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Law is a rule for action established by a government or other competent authority to regulate justice and direct duty. Law may be between God and man either in natural or revealed form; or it may be between man and man. The latter form is divided into several kinds: national or municipal, which may embrace constitutional, cannon or ecclesiastical laws; equity or common law, which embraces what might be called public or criminal laws; and private or civil laws, besides which there is still international law. Civil law is the system which the people of a State enact for their welfare. This branch deals particularly with all things not criminal. In that it is private, it has to do with actions between individuals, such as indebtedness, actions on notes, mortgages, etc., the adjustment or acquiring of titles, collections, marriage and divorce, and the like. Branches of the civil law are many, such as commercial law, which has to do principally with business affairs of commercial houses; insurance law, for regulating insurance companies; maritime law, for questions pertaining to affairs of the sea; military law, for armies; municipal law, for cities; sumptuary laws for people dealing in intoxicating liquors, etc. Criminal law is generally punitive, where civil law exacts only a settlement. The state steps in to inflict a penalty on a malefactor who acts against the good of the public. Criminal carelessness is a crime, though accident is not. If a faulty boiler explodes, or a badly constructed building burns and causes loss of life, some one is liable to punishment for it. Yet a man may accidentally discharge a firearm and kill some one, and not be held for it. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. You may not lawfully condone an offense by receiving back stolen property. Police are not authorized to make arrests without warrants duly sworn out before a magistrate, unless they personally know that an act has been committed that calls for the arrest. When a warrant has been sworn out for a man accused of crime, his house may be entered forcibly. Embezzling is theft by an officer, agent or servant of a corporation. Felony is a high crime, the highest of the principal classes in which crimes are divided by statute. A grave crime exceeds in grade a misdemeanor. Grand larceny involves over $25; petit larceny anything below that amount. Arson is the crime of feloniously setting fire to a building. Drunkenness is no legal excuse for committing a crime, but when carried to the extent of delirium tremens, it may be adjudged insanity. Officers of the law are empowered to appeal for assistance, and anyone to whom they may appeal is in law bound to assist. Forgery is the copying or signing the name of another with deceitful or fraudulent intention. Murder in the first degree must have been premeditated, malicious and willful. Killing in duels is murder. Willful false swearing is perjury. A false statement under oath, which is qualified as the belief of the affiant, does not constitute perjury. Subornation of perjury is a felony. THE HABIT OF BEING LATE Do people who are prone to be late ever realize the worry they cause to their friends? There are folks in this world who are absolutely punctual in being rigidly behindhand. Some of these make a point of being ten minutes late for everything; others are half an hour late, but they are so regular in their tardiness that it amounts to a mistimed punctuality, and when understood by their friends, can usually be calculated on. The present King of England founded his reputation as a leader of polite society when he was Prince of Wales by never being late at an appointment. It is a pity that Americans do not follow his example in this respect, instead of worrying about the pattern of his or her clothes, as some of them do. It is a notable thing that hardly anyone is late for a train; it is one of the rarest things in the world for a train to be missed. This, in itself, speaks volumes, for does it not show that even the most dilatory of mortals can be in time if they so choose? The same people, however, think nothing of coming into a theater after the play has begun. They will arrive long after the curtain has gone up, talk about programmes, argue as to who shall sit in a certain seat, divest themselves of cloaks and coats, and generally take some minutes to settle themselves down, to the extreme annoyance of all the unfortunate beings around them. Their conduct is quite as disconcerting as that of the wearer of the matinee hat. There are other people who are always late for dinner, whether at home or at a party. They make no apology whatever. We all know the people who sail in at a large dinner party 20 minutes after everyone else has arrived, and appear quite smiling and thoroughly pleased with themselves. They seem far from realizing that 18 hungry people have been waiting their advent, and that the host and hostess have been in an agony of suspense, for, all entertainers are not wise enough to go to dinner without waiting for such remiss guests. The late comers are quite oblivious of the fact that the culinary department has been watching minute by minute, while a good dinner was spoiling. From 20 to 30 people have been annoyed and upset by the selfishness of these tardy ones, who, quite unruffled, ignore the fact. Surely, it is quite permissible for the dinner to be served ten minutes after the appointed time, so that those who are courteous enough to arrive at the right hour may not be punished for the heedlessness of others less punctual. If a few more hostesses,—for there are some who do,—showed their sense in this way, lateness would go out of fashion. It is an odd thing that the people most accustomed to dine out are the most punctual, just as it is that the people who receive the largest number of invitations are the most punctilious in answering them. Suppose a lady sends out 20 invitations for a dinner party. She may invite six couples; then, four unattended gentlemen and four unattended ladies are needed to make her party complete. Every hostess knows bachelors or maids, widows or grass widows. Some of the invitations will be answered with true courtesy by return post; others will remain unanswered for days. The lady's table will accommodate but 20 guests; she likes to have her full complement; but she cannot ask more than that number, in view of the possibility of some one declining, for, should all accept, the limit of her facilities would be reached. Now, it is no uncommon thing for the four odd gentlemen to answer, as every one should do, by return post, and for the four odd ladies to withhold their reply for a week. What is the position of the hostess? She is reluctant to invite other gentlemen for fear the original quartette will arrive. If by chance they ultimately decline, the attendance is much curtailed, and she may not be able to get four equally suitable males, to say nothing of the fact that a delayed invitation is not regarded as complimentary. Many a hostess has been nearly distracted by tardiness of replies to her invitations. What applies to the dinner party applies to a house party. Every lady in the country who entertains knows the worry and anxiety of arranging for a suitable little coterie of friends, one of whom may disappoint her at the last moment without any proper reason. Entertaining is often a source of real perplexity and discomfort. Busy people cannot afford to be tardy in their ordinary business affairs. Take the case of the doctor. He tries with the most punctilious care to keep his appointments; he allots 20 minutes to an old patient or half an hour to a new one, with careful regularity, and if his waiting room becomes full, it is probably because some patient arrived late, or some ailment has taken an unusually long time to diagnose, and thus the whole machinery is put out of gear. UTILIZATION OF THE EARTH'S INTERIOR HEAT |