Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1905-01-04
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent

lnof0 mas De0n considerable ag1ta-
ton of the ques ton Of corporal
punishment for wife heaters in the
district of Columbia. as recon-
mended by the president in his late
message. The judges of the police
court. the chief of police, and the
of clergymen yet heard from
are strongly in favor of the whipping
post for this crime. One clergyman,
however, opposes it and gives as a
reason that he once saw a man whipped
aud was greatly shocked at the spect-
acle. Another clergyman objects to
the whipping post because as he says,
lynching does not prevent crime. A
third clergyman on the ground that
whipping is brutalizing. There is
much loose usage of this word brutal
izlng involving discourtesy to the kind
brutes and it is evidently unfair to
animals to Intimate that a drunken
wife beating fend can be made more
like them by fogging him for his
crimes. We live in sentimental age.
Criminals are sent to second class
hotels where they are forcibly enter
tanned at government expense in great
er luxury than many of them have
known at home aud there are not
wanting instances of men committing
offenses for the express object Of such
Thus modern punt
tive law acts in some instances as
reward for crime Moreover many
hysterical and prurient women make
heroes Of criminals, write letters to
them, send them flowers and visit
them. All Of this would be cut off in the
short shrift between a sentence and the
whipping post. But the great efficacy
Of the whipping post is in the terror it
inspires. Let it once be set up and
there will be remarkable thinning out
Of the prison dock and many vacant
rooms in the public hotel and the
occasional offender who deserves and
receives punishment will leave the
country instead of being arrested again
as is now the case, for tbs same Of
tense.
The presidents message also con-
tanned some pertinent suggestions
with reference to the improvement of
the capital city OF the United States
Every American has, or should have
a personal interest and pride in the
Improvement of Washington 1t is
common to write Of this city as the
most beautiful in the world. This is
exaggeration. 1t has been improved
with considerable success in the past
40 years and it has in it's streets, parks
and environments the possibilities Of
magnificent city. But the presidents
message was particularly directed
against what may be called the slums
of Washington, more particularly
the negro quarters. During the Civil
War thousands OF negroes fed from
and Virginia and taken care
of in Washington. 1t mas since been a
kind of Mecca for the coiored race.
The city is very charitable to its poor
and thousands of colored people live
here with no other expectation than
they will be taken care of whether they
work or not. They live mostly in alleys
Their homes or novels are filthy and
are centers of disease and crime. 1t
is possible that congress will endeavor
to enact legislation, the object of which
will be to clean out these slums
Washington while it is really cosmo-
politan city has some of the worst
characteristics of southern town.
The unthrifty colored people who
flock here by the thousands and to
whom all real work is repugnant, seek
to make livelihood as teamsters and
huxters. Many of them buy for five
dollars or less broken down horse or
mule get ramshakle wagon and patch
up with wires SCI of harness, with
tEis outfit they solicit work in the re-
moval of ashes, light drayage etc. It
is common spectacle IN Washington
to see three or four negroes perched