Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-14

the stiffness of the night hear sounds which
would fall upon supersdtious people in q
manner to cause the immediate surrender
of their positions. Many prisoners talk In
their sleep->others groan. and still others
leave their cots and walk the floor.
when a man comes to the prison for the
first time" jail guard remarked to a Star
reporter, 1T takes him several nights to
get accustomed to his new surroundings.
During these nights he sleeps but little.
and either losses about on his cot or walks
the floor and has inquiries of every descrip-
ton to make. He Is willing to do anything
that will give him company and permit HIM
to forget his new conditions.
I'm cases of murderers. most OF them
come without any previous prison record.
and the strain on them is greater than 1t
is on most of the others. While many such
prisoners manage to get acquitted. and
some of them feel certain from the time OF
their arrest that they are going to be freed,
there are others who always imagine they
can see the moose dangling in front of them.
''Murderers have frequent dreams, and
are sometimes visibly affected by them.
dream few days before his execution
from which he obtained some satisfaction.
In his dream he was pictured as marching
from his cell to the scaffold. and just as
the trap was about to be sprung message
from the President reached the prison. The
message was in the nature OF a reprieve,
and up TO the last Funk was fully con-
WINGED that he would be saved from the
gallows. So certain was he that he would
not die on the scaffod that he made a bet
of a cigar the day before his execution that
he would not be executed. Just before he
left his cell for the last time he handed q
Cigar to friend to pay the bet in the event
OF his losing. The cigar was kept until only
a al pyq a no
r
A few days ago an Austrian attorney Wis
iting this country went to the United States
Supreme Court and keeping in mind the
custom of his own land wore q dress suit
The presence of an attorney in the court
room and about the Capitol in a dress suit
attracted considerable attention, especially
from the younger generation.
Only the older members of the bar re-
called that as recently as twenty years ago
It was customary for many attorneys prac-
tfc!ng before the United States Supreme
Court to appear In the court room attired
IN dress suit. In the old days 1t was a
universal custom for attorneys to go to the
court in dress suit The custom became
less and less general. until about 1885 the
last dress suit was seen there, except as
occasionally happens when some one not
familiar with the practice so attires him.
self.
II have often heard people say that IL the
slaves of tobacco could not see smoke aris-
Ing from pipe or cigar the use of the weed
would soon disappear" said a prominent
musician of this city to Star reporter to-
day I'm fact, for a long time / believed
that the pleasure of tobacco was largely
confined to watching the spiraIs of smoke
that l as well as almost every other smoker
ike to send up In the air. But when be-
came acquainted with Prof. Bischor. the
talented blind musician of this city. I
Bischofr smoke? No? Well, lust watch
MIN IL you ever get chance He can't sea
the smoke. but how he does enjoy the fumes
OF nne cigar. No. sir. the pleasure of to-
sight
Canvassing, as Is we'll known, Is strictly
prohibited in all the executive departments
but now and then some particularly merf-
torious charity presents Itself SO strongly
to the argus-eyed watchmen who are
charged with the duty Of keeping out the
supplicants that they become kindly and
momentarily blind to what is going on in
the way OF canvassing. Thus 1t happened
that recently two charming young ladies'
appeared in the War Department endeav-
oring to sell tickets for an entertainment
half the proceeds of which were to 20 to
CHARITY. They were not molested: but AZ
turned out that these young ladies' were ex-
perts or high order. and this Is one of
the means they used to swell their receipts
Having secured an order for tickets from
a middle-aged but gallant bureau chief at
cost or 81 and the money paid over the
leading spirit OF the pair suddenly d:scoy-
cred that she was overburdened with
change and asked the officer to accommo-
date her by giving his check for 500. ac-
cepting in return two 81 tickets and SIS In
change. So far the transaction was per-
fectly regular and honest. But the young
ladies Immediately carried that check to
the next bureau chief, and, giving him to
understand that 1t was the amount of his
brother officers contribution, succeeded in
Inducing him to give a check for the same
amount. This process was repeated sew
eral times, how many could not be learned
because the victims are reluctant to confess
how they were taken in; but the watchmen
now have stringent orders to admit no
more canvassers, no matter how worthy or
beautiful.
Great inventors do not always make q
success of their first efforts to benefit the
world. Although Thomas A. Edison is now
recognized as the foremost genius of his
age his beginning was marked by mis-
fortune. His first labor-saving device cost
him situation upon which he depended
for his daily bread" said a local scientist
the other day
This invention. forgotten by all save a