Evening star., 1912-09-29

self, he soon forgot MS past troubles ana De-
gan having very good time. There was
rather nice sort of college boy, going home
dead broke and very frank about it, telling
with certain touch of pride in the adven-
ture how he had sponged all his meals and all
his smokes clear across the country and had
borrowed the ticket he was riding on from an
accommodating ticket agent in Chicago.
Then there were couple of travelling men, a
member of the Public Utilities Commission
of Wisconsin, who was also on the faculty OF
the State University Chats a way they have
up there, and it pleased Hopkins to see it),
and last of all rather Jovian looking young
man in his middle twenties, who was States
Attorney of one of the lower tier of counties,
also in the State of Wisconsin. Hopkins
sized him up at once as kindred spirit.
Here was man who felt about the law
exactly as he did! Of course there were fool
ish laws on the statute books; but the only
acid test that you could apply to the law to
determine whether it was good or bad, or
wise or idiotic, was to enforce it rigidly, uni
versally, without respect of persons. If we
did things that way, laws wouldn't be passed
so recklessly. And if foolish or vicious law
did get enacted, it would speedily be repealed.
Even the Commissioner, who professed to
agree in general with Hopkins and the States
Attorney, baked at the lengths to which
they went in proclaiming this principle, and
the travelling men and the college boy looked
on aghast.
But the opposition only reused Hopkins
to higher fights. He told them in 1mpas-
stoned terms of his recent martyrdom to the
Illinois statute concerning drinking IN any
smoking car, parlor car, day coach, inter1r-
ban car, or caboose, and gloried in the thing
that had happened to him and the thirty
days he had just spent in jail.
lust as he was concluding the narrative,
when all the others were hanging, as it were,
breathless on his words, he noticed the col
lege boy feeling vaguely and uncomfortably
in his pockets, searching for and missing the
habitual package of cigarettes.
The States Attorney was looking out of
the window. "Ah,' he said, in a tone of sat
isfaction, "home again! We have just
crossed the Wisconsin State line and we are
now in a county of which | am States At
torney.'
Hopkins handed his cigarette case over to
the college boy. "Here you are!H he said,
"Smoke up!"
At these fatal words, the States Attorney
looked round, in time to see, but not to pre-
vent, the serious misdemeanor that Hopkins
had committed. Hopkins had giren a7eay
cigarette in the State of Wisconsin!
"It's hard to do ones duty said the
States Attorney sadly; "but | have never
violated my oath of Office yet, and I'm not
going to begin now. 1t will be my painful
duty to have you arrested, Sir.
"What for?7 said Hopkins.
"For giving this young man cigarette.
"But, good Heaven!" said Hopkins. "You
have kept him supplied with cigarettes for
the last half-hour yourself.
"That," said the States Attorney, @was
before we crossed the line into Wisconsin.
Certainly you have heard of the cigarette
law in Wisconsin,
"But," said Hopkins, "that law prohibits
the sale of cigarettes
"Also the gift, said the States Attorney.
an Section 46O8F in the Supplement of the
Wisconsin Statutes of 1891, are these words:
ANY person who shall upon any pre-
tense give away any cigarette
shall be guilty of misdemeanor and.
upon conviction, shall be punished; for the first
offense by fine of not less than five dollars
nor more than fifty. or by imprisonment in the
county Jail not exceeding thirty days"
The train was slowing down for a station.
"There is no question of my duty in this
matter" said the States Attorney. Il regret
exceedingly that it should have been thrust
upon me, and the execution of it will be
highly inconvenient to me as well as to YOUR
self. as | am due in Madison for an impor-