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Show The Psychometer ! TWO distinguished men aie at work In a lit- JH tlo town In southern Now Jersey trying to ; H perfect an Instrument which, if what is hoped H for, will make juries, prosecuting attorneys and i H attorneys for tho defense in criminal trials un- H necessary, and, moreover, will no more make a BI H mistake in convicting a guilty man than does an H adding machine in a business house. It is al- H ready a working fact. It is yet only a crude af- H fair, but no man upon whom it is applied, can H conceal his emotions from it. If a man tries his H utnost will power against it, he will And the H exact measure of that will power calculated to H a nicety and recorded. He cannot conceal his in- H ner feelings from it, rather the psychometer will H make clear exactly the effort he puts forth to de- H ceivc it. H The men who are in charge of this are Ed- H ward R. Johnston, superintendent of the New H Jersey training school for feeble minded girls and H boys, and Henry II. Goddard, director of rc- H search. They are working with the hope of im- H proving the mental and physical health of man- H kind, and to make feeble mindedness impossible H With them aiding criminal jurisprudence is but. H so to speak a by-product. But, imagine such an H instrument brought to perfection! It would abo.it H stop the commission of crime, for as a rule men H who cdmmit crimes believe they will escape pun- H ishment. But let the most hardened understand HH that if he commits a contemplated crime and is IS arrested, he will through a simple instrument, H convict himself; that when his attention is called H to the crime, in spite of himself, he will in m thought go over the whole scene and his every M emotion will be recorded, and he will, so to B speak, be convicted by his own heart beats; and m he surely will hesitate before committing tho H crime. But aside from that it will change the H whole world. It will figuratively compel men to H carry their hearts outside their breasts and make M each man, if he is a rogue, give away the fact. H It will pretty nearly do away with vice and H crime; it will renovate city councils; it will ex- H pose false priests and make editors tell the truth. H for as soon as understood the laws will compel editors to have their emotions recorded when H meeting. Think what that record would show H were the instrument attached to the chair of the H editor of the Morning Redlight or sent to keep H tally on our evening contemporary! It will not H be the reproduction of a hand print on the wall, H but a tell-tale of the emotions of a soul. H When that time comes men will not judge H their fellow men by their own dull senses, but H the story will be the effects of the thoughts of H others materialized. H The instrument is an electric machine, and H what has so far been accomplished and what is H still expected is based on the fact that the human H body's resistance to an electrical current in- S creases with the increase of the emotions. H The stories already told by it are wonderful M and it has only been worked upon by near friends. H The men at work do not expect to complete it H for a long time, so much is there for it to do, but H what has already been done gives them ample H encouragement to persevere. H The thought behind it is a wonderful one, and H gives glimpses of the possibilities which still H wait on efforts of poor mortality. |