Evening star., 1898-08-17
RELEASE OF COSTA RIcAN PRISONERS.

- RELEASE OF COSTA RICAN PRISONERS.
ed up charges, some on no charges
at all. In some instances faded and
Worn women who had once been
beautiful, gaunt and ragged men
who had once been prosperous,
could scarcely realize that prison
doors which seemed forever sealed
were at last opened to them"
But if it is a glorious and noble
thing for this great country, with its
magnificent illi1nitable power, to
throw wide open the prison doors
and release the miserable creatures
so desperately ground beneath
Spain's iron heel, it is no less a great
and pressing duty of American man
hood 10 think OF the ten thousand
wives and mothers OF free America
whose lot is more pathetic and mis-
cradle than that OF these wretched
Porto Ricans.
These women OF our own country
with homes to shelter and hearts to
love them, with all the surroundings
which ought to make life pleasure
and a blessing, are vet weighed
down with an inward physical weak
ness which shuts them off from the
sunshine and happiness OF life, as
completely and hOpelessly as if they
were immured in the darkest con-
fines OF a Spanish dungeon.
Sentenced to years of continual
suffering, weariness and distaste of
living, their sense OF melancholy and
despair filing even their own cheer
full homes with prison-like gloom,
the daily round of housework grows
more and more irksome and dread
ful until it finally rests upon them
like the leaden routine of jail
A woman whose life is embittered
and poisoned by the weaknesses or
diseases peculiar to her sex cannot
but feel that this penalty which ma
ture has inflicted on her is more un-
reasonable than the despotism OF a
Spanish tyrant How startling it
seems that true woman, capable in
heart and soul of being a loving wife
and mother, should, by sheer physi-
cal incapacity, be deprived of the
crOwning happiness OF womanhood
A QUESTION FOR HUSBANDS
This is something for every hus-
band in the land to consider, and
then determine if there be not some
thing more than fine furniture and
beautiful surroundings needed, and
which he can furnish to brighten his
wife'S existence, and to make his
home, as it should be, the everything
source OF comfort and joy.
No one can give an ailing, sensi-
tive woman too much sympathy.
The best OF husbands cannot half
appreciate what she suffers. If the
doctor is called in, ten to one he will
not diagnose the case correctly. The
ordinary local practitioner has no
special knowledge OF special diseases.
He VIII probably prescribe for 'indi--
gestion' or liver complaint" or
heart trouble" and never once
reach the real fundamental trouble
lurking in the organs distinctly femi-
nine.
The woman herself may hardly
realize where the cause of the whole
difficulty lies, and if she does, the
thought of the mortifying question
ings, examinations" and 'local ap-
plications," which modest women
dread, will deter her from speaking
frankly. She knows the doctor does
not understand her case; she feels
that his medicines are giving her no
real help; vet she takes them in the
vain hope that some way, somehow,
she will be better in a little while.
But no woman ever was or ever can
be well while a hidden ailment of