i 7 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the middle of its striking surface or " face " ; and the anvil 

 had a corresponding groove ; the " bloom " was first drawn down 

 on the plain part of the anvil to a square section, and then this 

 square bar was rounded in the grooves of hammer and anvil. 



[ To be continued.} 



WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE "DAGO"? 



By APPLETON MORGAN. 



THE very recent murder of David C. Hennessey, chief of police 

 of the city of New Orleans, appears to direct public attention 

 to a class of immigrants which has recently sought the hospitable 

 ports of the United States, and, in connection with the constant 

 questions of prison reform and prison economics, to justify a 

 considerable and serious public attention. 



The newspaper paragraph which tells what the man to be 

 hanged at ten o'clock had for breakfast at eight, is doubtless 

 appetizing to thousands of honest wage-workers who can not 

 recall sitting down in all their lives to as sumptuous a bill of fare. 

 The libraries of standard fiction provided for incarcerated felons 

 are well enough ; though, if the incarcerated felons, when liber- 

 ated, are at once to take their position as leaders in progress and 

 increasers of the public wealth, they might better be supplanted, 

 perhaps, with works on mechanics and the mechanical motors, 

 steam, electricity, etc. The point in civilization to which the 

 world has arrived renders it impossible that the inmates of pris- 

 ons should be starved, frozen, or tortured into imbecility. But 

 the question as to how tenderly they should be treated, how deli- 

 cately cared for, and how comfortably their bodily wants provided 

 for, appears not yet to have been submitted to anything like a 

 consensus of public opinion. Such question, as a matter of fact, 

 appears to be left at large, until selected as a sentimental one for 

 ladies and gentlemen of sympathetic natures and leisure for phi- 

 lanthropises not otherwise bent ; and the result is, that when any- 

 thing is done it is done toward the adding of yet one more burden 

 upon the law-abiding and uncriminal classes, to wit, the provid- 

 ing of increased consolations, if not luxuries, for their law-break- 

 ing and criminal brothers and sisters. When we tax the good 

 man for the benefit of the bad man, we ought to tax him as lightly 

 as possible. When the peaceful and useful citizen is assessed to 

 build prisons for the house-breaker and molester of the public 

 quiet, he doubtless should be assessed roundly enough to keep 

 the unruly class secure from the facilities for working further 

 mischief; and nobody will decline to go further, and say that 



