Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-07-13

The Austrians have establish ed a clever de
vice which it seems strange a people as much
given to travelling the Americans are should
never have adopted, namely, travellers cir
culating library. Nearly every American reads
on the cars and steamboats,. He generally pre-
fers a novel, or some other light and entertain
ing triae, to a serious work. II ii does not &C.
cur to him to put one into his gripsack before
leaving home he finds himself on the road with
the choice between a ive-cent newspaper, with
whose contents he may be generally acquainted
and book costing fifty cents or a dollar. He
wants the book, bu. the price gives him some
computations. He feels that he may use it
only to entertain his mind for the three or four
hours of his journey. To buy it and leave it
in his seat when he reaches his destina-
ton seems wasteful, yet it is practically
worthless for his library. Now, suppose that
he could select book, give the newsboy a dol
lar on deposit and take in return ticket on
which the date is duly checked off and the title
or stall-number of the book indorsed read the
book as long as he cares to, and when he has
finished return it and receive back his dol
lar, less six cents for the privilege he has en-
joyed. Should he become interested beyond
his expectation he could, under the
system here suggested, carry the book
home and keep it as long as he cared to, re-
turning it finally to the nearest stall owned by
the company which hires the newsboy, and on
surrender of ticket and book obtain his
deposit as before, less sum proportional to
the time he has retained the volume This
charge might be six cents or even ten cents for
a week or less, and cent a day for any longer
period than week OF course these are the mere
outlines of the possibilities of the case. Modi-
fcations or Improvements of the plan here
sketched will present themselves to the mind
Though New York will be the first state to
settle the question for or against ''electrocu-
ton as means of putting capital criminals
to death, Minnesota will outstrip her in another
branch of the work of so-called execution re-
form" Under the new law, already commented
on in The STAR, murderer will be hanged
few days hence in the presence of only the
sheriff, deputies and physicians, and the news
papers will be forbidden to make more than a
passing mention of the event. 1t would not be
difficult to lay ones hand upon the newspaper
that will deliberately break this last precept of
the law; indeed. the difficulty would be to find
one that will not. The public demand something
more than amere mention. and the demand will
hnquestionably be satisfied. But there will be
an indictment and prosecution Of one or more
OF the offending editors, probably, to test the
constitutionahty Of the law. A clause guaran-
teeinS the liberty Of the press against infringe
ment by the law-making power was the first
amendment vigilant people attached to the
federal constitution after the ratification of its
main provisions; and it will be the first one at
tached to the constitution of every state where
1t does not now appear, if the legislature at
tempts to abridge the right Of the newspapers
to print the news IN decorous language instead
of leaving the duty of further censorship to
the tastes Of the readers OF each as reflected in
their respective publishers incomes