The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-10-01

tiers involving the railroads. They are
not capable of doing that when their
pockets are full of railroad passes.
Bishop Potter on Flogeing Criminals.
In an interview with the New York
Sun the other day, touching upon the
corporal punishment of convicts at the
state reformatOry at Elmira, Bishop
Henry c. Potter of the diocese of New
York said: 81 regard this cry against
the inAiction of corporal punishment IN
the reformatory as a symptom of the
emasculated spirit of the times There
are certain criminals who can only be
made to realize through their hides the
fact that the state has laws to which the
individual must be obedient"
Such an expression. coming from such
a source, will strike readers as out of the
ordinary. The modern church is, or
should be- the leader of modern sociology
cal thought. There was a time when the
church tortured "unbelievers -" and there
was time when the civil authorities
would draw and quarter a malefactor.
But those times, happily, have passed
forever. The trend of modern thought
is toward the reformation of
wicked persons, and toward teaching
them respect for the law through their
minds, not through their hides Even in
the treatment of criminals condemned for
capital crimes, the laws provide that
their shall be no cruelty. 1t would seem,
therefore, that a great churchman, the
chief dignitary of the Episcopal
diocese of New York, would be slow to
defend the infection of bodily pain as a
punishment for infractions of the law.
Still, there are the incorrigi6le criminals
who have to be dealt with. Supt Brock
way, of the Elmira reformatory, says the
only way to manage persons of that class
is TO make them feel the force of the law
upon their backs. And it seems that
bishop Potter agrees with him.
The standing of Ii Hung Chang in Chi
nese affairs is in almost as much doubt as
the position of the Republican party on
the tariff. Gable dispatches have re-
Gently reported Ii in all sorts of posi-
tions. One had it that he had commit
ted suicide another that he had been de-
graded and retired from control: another
that he was contemplating raising revo-
luton TO the end of securing the Chinese
throne for himself; another that the en-
peror had ordered his head chopped off,
and now comes another to the effect that
old Ii, Notwithstanding his 7O-odd years
will take the field in active command of
his countrys troops. The aged viceroy
is known 10 be a man Of ability and YER
satility, nevertheless all of these reports
about him cannot possibly be true.
It has long been Gov. Tillman's idea To
make south Carolina a state of small
counties. He got his inspiration from
Georgia. The last legislature of South
Carolina passed law requiring that pros.
pectuses of new county schemes be fled
with the secretary Of state at least
thirty days before the meeting of the
general assembly. Already the rush of
new county schemes has begun. 1t is al
legged that a large percentage of the
Tillmanite politicians who have not vet
been able to secure an ofice are spending
their time these days with map and lead
pencil figuring out new counties wher-
ever new division containing the CON
stitutional limit Of G25 square miles can be
sliced OF
In the Florida election tomorrow four