent that only humiliation followed her attendance at dinners, either public or private, when indulgence was pos- . sible. From that it spread to private drunkenness, aided by her associates, until my tome was a hell, my work impaired and my ambitions killed. Won't you take up the question, and from my standpoint direct it to women? I am a strong man, but you can help me. Will you do it, for I am only one of'many? SUFFERER. We have given thoughtful consideration to thi3 very pathetic letter, and to the problem which the writer presents. In writing about drink and drunkenness we havp nurr.ncnlxr rpfraitinr? frntn the matter from the point of view of women. Excessive drinking by women is most shocking and most painful to the mind. We shall treat of it to-day, in response to our reader's request. But we shall deal with the subject from one point of view only?the man's responsibility. i I. Many homes are made miserable, unfortunately, by drinking, public or private* by women. And many"men suffer humiliation and the worst and most hopeless agony through the. excessive drinking of their wives. But who is it that causes women to drink at first? We do not refer now to the case ; of :he husband whose letter we print, but to the'generality of cases. Invariably it is some man who induces the woman or the young girl to begin. And . only too often it is the husband himself whose blind folly leads his wife to destruc-, tion. ' i&w In every restaurant you may see men offering deadly concoctions, cocktails or whisky in some more or le& open disguise, ' . <; to women with them. The husband takes his cocktail, and he offers his wife one. One can do no harm,. he thinks, and anyhow he knows her too well to fear that she will ever take too much. She is too refined for that. But it is the women of refined and highly strung nervous systems that are most easily influenced by drink, and that nuccumb most easily to the habit. Their nerves, once accustomed to the poison, crave it, and .will have it, when the map's tougher and coarser organization makes an easier fight against the temptation. There are in America tens of thousands of homes made miserable by the drinking of unhappy women. And in every single :ase some man is originally responsible. The customs of rich and foolish society are responsible to some extent for excessive drinking among women. The frequent, fatiguing entertainments at which j-oung girls are supplied with champagne and other drinks to "strengthen them for the social campaign" turn out each year a certain number of victims and supply the most profitable of inmates to the many retreats for wrecked women. But the evils of that thin social crust called society are relatively unimportant. The drinking by American women is due to the stupidity of hundreds of thousands of American men who criminally, although with no evil intent, induce women to drink socktails or other deadly poisons. Nearly all men agree in looking with very great scorn upon the woman who drinks too much. A man may drink to excess regularly and publicly, yet continue to be highly respected, especially when he hanpens to have money. But there is no indulgence or forgiveness for fhe woman? not the slightest. This undoubtedly is just a? well, since the injustice that it muses is morp than affier. hv irnnrl yoaiilt-a .. neral reprobation of woman's excessive i drinking. Yet, as between men and women who field to drink, the women, although infinitely less numerous, are far more deserving of sympathy. Among men who drink there are two ilasses whose excess does not surprise us. Of the young drunkard in the fashionable :luh we say: '"His father left him much money and nothing to do. What else can you exoecfc )f aim? He has no real interest in life." And of the overworke man, door,"d to continuous round of uull drudger. we pay that his life is so dull that "it is , "enough to drive anybody to drink." Millions of women may be included in jne or other of these el&sses The rifh rounu man. with nothing to do. corre- ; worlds to the wife of a rich man. She has ill the money she wants, nothing to do. no . *4 responsibilities, no real interests. Her JaiJv routine includes the usual procession jf bottles at luncheon and dinner. She drinks like the young man in the club, be- v ?~;J :au?e she is bored, and because she finds that alcohol supplies a temporary, false ex:itement. And think of the millions of poor women ivho.se daily lives are dull and monotonous beyond the life of any man. Think of the ,v women who work from morning until night, and alwavs go to bed leaving some work undone. Think of the women who ire cooks, nurses, housemaids, seamstresses. nothers, wives and women of all work?all n one. Th-jre are women who drink, unfortunately, and those about them are to be pitied?although not nearly so much to be jitied as the unhappy women themselves. What wonder that a few desperate wona* ?n. often with a husband's cruelty or inlifference added to their burden, seek for relief and forgetfulness in drink ? espe:ially when men all about them set the eximnle. And what a splendid proof of woman's innate superiority to man is the fact that even amonpt the saddest, most hopeless of women drinking in America is so are as to be a curiosity. At the same time we should remember ivith gratitude this fact: In a land where drunkenness among men is looked upon as a matter of course it i.' almost unknown among women, save wh.?n they are tempted by stupid men or by foolish!)' luxurious, idle livoo. An Object Lesson In Alcoholiam. Thirty-eight inebriate patients from thft overcrowded Cherokee (la.) hospital en route to the hospital at Independence, carried in a special car, with locked doors, ind under the vigilant care of two guards, ivas the inspiring sight that lately might lave been witnessed. Inspirim*? Yes; ;hirty-eight inebriates confined like mad nen and nuite as dangerous, is a spectacle :hut should inspire every patriotic soul ivith an abhorrence of the deadly traffic that robs men of body, brain and son! sower and makes them a terror and s nenace to society. Half the sickness of the British Army its ' [ndia is traceable to drinl