davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
La correspondencia de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 1890-1943, 1897-08-07
BB11orRcA DE Ella CoanEspoNDENc1A PUERTO Rico,

BIBIIOTECA CORRESPONDENCE o-RICo, 73
drente de los amigos que veas Es hemosa
la fortuna! Entonces debfa sucede ucedo Tu
dejaste arrastrar.... T1 10 has sentido tai vez.
-iOh ST!
va era tarde =, Ell NAL estaba hecho. %. hizo
mayor an. Gulermo JUAN exasperados la dueza de la
condesa de la madre sorprend1eon al hJo.. Iu sa
bes e resto
retro suavdad las del ancano
cubri6 con elias la cara, sollozando balbuceo:
-iSf verdad es verdad!... Pero 10 sabeis todo
Ell anciano djo senciamente
muy bao 81 hubiea teido al pudor de la
joven, anad6: 49,
tie repito, 10 que debia suceder, suced6!. lEso
tiene desaentada! ST tuvieses al
sera precise hacero lie iPor que los ha
fado todo?
-Oh! amigo milo!
ST. soy AMIGO amigo de que piensas. Soy
amigo madre de todos los Lo de tn
PADRE un hemano Pedro, darfa
sang feices toos Los Montaron
enen buen coraz6n Guilermo odos los demas
para su ouerida hermanos. Yo quero todos
peo tt quero, Teresa sobre odo estos
mentos.
~-,Por que?
-iPorque eres la mas desgraciada!
- iCuan cierto ESQ!
Entonces la joven abrio sn corazon al anciano.
LIE confes6 todos secretos
Ahora que habia decarado gnoraba
de ella eroz placer
contarseo Roando Cobiere, lie
pas6n de ella siempre u
ramentos
del captain del pecho donde las guarda
ba tesoro, las did al anciano, diclendoe:
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18
KEEP YOUR LIBERTY.

In EDITING this paper it is not
our intention to pose as an immac-
ulate moralist. We have been a
foo, land you may use the strongest
adjective in classic or profane Eng
fish to qualify the ''foof' and yet
be conservative. But always bear
in mind that we have been on both
sides of the fence and to a great
extent can deal with matters from
hard experience. We have trod-
den the smooth asphalt of freedom
and basked in the sun of prosper
ity. We have also hoofed it DER
the thorny brambles and cactus
paved road to crime and imprison-
ment. To make assurance doubly
sure we turned around on our
thorny path again to verify our
previous experience of a heart
ranking with the pain of self-im-
posed infamy. So we feel that we
can give you both sides Of the case
and you may do your own moraliz-
ing if ours is not suitable.
If you want to find out the value
Of health go to the sick man who
once enjoyed it but is now racked
with bodily disease. If you sleep
comfortably yourself you cannot
give clear evidence of the need of
peaceful slumber. But 90 to him
whose brain is dazed from insom-
mia, he knows the true worth of
this great invigorator. So it is
with us. You who know not the
protracted loss Of liberty have no
true conception Of the luxury you
enjoy as freemen; having never
been deprived of it you know not
it's full worth. We who have been
there hope that our experience as
given in this paper may cause you
to think very seriously should the
bright glitter Of gold tempt you to
jeopardize your liberty. If we can
do this it may give us few entries
on the credit side of our account
later on when we must all stand
trial.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

with cigarette fumes and the aroma
Of sour stogies, could hardly keep
an angel from becoming defiled.
These youthful rendezvoux are
the criminal kindergartens of the
world. In them the criminal
career is acquired, is nourished
and finally made to blossom into
the CHASTITY tales of rapine and
murder dished up in our metro
politan papers for ante breakfast
delectation.
You say the saloon is the great
cause of crime: very true indeed.
We say that these vile pest holes
are the training schools for saloons
and but short course in them is
needed to acquire proficiency. If
you want to do away with crime
then do away with these moral
paralyzing hot beds, these criminal
kindergartens that form the origi-
nal "leak." If you do away with
these, you do away with crime to a
considerable extent. Then the
natural law Of supply and demand
will attend to the saloon as a
factor in crime.
Let there be iron-bound laws
enacted dealing with the youths
who visit such places and also with
the proprietors who encourage
youths in petty gaming mid such
surroundings. No ornamental
statute will be effective-make a
law that can and must be enforced
if you would preserve the youthful
mind and body from pollution.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18
CRIMINAL KINDERGARTE

DID you ever try to stop a leak
in roof by hopping up the water
as it fell on the floor? If you did
you certainly found it a very ex-
hausting job. That is just what is
being done, to certain extent, in
criminal lines today. Anything
that is worth doing at all is worth
doing well; and the best way is
generally the easiest and most eff
fective.
In every city Of any size there
are large number of criminal
"leaks' the results of which
are, by law, being continually
cleaned; but the leaks proper, the
cause Of all the trouble, are left Sc
verely alone as the law seems I'M
able to cope with them.
You ask where are those leaks?
Ihey are as easily found as the
post-ofice in any city. Every
small tobacco and candy store
where youths are allowed to shake
dice for cigarettes and other con-
comitants Of the embryo sport is
one of those leaks, like unto a
richly fertilized hot bed wherein
the impressionable minds Of tender
youths are poisoned by the
thoughts of getting something for
nothing in the HARMLESS game of
chance known as poker dice. Oh,
yes, it is very harmless, dear store
keeper Why the reading of the
bible mid the surroundings of
your "Lariat Jim The Terror of
the Plains" literature, blended
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

THEY say money talks. We wish
it could write. What interesting
tales it might unfold of psychology
ical wonders wrought by it's magic
eloquence. How oft, when cuddled
up in a prosecuting attorneys
pocket it's mute appeals warmed
his heart toward some innocent,
misled son Of social lion who
only ''borrowed'' a few thousand
dollars from a trusting employer
and not having pen and paper
handy at the time absolutely for
got about leaving his note or ac-
acknowledgement. And again, tickle
thing that it is, how many times it
has chilled the effect of the fervid
grandiloquence of the same attor-
ney when it nestled in the inside
pocket Of the fright witness. Oh,
yes: money would make a financial
success of a literary vocation if it
would only learn to write as fuently
as it ''talks."
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18
CAPITAL AND WHISKY.

The greatest adjunct to the
financial serenity of the bloated
capitalist and manufacturer is
whisky. It enables them to cut
wages to the lowest possible fig
ure; it is continually a bludgeon
in thsir hands by which they may
compel honest toilers to come to a
whisky based schedule of wages.
Whisky makes cheap men and
cheap men must work for what
they are offered, and not what their
labor is worth commercially. The
whisky fend cannot save enough
to tide him over a week of idleness.
No matter how good workman he
may be, or what his conception of
the wage-worker's rights, whisky
will dethrone his lofty ideal and
make of him what is known in
labor circles as a scab. He must
become one, he is not his own
master as he thinks; sour-mash is
his boss and must have it's way.
What does it matter if his wife
and children go to bed hungry
they have a bed to go to-his
never-appeased appetite must be
kept continually saturated at the
rate of ten cents a saturate. And
what a loud-mouthed talker this
swill-filled object can be at labor
meetings; how he will berate trusts
and the oppression Of millionaire
employers. He is like unto a man
beating himself with a stick and
then blaming the stick for the pain
caused. If he would save even
one-half the money he invests in
whisky yearly it would not be long
before he could afford to be par
tally Independent Of "oppressive''
employers.
Manufacturers do not want
drunkards in their employ if they
can get others. But they can al
ways depend on harrassing their
more sensible employees when they
want to cut wages. with the fact
that they can get all the help
needed at such and such a price.
These employers know that they
can always fall back on the whisky
made scab as the latter gents
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

cannot afford to be out of whisky
and must work for any price in
order to keep their pampered
bourbon-gut in good humor
Protective tariffs, populism, free
trade, and free coinage may have
their various advantages and dis
advantages, but not one or all of
them no matter how well regulated
can ever bridge the chasm that
whisky is making by enriching the
employer and impoverishing the
employee. Every rag on the
drunkard's son means an extra
diamond for the rich man s
daughter.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

How WE admire that dear Min
neapolis alderman who received the
envelope containing $500 and i'm
mediately bethought him of his
youth when mama used to say:
''Good little boys should never
ask any questions about where
Santa Claus gets his presents or
why he gives them It is real
mean that those nasty lawyers will
persist in prosecuting an alderman
because he remembers the lessons
acquired in childhood. But then
some people are so heartless as to
even forget that the devil was
noted for his industry and honesty
before he led that little anarchical
movement in heaven.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

The Missouri Legislature lately
enacted law requiring all death
sentences to be expiated in the
the state prison at Jefferson City.
Gov. Stephens in vetoing it very
sensibly says:
[ oppose this bill if for no other
reason because every prison Off
cial from whom [ have heard or
with whom [ have talked opposes
it. Officers and contractors agree
that it would be extremely difficult
if this bill becomes law to main
tain any degree Of discipline at
the prison.
1t has been plainly shown in
New York, where such law is in
force, that the effect on the other
prisoners is demoralizing. If such
a law had the effect of awning the
other prisoners into a greater re-
spect for the majesty Of the law
there might be some excuse for
making a state slaughter-house in
one particular city. Instead it can
only be compared to Haunting a
bloody cloth before an already en-
ragged bull.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18
ARE WE BORN THIEVES

ANY one who takes sufficient in
terest in the strange vagaries of
life to pay attention to criminal
matters must come to one of two
conclusions, to wit: Crime must
to great extent be hereditary; or
we must all be born criminals and
acquire probity by patient educa-
ton.
Many of our best informed pc
nologists, men who have given
time and their best thought to the
matter are ardent supporters of the
first theory. That their ideas are
we'll fortified by facts in everyday
life is obvious to the observant
reader. Kleptomania and other I'M
accountable crimes with less eupho-
NOUS titles are continually brought
to our notice from various parts of
the world. 1t is certainly passing
strange that a kleptomaniac is
never discovered among the poorer
classes Of people-they are plain
unadorned thiefs; but this will
some day be shown to be the fault
of our courts, not Of the theory of
heredity.
In the largest city of Illinois is
seen the strange spectacle of the re-
tail merchants combining together
to petition Congress for the
enactment of law to overcome the
immense amount of fashionable
smuggling that is undermining
their business and making it I'M
profitable This smuggling is be-
ing carried on, not by the poorer
or middle classes of people, but by
the very ones who can easily afford
to pay the American price for
articles they need, by the wives
and daughters Of millionaires. the
cream of blue blooded, aristocratic
social lights whom we should look
upon as patterns Of morality and
honesty. Can the few dollars
saved by such people be sufficient
incentive to them to cast morality
to the winds and bare-facedly COM
NIT acts they know to be criminal,
punishable by the laws of the land
as we'll as being amenable to a
higher law?
If the paltry saving they make
by such acts is not the inducement
then the microbes Of inherent
crime must be active within. IF
crime is admitted to be inherent
in this class why is it not similarly
so with the common thief of COM
MERGE we meet every day.
If crime is not to some consid-
cradle extent inherited then we are
all natural born thieves and can only
reach the true status of the
morally honest man by patiently
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

If YOUR boy is brought up to
consider truth as the virtue of all
virtues there will never be any
danger of his becoming an inmate
of Jail or prison. A truthful man
cannot be dishonest. Falsehood is
the main capital of the expert
crook, and the mainstay of the Or
binary criminal when brought to
bay.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

The gold cure is the great
panacea for a wilted pocketbook
providing it is acquired without
resorting to methods similar to the
polite tactics of the modern high
wayman. That process of taking
the cure is costlier than the Shy
lockian style of banking.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

MANS faithful friend the horse
is daily losing prestige to his rival
the bicycle. The noble animal has
the consolation, however, to know
that it will be long time before
the bicycle will make as good a
grade of canned corn beef as does
he when age o'ertakes him.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18
THE MIRROR is weekly paper published

THE MIRROR is weekly paper published
In the Minnesota State Prison. 1t was founded
In 1887 by the prisoners and is edited and man
aged by them. Its objects are to be a home
newspaper; to encourage moral and intellectual
improvement among the prisoners; to acquaint
the public with the true STATUS of the prisoner;
to disseminate pathological information and to aid
in dispelling that prejudice which has ever been
the bar sinister to fallen mans self-redemptiOn.
The paper is entirely dependent on the public for
its financial support. If at any time there should
accrue a surplus of funds, the money would be
expended in the interests of the prison library.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

acquiring that stage through proper
education. We trust that crime is
hereditary as it would be rather
rough on us to believe that all are
natural born thieves. Either one
of these theories must be true if
the careful analysis of crime has
any value.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18
N 0 TIC E..

THOSE receiving copies of THE MIR
ROR who are not subscribers will
please consider them as sample cop
les. If, after reading them, you should
conclude that The MIRROR is
worthy of your patronage, send one
dollar to this office and we will enter
your name on our books for a
years subscription.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

IF WE found as much pleasure
in looking up our own faults as we
do in recounting the misfortunes
of others a great slump in the bus
mess Of criminal courts would soon
be noticeable.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

WHEN you see a boy of tender
years trotting along with can to
the nearest saloon follow him back
to his home and you will find pa
ably discussing the divine rights
of labor and the iniquity of capital.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

LAZINEss is the fertilizer of
crime. The mind of a man hon
estly busy has not the time to
dwell on how to get something for
nothing.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

Should TIE MIRROR fail to reach a subscriber
each week, notice should be sent to this office.
and the matter will be attended to at once.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

This paper will be forwarded to subscribers
until ordered discontinued and all arrears are
paid.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18
Or is issued every Thursday at the

THE MIRROR is issued every Thursday at the
following rates:
One Year $1.O0
Six Months 80
Three Months rs
To inmates of penal institutions, so cts per year.
Address all communications,
Editor, PRISON MIRROR.
Saltwater. MINI.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

Entered at the POst-Office at saltwater, Mimi,
as SecOnd-claSS mail matter.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

Contributions solicited from any and all sour
ces. Rejected manuscript will not be returned.
The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-03-18

Edited and Published by the Inmates
of the Minnesota State Prison.
The times., 1897-10-29
THE RETIRED BURGLAR.
And His Impromptu Toboggan
Slide.
(From the New York SUM-


(From the New York SUM-
Al never actually slid down toboggan
slide,' said the retired bur glar, but think
l can form a pretty fair idea of what us
like from an experience that l once had.
l was poking around to a house that
was in and / had just come out Of room
on the second floor where there was
man asleep that struck me somehow as
being pretty restless, and hadn't more n
got through the door into the hall when
heard this man holier
Here he is JIIai' and saw him jump
out of bed and come b'ilin after me, and
at the same minute l saw man come
rippin' and rampn out OF a door down
by the other end of the hall.
Now the thing that I'd ha' done under
ordinary circumstances, of course, would
have been to run downstairs, but the door
that Jim was coming out OF was right by
the head OF the stairs, and it wasn't posi-
BILE. But right back OF me there was an
attic stairs, 1 knew, because I'd opened
the door when | first came up, and the
only way out for me was that way. 1t
wasn't a way ia ha' picked out, but it
was a narrow stairs, boarded on the
sides, and l knew that If 1 could once
get into il and faced to the front l could
stand off both men easy enough, Till 1
had time to think, anyway, unless they had
gun, with my Jimmy. So l opened the
door and jumped up the stairs about four
steps and slowed around to face 'em.
Il was carrying my bag by a strap
over my shoulder, and 1 had my lamp
in my left hand. 1 turned my lamp up
for just fraction of second when
went in, to see what was above, and "a w
almost overhead the scuttle in the roof
and the ladder leading to it from the
garret floor, right at the head of the
attic stairs. The scuttle was held only
by hook, hooking into a staple. 1 could
see that easy. A man can see a heap
under some circumstances
~ made swing or two at the boys with
| the jimmy and stood 'em off cas- at first.
because il sounded very soggy when slug
| gcd into the side of the stairs, but l knew
| they'd rush in pretty quick, and l give EN-
! just one more vicious PASS with the iron
| and then turned and bolted for the scut-
tie, with them after me. d dropped lamp
| AMI Jimmy in my bag, and | used both
| hands on the scuttle ladder. Darker n
| Egypt now, but knew where that hook
| vas Just as well as tnuugn there been II
! electric tight alongside of it.
| - threw back the hook and threw tn,
! scuttle up bang over onto the roof anu
caught the frame and raised myself up
| 1t was an oId-fashoned house, you've seen
| 'em, two stories high iii front ana one in
| the back, with long, soping roof running
down from the rid%epole, with sort oi
bend or valley III it about two-thirds the
| way dGwn, W here theone story part began.
AS / looked out on 1T, the roof looked
| to be about mile long and steep as the
side of mountain. There was a fag
end of a moon just-Fising- l could see
it from where 1 was through the tops
of the trees, and it made little light
but it would have been all the same il
there hadn't been any | stepueo ont
and sat down on the roof and stated
| all in one motion. The foremost of the
The times., 1897-10-29
TRIED TO MOB MEYER.
Policemen Had II Hard Job to KeeI
the Crowd Back.

Policemen Had II Hard job to Keep
the Crowd Back.
New York, Oct. %. An infuriated crowd
Of about ZOO persons gathered in front
OF the East Fifth street police station this
morning when Fritz Meyer, the murderer
of Policeman Frederick Smith, was brought
out to he taken to the coroner 'Soffice AS
soon as the crowd caught sight of the man
they shouted: Lynch him! Lynch him.
Never was guarded by number of police
men.
In spite of the presence of the officers,
the crowd bore down on Meyers, and
many in the foremost line made move
as if to seize him. The police drew their
hilles. anG, swinging them right and left,
kept the crowd at bay. Meyer, in the
center OF the bluecoats, trembled like q
leaf and his face evidenced his terror
When Third avenue was reached Tue po
lIcemep hustled the murderer into a cable
car.
No further trouble was experienced in
getting Meyer to the cnminai court bnild
ing. where he was to be arraigned before
Coroner Hober.
Meyer has refused to eat since his ar
rest, and the police think he is trying to
commit suicide by starvation. 1t is the in
tention OF the authorities to give Never
a speedy trial so that the brutal murderer
will soon get his due.
The times., 1897-10-29

two men reached for me out through the
scuttle, and missed me by about hair,
but that was good as a mile, because /
was going then a mile minute. Where
to, didn't know, bda l knew l wouldn't
have long to wait.
coop and away l went down the roof
and Off tle edge into the air. That lower
part OF the roof, you rem ember, Was flat
ter than the upper part and that threw me
off into the air kind o horizontal, and that
saved me a heap. I'd ha' been smashed
flat I the roof had been steep and straight.
and right back Of the house there was a
terrace across the yard, maybe three feet
high, with thick grass on it that hadn't
been cut for month at least, and l was
shot off SC far that L dropped finally just
below the crest of that terrace and slid
down the face Of it on thick grass and camc
to a stop on the level ground below and
never started a rivet.
1.-The TWO men We're standing looking
out the scuttle, and never saying boo, but
when they sew me get up and walk off
they laughed till you could hear 'em all
over the country: and l laughed little
myself then; I'd had4worse things happen
to me-"
The times., 1897-10-29
THE RIFLE WAS LOADED.
Was Accidentally Discharged and
the Bali Entered Trimblc's Leg.

the Ball Entered TFimble'S Leg.
Mr.. Matt Trimble, jr., son Of Assessor
Trmble, was yesterday the victim OF
another instance where it was not known
that the gun was loaded. His injuries con-
sist of a rifle shot wound in his right
leg, which is painful, but not serious.
Mr. Trimhle had been hunting wild
turkeys in the Blue Ridge. Yesterday he
cane home from Winchester and when f:e
drove his carriage into McCauey's old
livery stable, on Fourteenth street, Fore
man Tate, w no has charge OF the place,
came out to greet him, and asked for the
turkey which young Trimble had prom
ised 10 bring him. He had III his nand at
tia. ti!ae d small rifle. which is kept at the
stable, and W hich Mr. Trimble had loaded
sonla time before. Tate did not know this
AS the two men stood talking about
the hunting expedition the muzzle Of the
gun las pointed downward. In some man
ner, Mr. Tate's hand accidentally touched
the trigger. The ball entered the calf Of
Mr. Trimblc's right leg, and, taking
downward course, lodged in one OF the
muscles of his heel.
He was removed to the Emergency Hos
pital, where the bullet was probed for but
il could not be located. Later in the
afternoon the injured man submitted to an
x-ray operation at the hospital, and two
excellent photographs of the bullet were
taken and its location easily discovered.
After the operation he was removed to
the home of his father, No. 1920 Rhode
Island avenue, and, though he will not be
able to walk for some time, the injury is
not regarded as SeriOuS,