The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-03-31

nothing but piece OF fashionable
cruelty. Strange that cruelty should
ever become fashionable, isn't it?"
"My brother and L have discarded
the overhead check" said another
prominent citizen, and as for the mes
sages that have come in, why, they
sound as though the crusade against
the check were about to start. One
utterance was far-reaching and
thoughtful enough TO set one think
ing, and perhaps it may reach others,
too. The writer called attention to
the fact that we are apparently at
great pains to train up generation OF
cruel men and women, of which the
overhead check is merely one of the
symptoms. Boys roam the suburbs,
on every holiday, killing or manning
whatever helpless dumb creature may
chance to come in their way, and not
the slightest effort is made to dissuade
them. Dead and wounded birds are
left in their track, and at this season
of the year many nestful Of helpless
fiedglings is left to all the agonies of
death from starvation, because
the mother-bird is killed or is
too badly injured TO bring them
food. Almost any quality is
better than cruelty. Every child
should be taught that it is disgrace
to injure or torture any dumb animal
needlessly And having impressed
dren, in its fullest extent, illustrate
it by taking off the overhead check,
and giving your horse an opportunity
to work with all his muscles free.
*x*
"Did you ever read Bob Ingersoll
on Crime Against Criminals?' asked
an Austin gentleman the other day.
"There is world of truth in it,,
though it came from Ingersoll. I'll
tell you that society has made many a
man criminal, and society keeps
them all criminals. 1t allows none of
them to escape from the dungeon OF
despair where their crime has thrust
them. Let any man who has served
out his full term at Huntsville, or who
has been pardoned before his term eX-
p1res, come among us and try to lead
an honest and upright life; and he
would have better opportunity
among the rankest heathens than sin
the heart of a Christian city, in this
most Christian land" No man will
give him empoyment-because he has
been convict. Every door that might
lead to better life is shut in his face.
| Every avenue that leads straight to
destruction is thrown wide open. So
long as he tries 10 be man society
will none of him; but let him steal to
keep body and soul together, or COM
NIT some crime that is born of sheer
desperation, and how quickly weopen
| the jail doors and thrust him in, and
make long faces and cry, THAT is the
way with these jailbird They never
come to any good Some of these
times it is going to be asked of us,
Where is thy brother?' L wonder
how it will sound for us to send back
that old reply, Am my brothers.
keeper? Verify, think we are, and
we are mistaken if we think we can
ever shirk our responsibility"
Nv
She was young wife, pretty and
blooming, so Of course it was some
thing of a surprise to find her dis
solved in tears, her eyes and nose red
and with every indication of continued
showery weather. "No," she said,
81 haven't heard any bad news, and
George and haven't quarreled. No.
its something worse than that. I've
been trying to learn to cook out of a
cook book! 1t looks so easy, but the
whole THINGS miserable fraud! Take
half pound of sugar =; how am to
know how much half a pound is, pray
tell me that? And how is one to find
out what kind of sugar, for goodness
sake? And here is another that calls
for half an ounce of butter-just as
though could tell what hal an ounce
was by looking at it! And this one
says bake three hours and doesn't
saw whether the oven is just to be a
little hot or awful, awful hot. And
when think I've found a receipt that's
nice and simple, and that's going to be
fixed up without any trouble, it says
Throw in bay leaf or something
of that kind; just as though bay leaves
grew on the rose bushes! Oh. how
my headaches, and my eyes hurt, and
can't fix thing that's fit to eat.
How | wish mamma had taught me
how to cook, instead of making fine
lady of me and slave of herselfw
And she began crying afresh, and
was not to be comforted.
4*x
l met lady, the other day, who
was busily engaged in monument
building. l do not mean that she car
ried around subscription paper, Or
that she reared a marble or granite
shaft above the dead. Nothing of the
kind. The grave of the sleeper of
whom she spoke is a very lowly one,
and it is matter of doubt whether
any stone of marble or granite will
ever stand above it, unless, it may
be, a simple slab should be
placed at The head some day.
NO, the monument this lady was
building was of a different kind.
1t was of a young girl she spoke-a
girl who, becoming Wearied in tIe