The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1892-09-15

UIlO IdDlU WHICH Is d Udu OIlc. lllCIC-
fore, the difficulty placed in our way in
obtaining light in order to smoke, [
greet as remedy against an evil, which
can be cured only in this way.
No one could possibly in brief ar
when 1 paused to-day to consider the
matter, t did this only with the inten-
ton of expressing my own individual
opinion and to repeat to the readers of
THE MIRROR the opinion of others.
/ am not quite sure if | agree with
some Of them. at least not with those
who are trying to make the question
7eCl,tctiO adj dbsurdatm. For instance,
F. w. Fairholt draws the following pic
:ture of tobacco land smoking gentle
man.:
ut taints the breath, the blood it dries,
It burns the head. it blinds the eyes;
1t dries the lungs. ScOurgeth the lights,
1t numbs the soul. it dulls the sprites;
1t brings into maze,
And makes him sit for others gaze;
1t mars a man. it mars a purse,
A lean one fat, a fat one worse;
A white man black, a black man white,
A night a day. day night;
1t turns the brain like cat in pan,
And makes a jack gentleman"
Estn mai bien. If that is what they
call a gentleman, why, much obliged
for such society," | for one would not
like to be one of them.
Another writer who withdrew his
name from publicity, appeals to the Ia
dies in the following words:
May never lady press his lips, his profferd love
returning,
his chimney burning;
May each true woman shun his sight for fears
his fume should choke her,
And none but those, who smokes themselves,
have kisses for a smoker
Now, if this will not convince every
body, that smoking is bad habit, then
let us remain gentlemen, such as we
are now. LEO.
Thoughts from the "Vicar of Wakefield"
There are few books that have been
more widely read or more universally
admired than Goldsmiths "Vicar of
Wakefield" The criticism alone on the
punishment of crime repays the reader
and cOmpels him to wish that Gold
smith had lived longer that he might
have added more gems to literature.
He says: at were to be wished then,
that power. instead of cOntriving new
laws to punish vice: instead of drawing
hard the cords of society till cOnvul-
sion comes to burst them; instead Of
cutting away wretches as useless before
we have tried their utility; instead of
converting correction into vengeance.
it were to be wished that we tried the
restrictive arts of government, and
made law the protector, but not the
tyrant of the people. We should then
find that creatures, whose souls are held
as drOss. only wanted the hand of re-
finer: we should then find that Great
ures, now stuck up for long fortunes,
lest luxury should feel mOmentary
pang, might, if properly treated serve
to SineW the state in times OF danger;
that as their faces are like ours, their
hearts are SO too; that few minds are so
base that perseverance cannot amend;
that man may see his last crime with
out dying for it; and that very little
blood will serve TO cement our secur-
ity."
Since GOldsmith's time, the world has
grown wiser, and brOtherly love is be-
coming more and more engendered in
the hearts of men-"instead Of cutting
away wretches as useless before we have
tried their utility" The people seek
now to reform the criminal rather than
ment will be before many years thing
VI UIlc JdoU. WI pOIdl LII
our penal institutions has been almost
wholly abolished and in its place comes
the grading system that teaches us that
by industry and fidelity we can better
our condition in prison, and that by the
same motives when we mingle with the
world again we can become good citi-
zens, and "serve to sinew the state in
times of danger
Goldsmith truthfully says, "that few
minds are so base that perseverance
cannot amend" There is no one SO
fallen but what has some manhood left
in him, and with proper treatment that
spark can be famed into flame and
the good made to predominant over the
evil; and as we can rise from the third
grade to the second, and from the Sec
Ond to the first in prison, so can we
when we go forth among our fellOwmen
as free men, rise step by step until we
are respected and hOnOred and become
men amongst men. G. G.
"HellOa here gig-lamps said the fly, as dOdg
ing the editors hand he tipped him on the
nose, seven times in succession. Wh-whish /!
Crash Split ink!!! "Ah, God bless you;
stay there!" And the editor with cOmplaisant
cat6 md yrOto q pInr obi oil on,