The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-03-16
Mother Scrubs
 For Funeral Of
 Son To be Hanged

''Bent with the weight of sixty-five years of poverty, one son an invalid and requiring constant care, a second
 in a felon's cell in Harrisburg, Pa,
 where next Tuesday he will be taken
 to the ga1lows and there hanged by
 the neck until he is dead,' Mrs. Sarah
 Stott has been working as scrub
 woman to complete fund to give her
 boy a decent burial.
 "On learning that her boy was to be put to death without her being able to
 see him, without being able to press
 her withered cheeks against him, the
 woman became almost crazed.
 But she had to keep working be-
 cause expenses were increasing, and,
 in order to raise funds to bring the
 body to the family plot in the old cem-
 etery here, where 1t would rest beside
 that of the soldier father, she secured
 additional floors to scrub. Late into
 the night she has been tofling on her
 hands and knees while the fund for
 the funeral expenses slowly grow lar
 ger"
 Thus the Boston American. A Mothers Devotion. Poor, pitiful, agonizing mother-love! God-God help us all! The devotion, the self -abnegation of. this shipwreck- ed soul-wearng her crown of sorrow draining her bitter cup to it's last bit- ter .dregs-and stumbling falteringly to her Gethsemane,- should stir sym pathy in all who are not super-satu- rated with this bestiality which we are pleased-in our arrogance-to call civ ilization. }f The hearts of all true men and wo- men will go out to her in her despair in her irrevocable loss of all that makes
 life sweet and bright and wholesome
 It is like page from Sophocles-or
 a horrible dream from Poe.
 Since it is the law, let's hasten to kill
 the son. Let's end her suspense
 the spirit of mercy we would extend
 a stricken, death-wounded dog. Then let us catechise ourselves ln respect to the brutalizing effect of our official murder of the young assassin. To Be Hanged by the Neck Until Dead For his transgression, he will be hanged by the neck until dead. We, who wreak upon him the vengeance of that grim, inhuman goddess-mis- named Justfce-will go to our beds and sleep-without qualm of conscience. Fie upon us-for a nation of barbar- ians-a race of brutal savages. What he did in the hot impetuosity of ig- norant, animalistic jealousy, we do in
 calm, cold -blooded deliberat1on, with
 malice aforethought, and inexorabii1ty
 Of purpose. We are a spectacle to make the Gods laugh and weep, with our cant about Justice and "Civdliza- tion'' and "Law-abiding Citizens and Sacred Institutions"
 Gertrude Breslau Hunt wsll says: Gan we teach citizens to respect law by lawless and unjust acts; can we teach gentleness with clubs, forgive ness of wrongs done with water cure 'humming -bird' and 'bull-rings'; can we teach the sacredness of life by pub lie hangings, electrocutions and war appropriations? I think not" These are the very. things which wild beasts ravening for prey. Shy
 lock says, .'The evil that ye teach me
 I will execute, and it will go hard if
 I do not better the instruction" Look
 to it, citizens of America! Remem-
 Der that it is not vengeance, but re-
 form; not punishment, but cure for crime and immortality, which we should
 seek, and it is not by hurling. a sick. weak, ignorant soul into Eternity that this will ever be brought about Educate them, and at the same time enlighten ourselves in regard to the psychological influences of hurry1ng a being out of this plane of experience :, We know too many things that are not so. Let us unlearn few of them
 Replace the Mosaic Law by the Ser mon on the Mount. Like wattles. the Quaker preacher. ! "be a traitor to every government that is a party to the oppression of the
 poor and ignorant; an inf1del to every
 church that apologizes for and con-
 dones the wrong'' '"There goes my self, but for the grace of God,' said John Wesley.
 ABOLISH CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
 END THE HORROR AND DEGRA-
 DAYTON OF SLAUGHTER BY LAW. 1t is fiendish in its ruthless cruelty; foolish in it's futility in preventing
 crime; ignorant in it's ethics; and de- basina and brutalizing in its sardonic i hypocrisy.
 If vicarious atonement were scien- tific OF possible-which it isn't-that old
 mother-scrubbing floors on her pend.
 ed knees far into the night, her heart torn asunder with grief and horror has already expiated dozen murders.
 And her future is packed with lurid-
 est hell and woe. For the sake of our own self-respect and decency. ABOL7 ISH CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. DR EDWIN F. BOWERS.