Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-05-10
OUR NEW YORK LETTER..
Medicine and the Law-Dr. Flint on Ed
ucation and Crime-The GRAPHIC
phone Not a Witness.
Especial Correspondence.1

/ The ability and sincerity OF Dr. Aus
tin Flint have never been questioned,
but he has peculiar ideas sometimes,
and being an outspoken man he does
not hesitate to air them, without any
reference to the manner in which they
may be received by the community He
recently spoke before the Quill club at
the Windsor hotel on the subject of cap
ital punishment. Among other things
the eminent doctor said:
'tThe physician should never counte-
nance a judicial murder, for it is a
murder to take human life. %
The exact subject under discussion
was Disease and Crime DR.. Flint,
who is member of the executive COM
mittee of the Prison association, treat
ed the subject from a medical stand
point, and Charlton T. Lewis, president
| of the association, talked of the legal
aspect of it.
Medical Adviser and Judge.
Dr.. Flint said that law and legal acu-
men in our courts have been busy look
| ing for precedents to justify the most
| glaring offenses, and so criminal law
has not made progress. eve shall new
er have a thoroughly intelligent dag
nosis of a criminal from the BENCH he
declared, until we have seated with
the judge medical adviser, who shall
bring to bear his wisdom and methods
upon the case.
This was all right, for while every
one does not agree with the doctor in
these views there is unquestionably a
very large section of the community
which is in thorough sympathy with
him. But when he enunciated the the
DRY that the prevention of crime, or at
any rate its decrease, could be accom-
plished by Withholding from children
of the poor an education in the higher
branches he started a hornets nest
which is apt to cause a very lively buzz
ing in his ears for a long time to come.
His idea is that if these youngsters are
well educated they will have ambitions
inculcated which are unlikely of attain
ment, and that they are likely eventu-
ally to drift into crime as means of
gratifying the tastes for luxury which
their natural abilities are unable to pro-
vide.
The Great Of Humble Origin.
One we'll known student Of the sub
ject delivered himself very forcibly on
the matter. He said: eff DR.. Flint be
correct, then the whole theory of our
public schools is wrong. Even the gen.
Jus of our republican form Of govern
ment is inherently incorrect. AS have
understood it. the desire is that each
generation should on the average be su-
perior mentally to its predecessor. This
can only be accomplished through the
medium OF education. That is the diff
ference between civilization and barba-
rism. Ii We were satisfied to stand still,
DR.. Flint's theory would be all right,
but it is history that we are a race of go
ahead people. Furthermore, some of the
greatest Denefactors of the human race
have sprung from humble sources.
Where, under DR.. Flint's plan, would
have been Andrew Jackson, Abraham
Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Andrew
Johnson, Thomas A. Edison, George
Westinghouse and host of others who
might easily be mentioned? No, DR..
Flint is simply airing one of his pet
hobbies, which is as wrong as anything
that could be imagined, as he will soon
find out when the people of New York
have had the opportunity to make them
selves heard. -
The Graphophone Not Witness.
The graphophone has been held to be !
not a competent witness-at least not !
in Justice Truax's court. An attempt to |
introduce it was summarily squelched by |
the justice in special term of the su-
preme court recently. The case on trial |
when the ruling was made was that of |
Sauer against the New York Central |
railroad.
Mr.. Sauer is q member of the Park |
Avenue Property Owners association,
which comprises 80 per cent of the own
ers of property on that avenue between
One Hundred and Sixteenth street and
the Harlem river. His suit is a test case
involving about 60 more suits. He
claims damages from the railroad COM
pany on the allegation that his proper
ty has deprecated in value by reason of
the construction Of elevated tracks from
One Hundred and Sixteenth street to
Harlem river, which shut out light and
air and produce an unbearable noise.
Unknown to the officials of the COM
pany the property owners of Park ave-
nue. had a number of graphophone re-
ceivers erected at various points along
upper Park avenue. The receivers were
planted at the One Hundred and Twen-
ty-fifth street station upon the avenue
and in the houses owned by the associa-
ton.
Ordered Out of Court.
Before the case was called the graph
ophones were tested in the offices of |
James G. Busbey, counsel for Mr.. Sau-
er, and were found to give very faith
full reproduction of the noises made by
the trains.
The graphophone apparatus was fit
ted with a megaphone or wide mouthed
trumpet, and the noise it made was