The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1910-08-20

when he was heset by an overwhelm-
| ing weakness committed forgery and
| Is now undergoing imprisonment in the
penitentiary at Jefferson CITY. No.
A movement has Just been set on foot
| looking 20 his pardon for the reason
that during the lonely hours Of his in
| generation he has wrought out a prob
lem that has puzzled the mathematical
scholars for years.
The prisoner asks for commission
| of tLree experts to examine his demon
stration ''of the equation of the tenth
degree which he proposes to reduce TO
| the degree of minus l. -
1t is well known to the reader that
| mathematicians thus far have been I'M
able to solve literal equations above
the fourth degree, claiming the feat to
be impossible. Indeed, there are men
who have never gone beyond the third.
And [ know one man in Los Angeles
who has to use key when he tackles
problem in the first degree
Moreover, Professor McGinns has
discovered the 'plus,' and the exact
root Of all numbers. This puts Doctor
Cook III the "also ran" class as a dis
coverer.
Seriously, one has all sympathy with
an educated man shut up in a prison
| among the ignorant and the vicious.
And man who can discover ''plus''
70 10 LOT Of L.,
ton, before the votes are counted at
the elections III November There are
candidates who would be willing to pay
large rewards for the discovery of
''plus'> no larger than man S hand
amidst the debris of the returns IN
which minus appears to have bound
ing majority. The candidate who about
? clock a. m. sits down beside wan
despair and adds up long and longer
! columns of figures with less results ev-
cry time he adds them, would make
| the man who could find the concealed
and evasive plus a malefactor of
great wealth. 1t seems pity that the
| only philanthropist who could thus
! benefit the neediest man in the run
| ing should be shut up in jail, where
| even the unfortunate scattering' can
not get at him.
| But we must call halt on this move
ment to liberate all the geniuses now
wasting their talents on the prison
| fare. Possibly genius, which Is some
what allied to madness, put them there.
| But it must be different sort of genius
| which can get them out. Only little
while ago a prisoner was pardoned from
| a State penitentiary because of the
| poetry he wrote. | have read some of
| it. Parts of it, like the curate S stale
egg, were "quite good Some of it
was objectionable. Very much of our
magazine poetry is. Glow much do /
| get for this2' young poet inquired,
| hopefully, extending his manuscript
TEN days. replied the unfeeling
editor, handing it back. However, my
| Judgment upon the verses which opened
| the prison doors is perhaps biased. At
J any rate, the sentiment of the poets
who are still at large, their licenses
/ being renewed from year to year,
| prevailed with the Board of Pardons
and the Governor, and the young poet
who seems not to have been enough
| of a poet TO know that "stOne walls
| do not prison make. nor iron bars a
| cage. was set at liberty, and given.
his poetic license by the Endorsement
| of a ma iority of the poets on the block.
| He is now authorized TO make conJoin
rhyme with hawthorn. Mind. I do not
| protest against this young man s
| pardon. | merely say the reason for
| comforting it is wrong. The imprison
| ment of this gifted youth was a crime.
Not because he was gifted, but because
| he had committed no offense worthy of
| the fearful and excessive punishment
| visited upon him.
You See, if we begin to issue pardons
to convicts merely because they are
geniuses. the iails will soon be so much
waste capital, idle stock on the hands
of the state. Nearly every man con
victed of crime has a talent for some
thing The rare faculty of initiative
penmanship opens the doors of the peni-
Tertiary to some men. Your honest
imitation of a rich man 8 signature
would bring tears to the eve of some
convict as he show YOU how to do it,
pointing out your mistaken strokes and
fourishes.
Another man goes to prison because
he has genius for solving the com
plicated mechanism of burglar proof
| JUN. 4tt D aus 'Ilt ff'tfNi7 to Iii'i NV
fields for the exercise of his talent,
| knowing the truth of Hazlett's saying
that "genius, like humanity, rusts for
want of use He loves to see a de-
scription of a new and wonderful lock
! which viii battle the fingers of the most
expert manipulation of securities in
steel 1t is his Joy to bend all his fac
| ulties to the bringing into harmonious
relation all the opposing forces and
| powers of resistance and pressure. of
| opposition and persuasion. until he
hears the tumblers fall into place and
his secondary curiosity, of ascertaining
what there was inside of the thing
| the lock was set to guard. is gratifed.
| Yet another man has a talent and a
, taste for collecting brio -brac One
| day he adds your watch to his collec-
ton. aostracting it from your pocket
| as he sits beside You in the trolley ear,
| discussing MacNamara 5 long drive in
| the fifth and the rotten decision of the
! umpire over o 'Hall0rnan s slide to sec
| ond. He comes into your residence at
| midnight s unholv hour and prowls
| about the rooms with noiseleSs tread,
and even pauses for snack of bread
| and cold meat in the kit hen hpfore he