re
at Christmas and Thanksgiving to the end that his body may not suffer;
tract-distributors provide him with reading matter, and sewing-circles
warm him with flannel under-wear; doctors look after his health, and
legislators vie with each other in seeing that he is not overworked;
but, if there is any society organized for the purpose of helping the
wife whom he has disgraced, and most likely left penniless at home, its
name has not yet been made public; if any sewing-circle has undertaken
to clothe his children, the fact has not been heralded to the world. Yet
the heaviest part of the punishment falls not on the convict but on his
family, the members of which, by one of those unjust society decisions
from which there is no appeal, are stigmatized with disgrace on account
of an offence in which they had no part. This is grossly unjust, and
those who are benevolently inclined should take the matter in hand and
see what can be done for the wives and children of convicts.

* * * * *

New England has no representative in the national legislature upon whose
career she can look with more of pride and satisfaction than that of
Gen. Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut. A man of sound learning, and
many of the highest qualities of statesmanship; he is unpretentious in
manner, lives simply, is free from egotism, and full of the generous and
manly qualities which inspire confidence and compel friendliness. Few
men, of this generation at least,--as will be universally recognized a
little later if not now,--have approached nearer to the popular ideal of
a representative American in public life. There could be no better
evidence of the manly independence which he brings to the discussion of
measures of importance than his attitude with reference to the bill
intended to provide for the maintenance of an army of such size and
efficiency as to provide for all possible contingencies arising from
foreign aggression or internal troubles. In recognition of the fact that
we have lawless elements in all of our large cities always ready to
avail themselves of any pretext for riot and incendiarism, he urged the
wisdom of providing such safeguards against these uprisings as would be
afforded by disciplined and efficient troops ready for instant service
at any point. Some of the demagogues in the Senate, hypocritically
posing as friends of the working-men, endeavored to distort this
common-sense and patriotic view in