SETH J. THOMAS

ageous act for these two Boston lawyers to array themselves against the southern sentiment then prevailing on the slave question and in almost any other southern state their lives would have been in danger. The people of Virginia like those of Massachusetts, however, had been educated to respect the law and the descendants of the Cavaliers had no more sympathy with mob violence than had the sons of the Pilgrims.

The real test of a lawyer has always been, and is now, the power to present questions to the full bench of the Supreme Court. Before that tribunal oratory counts for nothing and men who can sway a jury by their eloquence find their talents wasted when confronted with propositions which to successfully maintain require logical presentation and sound reasoning.

The most eminent member of the legal profession cannot anticipate a

LEMUEL SHAW

tion without representation" in the Massachusetts Colony that led up to the American Revolution. The constitutional questions involved were fully and ably discussed by Sidney Bartlett, R. D. WestonSmith, and Charles A. Prince who represented the petitioners, while the rights of the police board were argued by William G. Russell and George Putnam. The decision that the petitioners had mistaken their remedy was most disappointing,

court holding that the title to the office could only be impeached by writ of quo warranto.

The

The next day an opinion came down in an unimportant case that settled all the points in controversy, although the constitutional questions had merely been suggested and not much insisted upon. case was that of the Commonwealth vs. George Plaisted, a member of the Salvation Army, who had been convicted of violating the regulations of the police board requiring all itinerant musicians to have licenses. The right to worship God according to the dictates of one's conscience was a constitutional question that was raised but in its opinion the court dealt very lightly with that branch of the case and defined at some length the powers of the legislature in determining local self-government. The court says that while the legislature could not abolish town system without coming into contact with some provisions of the Constitution, yet in most respects it leaves the powers and duty of providing laws for the government of the towns and cities to the discretion of the legislature. "It may amend their charters, enlarge or diminish their powers, extend or limit their boundaries, consolidate two or more into one and abolish them altogether at its own discretion."

Plaisted is not the only man who has claimed the right to worship

according to his conscience, regardless of laws framed for the general good of the public. Several years ago the Rev. Mr. Davis refused to ask for a permit to preach on the Common, claiming that it was his inalienable right to preach the Word of God whenever and wherever he desired. He was complained of for violation of a city ordinance and upon conviction carried the matter to the Supreme Court upon exceptions which were overruled on the ground that such an ordinance was valid. The Mayor of Boston was willing to give Mr. Davis a permit but he refused to apply for one. He was before the court several times and remained in jail rather than pay the fine imposed. On one occasion Mr. Davis appealed from a sentence of the Municipal Court and at a trial in the Superior Court Judge Aldrich, a man of profound religious conviction, and of the old Puritan type, presided. As usual Mr. Davis in his own behalf addressed the jury, claiming that even the legislature had not a right to prescribe the forms of religious worship. Judge Aldrich listened patiently for a few minutes when he interrupted the defendant with the remark, "Mr. Davis, I want you to distinctly understand that the first duty of a Christian is to obey the laws of the land." The jury speedily found Mr. Davis guilty and it was his last appearance in the courts.

MAYA INDIAN GIRL IN YUCATAN

Moreover, parliaments and people inveighed against an invention that would deprive woman of her chief means of gaining a livelihood. A New England clergyman, the Rev. John A. Dodge, came near inventing a practical sewing machine in the early part of the nineteenth century, but fearing that its perfection and manufacture would drive the journeyman tailors out of business, as a good humanitarian he destroyed his models and declined to make any more. The next great step forward was made by a New England tramp, destitute of altruistic motives, who knew that he must either succeed- ΟΙ starve. Enthused with his brilliant dreams of success where others had failed for a century, he induced two humble Boston workmen to take stock in his visionary enterprise. One put in his entire capital, forty dollars, with which to buy necessary parts for the proposed machine; the other loaned the use of his tools and workshop. The money was spent, the tools dulled by long

use, the machine completed at last. and the three stockholders gathered together in final confab, only to discover that the wonderful machine from which they had expected so much - would not work. Silently the partners of the tramp left him in disgust. It was a fellow wanderer of the road that in pity held the light now while the inventor worked on and on through the night, until the tools at last fell from his weary hands. He had failed. The only consolation in his despair came from his companion in misery who persuaded him that he had "almost" succeeded, for "the loose loops of threads were all upon the upper side of the cloth." Instantly the idea of the gathering

shuttle flashed across the mind of the inventor, and at dawn Isaac Merritt Singer had perfected the first practical sewing machine ever constructed. It made him a rich man, changed the fashions for all

time in every continent, sounded the death knell of the peasant costume, clothed the savage and made the dress of mankind utterly unrecognizable to those who had lived before the era of the Yankeemade sewing machine.

The sewing machine has revolutionized dress in Cathay as it has in Paris. During the half century of its existence its use has done more to change the appearance of mankind than did the preceding cycle of the plain needlewoman. In Great Britain thousands of men and women work under the largest single roof in the world, delivering from the equalizing invention of the Yankee, clothing for the millions in every part of the world. In Japan, where hand labor may be procured for a very few cents a day, the government orders its sewing machine needles from America by the half million, that uniforms may be quickly stitched together for the

soldiers in the field. In Russia even the shoes of the Tzar's fighting men

are stitched on the Yankee sewing machine, for the manufacture of which immense factories have gone up to give work to thousands of Muscovite mechanics. The most familiar sight to the emigrant landing in America is the Yankee sewing machine, for this modern household necessity finds its way to every part of the globe. It goes by camel express to the primitive tents of the nomads of Central Asia, where it is in constant use. The Japanese housewife and the Russian peasant woman use it, and the lady of the harem runs together on this machine from Yankeeland trousers for her lord and master scarcely more baggy in pattern than those to be seen on Broadway or Regent street in this year of grace 1906.

scarcely more

It does not flatter the pride of the American who is convinced that we lead all the world in efforts looking toward the emancipation of woman, to learn that the first technical training school for girls was