The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-01-31
FpON OFFER PENS
THE. LAWMAKERS.

The bill introduced into the Kansas
legislature imposing fine and imprison-
ment upon any woman who appears in
public wearing skirt t..that hangs less
not likely to pass. Even Kansas is not
so drastic as that. On the other hand,
the Missouri legislator who proposes a
fine of from SIS to $50 upon any rail-
way agent that refuses questions of
travellers has a merftoriouS idea and
many effect genuine reform.
Feminine gowning, on the stage or
off it. is a matter of too much deli
cacy as well as of too much complexity
to be subjected to legislative regula-
ton. Why forbid upon the stage what
is permitted on the sea beach? Why
deny to the one-night stands in Kan
sas the ornaments of continuous per-
formances in New York?
But the requirement that agents Of
public utilities shall answer the QueS-
lions of patrons is well within the
scope of legal requirements. Nor
should the reform be confined to rail-
road employees. Bank clerks and the
whole array of civil service employees,
municipal, state and national, might
well be included in the reach of the
proposed law, with special attention to
the inmates OF theater box offices.
Kansas should pause for a second
thought; Missouri may go ahead.-New
York World.
CHANGING ENGLISH NURSERY.
Those American girls who become
the wives of British nobility are be-
ginning to have an influence on Brit
ish customs. The first of these in
ternational marriages occurred about
80 years ago, and since that time the
exodus has continued and shows no
sign of stopping It is noted by keen
British observers that the children
born in these international unions are
reared differently from the children
of ordinary English mobiles.
The American-born wives find that
English children are brought up al
most exclusively in a stern nursery
regime. The parents went their way
and communication between them
and the children was of the narrow
est kinds. The American wives have
fatty declined to bring up their child
rem in that way. They have refused
to let nurses supplant them in the af-
lection of the children. They are
breaking down the nursery barrier
and in short are bringing up the child
rem as a part of the home circle, and
in the way most parents in this .coun-
try think they should be brought up.
The change has been noticed by other
British parents, who do not like 1t, but
their children are demanding to be
made more part Of the home.-Bos--
ton Globe.
NAVAL. ACCIDENTS.
No human precautions have vet;
been devised which will make the
owners and workers in high pressure
power plants immune from such dis
astrous accidents as the boiler explo-
sion on the battleship Delaware. The
wide publicity given to every mishap
on a war vessel should not be allowed
to convey the impression that the
boiler room of battleship is any
more exposed to such danger than the
boiler room of a manufacturing estab-
lishment on land.
Were all the statistics available it
would probably be found that unit for
unit the naval service could show a
record far better than that of the av-
erage stationary steam plant Few
persons realize the extent to which the
modern battleship is a floating ma
chine shop, or have any adequate ap-
probation of the enormous pent-up
energy that is required to maintain
that great organism of steel and ire
In being. Every mishap to marine
boiler on a warship. every explosion of
g. gun which brings death and injury
to the crew is heralded far and wide,
and so a false impression is created
Philadelphia Ledger.