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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 11, 1897)
-!" "? S r--' ;xq ' i -ks "s. -Jr A i 1 u S Is THE COURIER. '-fat M lt i ftT ' tit & y ft and non-partisan investigation of a filthy city, decided upon the cause and recommended the only cure to a mayor who was disinterested, able and honest enough to take their ad vice. Women as investigators of a city's sanitary and moral condition are a success. They arc hereditary enemies of dirt and tilth. The in. spection of streets and naughty people is simply an extension of her housekeeping and family functions. On that day when woman enters the municipality the reign of the scrub bing brush will begin and the United States will be a cleaner, hence a "healthierplace to live in. Woman isno better than man, but she is daintier. There are certain sights and smells which would disapear before her rule in the city as they have in the Jiouse. The welfare of the children "would be to her then, as now, the most important object. The saloon interferes with this object, more than anything else, therefore it would .have togo. If .saloon-keepers are wise they will opiose woman suffrage with might and main until the influence is too strong for them. If the mayor -should think best to appoint a member of the City Improvement Association to act as inspector of signs and pesters he could be sure of one member of the force who will not carry skeleton keys to offices ofT their beats, who will not connive with thieves to look the i) other way and who will not curse a '; dying man or woman who chances to : be wrought into the station when she is preser. Such an officer would feel lonesome in the police force, but, in time might raise the standard of it. jt It is gratifying to The Gouuieu and to all decent people to receive the -assurance of the city authorities and County Attorney Munger that the gamblers of the city have kindly con sented to suspend operations for the present. But the assurance does not carry conviction. Mr.Munger's guard ed and cemplaisant interview pub lished in the Nctcs of last Monday, is. to say the least, irritating. In it, he .again takes the untenable position "that if the officials brought a proper complaint before him, with evidence, enough to make out a case, it would be prosecuted." Mr. Munger is too good a lawyer not to know that this . excuse will not do. It is the special business and duty of a prosecutor to hunt up the testimony to secure the conviction of criminals. Sheriff Trompen detailed a deputy the other day who scoured the city, dove into a cellar and tore down a stone wall to recover a barrel of whiskey, then climbed into a block and broke open a door to seize a few boxes of cigars, supposed to belong to an absconding debtor, all because a determined attorney wanted to enforce a civil process and collect a debt. Let the county attorney show a like de termination and see if ''enough evi dence to make out a case"' is not forthcoming. J The Jfews statement further says, "Mr. Munger was not inclined to hold himself responsible if recent reports are true."' The reports referred to are the statements published in all the city papers, giving the time and place where the crime of gambling was perpetrated in Lancaster county, during the week of the free silver conventions. With this knowledge at hand Mr. Munger says: "He believes it is his duty to prosecute cases regu Jarly brought before him and that it is the duty of the police to apprehend the law breakers and secure evidence against them." Such talk as this by .a pi osecuting officer, under the con ditions existing in this city, is very discouraging. It is just as much the duty of County Attorney Munger and Sheriff Trompen to suppress crime and bring law-breakers into court, as it is Mayor Graham's and Chief of Po lice Parker's. Mr. Munger further says that" the matter could at anytime Ikj settled by "a positive stand on the part of the city administration. This is obviously true. It is equally true that the matter could at any time be settled by a positive stand on the part of the county administration. If County Attorney Munger and Sheriff Trompen refuse to take the necessary 'positive stand," then public opinion will make them stand in the stocks and their political existence will stand on the gibbet. J There is a olitical phase of this matter which it would le well for the republican leaders to consider. Not the leaders of the Lindsey, and Courtney, stripe, but leaders of char acter, like Whedon, Lambertson,Gere, Field, and the many others who rep resent the moral intelligence of that great party. Ordinarily the republi can party would be certain of victory this fall. Conditions are such this year that the overthrow of the popu list party and the restoration of the republican party to place and power would be inevitable, were it not that there is a conviction in the public mind that the men selected for office by the republicans in the past have proven recreant to the trust. So fla grant has this been that the people, al though they believe in the republican principles of government, distrust the ersonnel of the party. It is all very well to condemn Bartley and Moore in platform and on rostrum, but it will avail little in a community where re publican office-holders refuse to take even a "positive stand"against crimes of feloneous degree. Already there are ominous signs of the coming political reprisal. The sen sational sermon of Dr. Hindman on last Sunday will doubtless be followed by others. Every newspaper in the city is demanding an enforcement of the law. Xearly every family circle is discussing the evasion of duty by our officials. These lead to but one result, the overthrow of the party considered responsible. The, over throw of the republican party in this city and county would practically give the populist party a renewed lease of life. The leaders of the republican party are ignoringa plain opportunity which will not long continue or soon return. j,- J It is probably true that the gam blers exert some little political influ ence, but it is hardly sufficient to jus tify consideration. But even were that influence the potent ''balance of power" it is easily disposed of. Con victs in the penitentiary don't vote and don't control political affairs' Boss Tweed, McLaughlin and Mosher ceased to be political factors when they donned prison stripes. An assurance that they were to be tried for a felony before a jury in this county, and an honest effort made to inflict the penalty of the law upon them, would send every last one of them scurrying out of the state. Has any one seen anything of Kaufman around here lately? Why? Because he was called upon to face a genuine prosecution. It is possible that ouroffirers are frightened by the political power of "Big"' Gleasom "Kid" Crawford, "Pig' Dean. Joe Scroggins and gentlemen of that kidney? If so, then the sooner the laws against vagrancy are enforced and the- city rid of ob jectionable characters the better. Mayor Weir with all his faults knew how to handle this class, and disposed" af them 'in short order. If Mayor Graham had any political sagacity he would do .this comnunity a like service. Everybody knows that as long as well known gamblers loaf around the city they are living by their cliosen avocation or on others' wages of shame. f The gamblers who have infested Lincoln are especially active-in the winter time when the schools in and alxmt Lincoln are full of young men They have ''cappers" on the streets and around the hauntsof the students and induce them to patronize the games. It has come to the knowledge of TiieCoukieu that these"cappers," for the requirements of the stu dent trade in Lincoln, are frequent ly themselves students, degener ate, but of gentlemanly appear ance and manners. By stories of what they themselves have made their victims are induced to hazard and lose all. Tiiere is no reason why Lincoln should be thus infected and run the risk of losing one of the prin cipal agents of prcsiwrity. In New York and Chicago gambling is hunted from one place to another. It is not entirely suppressed, but prosecuting attorneys in large cities know their place too well to permit the law to be broken with immunity. J It is probably true that gambling is conducted with some secrecy in this city. Yet that poker rooms are run ning is well known. Thissecrecy is in some respects worse than open gamb. ling. The publicity of the thing acts in a measure as a restraint upon some desiring to play. Immunity from in terference and assured secrecy "pro motes gambling in a large degree. Counterfeiting, burglary, forgery, in fact nearly all crimes are committed in a secret manner, and the perpetra tor would cause little or no distur bance if not molested, But should that fact stay the arm of the law, nullify the statutes and excuse oath bound officials from informing the duty they are elected to perform? The tennis triumphs of Miss Louise Pound are another witness to the singular capacity of Nebraskans to win against odds, when they are in a content of wits or muscle with opponents from other states. The quality, which for want of a better, is called nerve and which, in this case, means a desire and will to win at the cost of sacrificing energy enough to last a slender frame a year, Miss Pound has shown that she pos sesses. For months before she left for Chicago, her time was occupied by teaching in the state university. She had very little opportunity for prac tice and as a matter of fact her only preparation was a few games with Mr. Geisthardt on the G street court two or three weeks before leaving for Chicago. The Chicago papers call her playing cyclonic. Without grace, without any drawing room reserve, she leapt about the Chicago court and won the game by sheer quickness and strength. The papers criticised her form (of playing) they said it was not scientific or pretty, or like anything that players are accustomed to admire . as technique. But she won and for her staunch grit she ought to be re ceived with the honors that are be stowed on one who wrests victory from defeat and shares it with his bi rtli-place. When she comes" back to Lincoln she should be met by triumph ant brass and drum and by everybody who knows that an ath letic victory of the kind won by Miss Pound means intellect and high cour age more than muscle. Tiie Lincoln Tennis club, upon which she has be stowed fame, should meet her in the most triumphant vehicle at hand which is, for lack of a better, a tally ho coach, and accompanied by those citizens who, since the first Olympiad, have been thrilled by athletic vic tories, escorted to her home. Miss Pound's mental suppleness is also remarkable. The mass of knowledge which she assimi lated in her short life would make appropriate material . for the early life of 3Iacaulay. .She is an assistant in English at the -university but doctors who are local authorities in science hesitate to en gage in any technical discussion of their own subject. They say she has a familiarity positively supernatural with all branches of knowledge and they hesitate to bring their own human accomplis ments intodirect contrast with it. I hope the Chicago players may have a glimpse of the many-sidedness of what it pleases them to regard as a "cyclone." CHARGES JSIVAITRY, 420 mo. EJleventta. at. 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