I haven't got it," replies the passenger, and he threatens the ferryman with personal violence. "But did you not know," says Charon, "that it is necessary to pay?" "What if I did? I had nothing to pay with. Is it necessary to refrain from dying?" Charon thinks he might levy on the passenger's bag, but finds nothing in it but the scanty remains of his last meal. Thus Lucian shows us that stealing transportation is a very old offense.

The modern precaution is to make the traveler pay in advance for his ticket, and, on certain railroads, not to let him pass through the gate unless he shows it; but this does not prevent a large number of people from stealing rides. I have known a tramp to "beat" his way from Massachusetts to Colorado and from Colorado to Florida, and without being obliged to ride on the truck. When passengers put their tickets under the upholstery binding in the seats in front of them or in the band of their hats which they afterwards put on the rack, it is easy for the thief to pick one up without being noticed, particularly when the owner sleeps. If a ticketless tramp is discovered and put off the car he can renew the experiment with the next train, and thus gradually make his way from point to point. "To prevent tramps and others from stealing or attempting to steal a ride on railroad trains," Georgia has passed a law making it unlawful for any person to conceal himself from the conductor or train authorities by hiding under the train or upon the top of a train or in box cars, tenders, or elsewhere for the purpose of avoiding the payment of fare. As the offense is made a misdemeanor, it is punishable by a maximum fine of $1,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding six months, or by work on the chain gang for twelve months. In Utah, which adopted a new code in 1898, stealing rides is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding fifty days, or by a fine not less than $50, or both. But to show that the ancient crime is not extinct Florida has increased her penalty for horse and cattle stealing. The maximum for the first offense was formerly two years; in 1897 it was increased to five years. The maximum punishment for a second violation remains the same, twenty years. Texas, on the other hand, has reduced the penalty.

Laws forbidding people to get on or off cars while in motion are very common. Again, if it has been found necessary to pass laws against stealing rides, it has also been deemed necessary to protect the public against railroads by passing laws with penalties forbidding extortion and discrimination against individuals or localities in transportation

rates.

TRAIN WRECKING.

The most heinous crime in connection with modern transportation is that of train wrecking. The crime of the modern Dick Turpin, who "holds up" a train and "goes through" its passengers, differs only in audacity from that of the highwayman who stopped the traveler on the road on a dark night. The modern highwayman prefers to do a wholesale business; but the robber who wrecks the train to make his victims more helpless is one of the most heartless of all modern criminals, and special laws have been enacted to meet his offense.

Three years ago the State of New York, in revising the penal code of 1889, increased the penalty for willfully placing obstructions upon railroad tracks or willfully interfering in any way with the motive power

of steam or electric roads. If the safety of any person is endangered the imprisonment may be twenty, instead of ten years, as before; in case safety is not endangered the imprisonment may extend to five years, instead of three, as before. A new section was also added to the penal code relative to murder in the first degree. It provides that a person who willfully loosens or displaces a rail or, by any other interference, wrecks a railway train, whether operated by steam, electricity, or other motive power, so as to cause the death of a human being, is guilty of murder in the first degree and punishable accordingly. Michigan has also passed a new law declaring that attempted wrecking of railroad trains is a felony, and shall be punished by imprisonment in the State prison at hard labor for life or for any term of years not less than five. Forcible detention of railway trains for the purpose of robbery is a felony to be punished in the same way. Another statute applies the same principle to street railroads. În Wisconsin, when death results from their crimes, train wreckers are to be imprisoned for life.

BICYCLE LAWS.

Another modern invention now making itself felt in legislation is the bicycle. The laws against fast driving which prevail in certain States must now be extended to cover bicycles. At present the automobile has hardly got into the statutes. It is likely that we shall soon accustom ourselves to a higher rate of speed on public roads; but there must be a limit somewhere to check the ambition of the bicycle and the automobile. They, in turn, need the protection of the law.

The transition is easy from horse stealing to bicycle stealing. Where new penalties of this form of larceny seemed necessary they have been made. Bicyclists are now protected, too, by laws securing for them the sole use of bicycle paths and forbidding trespass by other vehicles. Ohio has even decreed that, in sprinkling streets and avenues, a dry strip shall be left for bicycles. At its last legislative session Connecticut passed four laws of interest to wheelmen. The theft of a bicycle worth more than $25 is punished by imprisonment for one year. The use of a bicycle of another without permission is forbidden under penalty of a fine of $50 or of three months' imprisonment. Another act, passed on the same day, forbids bicyclists to ride without alarm bells, or to ride on highways within thickly populated villages faster than 10 miles an hour. Another section, however, allows greater speed at specified times. A third law punishes willful injury to bicycle paths by a fine of $50 or three months' imprisonment, and a fourth statute imposes a fine of $20 for the throwing of sharp substances, such as nails, tacks, etc., into the highways, the enactment of the last statute being due to the invention of the rubber tire, which is now applied to other vehicles.

The zeal of bicycle organizations has led to the adoption of similar laws in many States; but, so far as I know, Illinois is the only State which has passed a law to protect wheelmen from their own misguided enthusiasm. This law of June, 1897, is entitled "An act to prevent long-continued and brutal bicycle riding." It makes it unlawful for any person or corporation to engage or take part in or "conduct a bicycle race of more than twelve consecutive hours' duration, without a rest of six consecutive hours following each twelve hours' racing,"

and also to rent any building for a bicycle race without conforming to this act. The penalty is a fine of from $25 to $500, or imprisonment from thirty days to one year. This act, of course, does not prevent a man from committing suicide by riding himself to death on the road.

PETROLEUM AND EXPLOSIVES.

The introduction of petroleum has had a marked effect upon statute law, and blazes luridly in penal codes. In the past two years many laws have been amended or modified, prescribing the degree and method of fire tests, regulating transportation, and forbidding sale unless in conformity with the law. In Wisconsin if the death of a person results from the explosion of a lamp or of vessels containing illuminating oils sold in violation of law, the person selling the oil shall be deemed guilty of manslaughter in the third degree.

The development of modern explosives, especially the wide use of dynamite, has led to new laws for the protection of life and property; and, in many States, the game laws have been amended to prevent the destruction of fish by dynamite or other explosives.

ANESTHETICS AND MEDICINES.

The discovery of anesthetics was an incalculable blessing; but there is hardly any blessing which can not be turned into a curse. A late amendment to the penal code of New York makes it a felony for any person not a physician or surgeon to have in his possession any narcotic or anæsthetic substance capable of producing stupor or unconsciousness, with intent to administer the same to another without his consent, unless by the direction of a duly licensed physician. The penalty is imprisonment in the State prison for not more than ten years. It has even become necessary to protect people against the immoderate and dangerous use by themselves of modern palliatives to pain. Helen of Troy, besides being a beautiful woman, was a licensed pharmacist, and Homer has paid a fine tribute to her skill; but how many things the modern pharmacist has in his pharmacopoeia for allaying pain which were lacking in hers!

The increased sense of responsibility resting upon druggists and their clerks has led to a revision of the laws regulating pharmacy in various States. Like the dentist, physician, and surgeon, no pharmacist can practice without a license. Four States-Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, and Massachusetts-have passed laws making it unlawful to sell cocaine without the prescription of a licensed surgeon or physician. Though there is uniformity in the prohibition, there is, as usual, no uniformity in the penalty. Thus, in Massachusetts the fine is $50; in Colorado it is from $5 to $300; in Illinois it is $10 to $50 for the first offense, $50 to $200 for subsequent offenses, or imprisonment to thirty days; in Louisiana it is a fine of from $25 to $100 or imprisonment for thirty days. In the past two years many laws relating to the practice of medicine, surgery, and dental surgery have been revised. The plan has been extended of having special boards of examination to guard the entrance to these professions.

In some States the practice of embalming is similarly regulated by an examining board, and in other States this method is applied to chiropodists. In Minnesota no barber is admitted to practice without

passing the test of an examining board. The development of osteopathy has led to its regulation by statute, a regular diploma from a college of osteopathy being necessary. South Carolina now forbids traveling medicine venders to ply their vocation, under penalty of $100 or imprisonment of one hundred days. Maryland has lately passed laws requiring the registration of nurses and midwives, with penalties attached, and forbidding the sale of spectacles or eye-glasses without license, unless by a practicing physician or optician.

SANITARY LAWS.

Among the most important and most frequent laws in the legislation of the past two years are sanitary laws of every kind, with penalties attached in the way of fine or imprisonment. A great many prohibit the adulteration of food, candy, and milk. Adulterations of food may be divided into two classes: (1) Those dangerous to health; and (2) simply commercial frauds, of which there are a good many. In many States, to prevent commercial frauds, labels and tags stating the exact nature of the contents are required, and laws have been passed requiring restaurants to placard their use of such articles. California has even determined to protect her dependent classes from such frauds, and forbids the use of any other substance than the pure article of butter or cheese in the charitable and penal institutions of the State. Violators of this or other sections of the bill incur a fine of $50 or imprisonment for thirty days, and for a subsequent offense the fine may be $300 or six months' imprisonment. Laws requiring tagging relate also to the adulteration of fertilizers.

The health of animals and of trees is now protected by special laws. The health of animals may have an important relation to the health of human beings. In Maine the bodies of animals dying of disease must be injected with kerosene oil until it permeates the carcass. This effectually prevents the selling of the meat. In other States burial is required. The poisoning of wells is an old crime; but the modern discovery that typhoid fever may come from the pollution of water supplies has led to the enactment of new laws and new penalties. It illustrates the influence which the microscope has had on modern legislation and on our ideas of social responsibility.

LABOR LAWS.

A vast number of labor laws illustrate the authority and influence which labor now commands in all legislative councils. Many wisely relate to the sanitary conditions of employment. Some are for the protection of women and children; limiting the hours of labor or requiring employers to furnish seats for their women and girls. There are laws to protect miners, and workers in certain trades, such as plumbers and horseshoers, from the invasion of unskilled labor. Under new statutes the motormen, or, as they are called in the Kansas statutes, "motorneers," are protected against bad weather by vestibules.

GAMBLING.

The laws for the protection of public morals enacted in the last two years show continued vigilance against insidious forms of modern

iniquity. The gambling spirit is always finding some fresh embodiment, and availing itself of some new invention. Hence there are laws prohibiting gambling with "slot machines," and in Vermont with Klondike machines," a combination of the slot machine with the roulette wheel. Louisiana has passed a law against gambling in futures.

LIQUOR LAWS.

Of liquor laws there are a multitude. In some of the Southern States where local option ideas prevail there are different laws not only for different counties, but for different precincts or "beats" in the same county. In 1897 Alabama passed 34 such laws.

GAME LAWS.

The game laws, each with its special penalty, are simply legion. A few of the States have general game laws, but most of them enact laws for special localities. Thus, Alabama in 1897 passed 14, and in the session of 1897-98 Virginia passed no less than 47. We can imagine the embarrassment of a sportsman going through the State of Virginia and encountering a different law and a different penalty every few miles! He might repeat the saying of Voltaire in regard to France before the adoption of the Napoleonic Code: "This people change their laws as often as their horses."

Numerous, too, are road laws and special laws prohibiting stock from running at large in special districts."

PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AND MINORS.

The protection of children and minors is the aim of many statutes. A law prohibiting the sale of cigarettes to minors has had a wide range. And Tennessee, having forbidden in 1891 the selling or the giving of cigarettes to minors, passed a law in 1897 prohibiting cigarettes from being sold at all, or even from being brought into the State. Among new laws are a number forbidding minors to frequent pool rooms or billiard rooms without the written consent of their parents. Several States have enacted more severe laws for the protection of girls by raising the age of protection.

CORPORATIONS AND TRUSTS.

The modern spirit of association is seen in the vast number of laws incorporating various companies and organizations. New laws are required for their regulation, as, for instance, in the case of beneficiary and assessment insurance companies. On the other hand, there are laws forbidding the use by unauthorized persons of labels, trade-marks of labor unions, badges of the Grand Army, and other societies. Then the pendulum swings the other way, and some of the most rigid laws recently enacted are the antitrust laws of various States, punishing monopolies by heavy fines and imprisonment.

SPECIAL LEGISLATION.

Certain States have constitutional provisions that the legislature shall not pass local or special laws. In the constitution of North Dakota