Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1892-12-15
OF LEGISLATION.
HOlp, of WATERFOWL, Talked on
the Above Subject on Last
Sunday.
No More Sumptuary Laws For
the Citizens of This Glor-
iOus Country.


The Press Is Mightier Than Con-
gress---SOme Odd Ancient
Laws.
Men of all ages, have sought phys
zeal panaceas. The ivory shoulder
Of Pelops was said to possess the
power of removing every disorder
and healing every complaint by its
touch. After tais went the way of
all the earth, then the famous medi-
cine, The-iaca Adromachi, consisting
Of squills, opium, pepper, and dried
yipers, vas thought for centuries TO
be a veritable cure-all.
Men have just as zealOusly sought
for a panacea for the body polite.
The majority Of the worlds physi-
clans have claimed legislation to be
the thing sought for. They seemed
really to think that legislation was a
real Pelops' ivory shoulder or a Their
AGA Andromachi that would remove
every disorder and heal every COM
plant that our civilization was heir
to. But / verify believe no panacea
ever will be found either for mans
ills, or the ills of the state.
/ do firmly believe we will discover
some remedy for every disorder of the
individual and the nation. / rather
incline to the belief that God has
given twenty remedies for every dis
ease rather than that He has given
one remedy for twenty diseases.
Nothing" says Goethe, sis more sig
nificant of mems %charactert than what
they find laughable." / am inclined
to think that what they find legisla-
tive just as significant Of mems char
acter.
Doacs, the first legislator Il the
Athenians, passed laws furnishing
murder, adultery and idolatry with
death. Scion passed laws %forbiddlng
men TO speak i'll of the dead; also
against reviling the living in a tenn
pie, in a court of justice, in the great
assembly of the people OF at the pub
lie games. Also a law declaring the
nan infamous who stands neutral in
the time of seditiOn. The man who
refused to maintain his father and
mother was, according to law, infam-
Gus and so punished. If a man was
guilty of sacrilege he was put to
death. Idleness was punishable by
death. There was once a Roman law
requiring that no senator should o n
tract a debt over $500. Another law
required that no woman should have
in her dress above half an ounce of
gold, nor wear a garment of different
rolors, nor ride in a carriage in the
city, or in the town, Or within a mile
or it, unless upon occasion of a public
sacrifice.
In the celebrated city Of Sybaris it
was forbidden by law to exercise in
the city any trade, the practice Of
which was attended with any noise;
for this same reason there was an
edict passed against the breeding of
cocks. Its very evident there were
no democrats in that city, for how
could democracy live without its
Growing cocksi
IIn-Snarta there was a law which
punished those who continued IN a
a state of celibacy, or married too
late, or married III, especially those
who married for money. Why, Rome
went so far as to punish with life
Punishment the man who kissed his
own wife in daylight, or at night in
anyones sight.
The British parliament has in the
past passed laws againts wearing
shoes over a certain length or width.
In Georgia, U. S. A, no man was
permitted to own more than fifty
acres of land, and even this he was
not allowed to sell or rent or divide
among his children. In 1910 the Use
of tobacco was Prvh,,s--A~An
the commonwealth of Mas busetts.
Men in South Dakota, Iowa, are
saying; "Give prohibition laws
a fair chance before condemning or
resubmitting." Bless me, how much
time does any n want in order to
test a law? From time immemorial
it has been tried. Georgia In her
earliest settlement had a law
prohibiting the sale of liquors.
More than this Scion punished
drunkenness with death. Pittacus,
one of the wise men OF Greece, $50
B. c., passed a law subjecting
drunkards to double punishment for
any crime committed in a state Of
i~ntoxication. Long prior to thist
even, Zalcusus, a lawgiver in
Magma Graecia, prohibited the use Of
wine except in cases where it was
prescribed as a medicine. Moses
d the drunkard punished
stoned to death. All law
all ages and nations have
as a panacea of the ills OF
ice and all have alike
1T it high time to give up
yriment? l have often
le bears in their iron cages,
/ Park, New York City,
OK and forth, back and
ldreds of times every day
ears, trying to find escape
lily the same places where
S every time met them.