Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-09-23
REFORMING BY LAW.
Some Things That the overworked
LEGISLATOR Cannot Stop.

OF all lands on the face Of the
earth, the United States is notorious
for chronically trying to reform
everything by law.
Big laws, little laws, good laws and
bad laws, grave laws and comic laws
needed laws and needless laws-laws
here. there and everywhere, with
about one to two per cent enacted OF
those proposed. and perhaps one
third of those enacted hardly ever
enforced.
It was declared once in Washington
that there was a prize awaiting the
congressman who would discover
something really new to land a law
on, and it is common knowledge III
Washington that every new congress
man. prize or no prize. tries to achieve
that doubtful distinction.
Other governments have the habit,
too: but seldom as badly as ours. The
result has been that civilization has to
pick it's tortured way through
maze of intricate permissions ana
prohibitions, with Germany haughtlly
content that everything worth dong
is "verboten" and the United States
desperately trying to break the
record.
Yet the multiplicity of laws hasn't
succeeded in clapping the lid on GER
tain faults, follies, improprieties and
sins to which humanity seems IN
curably addicted.
There never has been a law that
was able to eradicate a single diva
CATION of fashion which the ladies'
heaven bless 'em-chOse to follow.
The criminally indecent styles OF the
directory in France vanished OF their
own eXceSses; the enormity or the
hoopskirt perished in the same natur-
al way; and all the town councils In
the land haven't been able to force
women to limit the rapier length OF
their dangerous hatpins.
Every congress and parliament has
tried its hand at making rules and
regulations for it's own government,
with stern intent Of killing off fool
speeches before the superheated ora
tors should be fairly on the way to
permanent incandescence; but never
a week passes without some defiant
blatherskite achieving a successful
breach of the time limit. and often
the limits of human forbearance.
Personal habits offensive to the
mass of any given population nave
been gradually restricted in their in
dulgence, but more through the eX-
ercise of public opinion than through
the influence of the drastic laws
which public opinion has called into
being.
The generation just passing has
witnessed not only marked limitation
Of that peculiarly American habit, to-
bacco chewing. but a practically COM
plete determination in all large cities
of the once common practice of eX-
pectoration in the streets. Yet the
once doughty resolve Of all local
transportation companies to abolish
smoking throughout the length OF
their respective domains has been so
reSOlutely fought by men in general
that, in scores of cities and towns.
they have won their right to section
exclusively reserved to their goddess
Nicotine.
But no lawmaker has yet dared to
raise his voice against the crime OF
eating onions and then mingling with
the madding throng. making it mad
der than ever. Calcutta, however,
through the mere influence of public
opinon-mainly British-has its
promenade of white residents reserV-
ed against all malOdorous cigars
and good ones. too, for that matter.
At American SeaShOre resorts re-
peated efforts have been made to pre-
vent spooning. In and out OF pubic
view. Every year or so the greatest
of them suffers virtuous spasm that
wellnigh leaves the poor girls lover
less. A few days, and then. from out
of the storm of protests and accusa-
tons that lie like a bitter-tasting haze
over the moonlit benches, the groups
begin to reappear. the same young
arms around the same young waists
the same warm lips taking toll of the
Experienced ones who may object
to this careless. if eloquent use or
"the same" need only be reminded
that, however the individual waists
and mouths may change night after
night at the seashore. the impression
and the flavor don't vary muchO
Through all the ages the law has
been trying to find some way to pre-
vent the prodigal from making ducks
and brakes Of his fortune. But he
does it still, and the nearest we have
come to stopping him has been to
jam him into a lunatic asylum and de-
clare him crazy. But the courts are
mighty slow about even dong
that Observation-Disclosures North
American.