t of woman herself were it not better that the brutal ravisher
have somewhat more to bear if he do also murder? Else would not the
motive to silence forever the most dangerous witness be complete?

"I offer the suggestion of three degrees for rape--the first to cover
only ravishment by brutal violence and force; the second all the
intermediate grades save statutory rape, which alone shall constitute
the third degree. I am no firm believer in the justice of our age of
consent, and would leave corporal punishment for statutory rape to the
discretion of the trial court. The terms of imprisonment as now
prescribed are doubtless long enough, but let us add to them the sting
and shame of the ancient whipping post. For the third degree, in the
court's discretion, not more than seven lashes. For the second degree
two floggings of twenty lashes each, soundly administered within
twelve months. And for the first degree, three several floggings of
forty lashes each within twelve months, and then castration. There is
much reason in this ancient penalty, and the time has come when it
should be revived. If, as some say, this morbid and unbridled passion
is disease, then treat it like appendicitis--remove the cause."

Mr. Perkins is on the right track. I am glad that he neither endorses
lynching nor takes stock in the absurd report from certain sections of
the South that all Negroes are ravishers of white women. I think his
suggested remedy against rape a good one for white and black.

But to return to the consideration of the other phase of the question,
I desire to say that Mrs. Helen Douglass, the widow of the lamented
Frederick Douglass, is accepted authority on the convict lease system,
and consequently I am indebted to her for most of the data used in
this article touching that subject. In a well prepared lecture on
convict leases, Mrs. Douglass introduces her theme as follows:

"We know what happens when manufactories are shut down and a vast
amount of accumulated material is suddenly thrown upon the market. For
250 years the South had been manufacturing a peculiar article; had
been literally stamping this article with its own lineaments and
putting it upon a market created especially for it. The war came! The
manufactories were closed; the material was on hand; what should be
done with it? Never in the world, perhaps, has there been a clearer
demonstration of the irrevocable nature of law, as affecting society,
and the awful