Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-07-04

CflbeS VIII AhcduSht eA0 OAAuAShSS oAu
| offer up long prayers, by men of business
in their commercial dealings, and by
those in the public service, than that
committed by the poor creature who
daily sells herself for money, and has in
| sll the wide world no one to pity her or
to believe that she is not all evil, except
/ God her Father, who, Notwithstanding
her sin and shame, looks down upon her
with compassion from the heights Of
/ heaven. Hrs love surrounds her al
ways, while He scorns the apostate, the
money-changer of the Temple, the false
Priest, the faithless public servant, the
cold, the selfish and the unfeeIing, the
Apostate and the Hypocrite, the Seducer
and the knave who thrives by others
| losses.
There is still more malignant evil
| that afflicts the body polite in cities,
| than any that we have mentioned. It
/ is the denlOrslizng custom of exempt
ing offenders against the laws from pun
| ishmsnt, and in effect licensing the i'm
I AAAUa AAAAt " AAC4 IAAG ~ NOhOCA41o anu
commands its ministers to extirpate,-a
result that is effected by the levying of
blaek-nlail, or as is done by the Police
authority in Memphis, monthly tribute
upon the keepers of gaming houses and
| the unfortunate inmates of houses Of ILL.,
fame. We have made some inquiry into
this practice, which is itself a crime, and
know the prices paid to the Police, for
immunity from prosecution, by men snd
women. Although q simple robbery, 1t
is a regular source of revenue, and de-
serves, above every thing else In this
city, the Vigilant attention of the Grand
Jury. II the laws for the suppression Of
such houses cannot be enforced, let them
De repealed, for they are simply con-
temptible and bring the whole penal law
into contempt. If such houses are ne
cessity Of society, as would seem to be the
case in every country, it would be better
to license them at once, than to permit
the secret system of matchmaking,
which offers the opportunity and holds
out the temptation to those who should
enforce the laws, to steal.
Who knows the amount thus levied
monthly in Memphis? Who knows the
number Of men and women thus virtu-
ally licensed to ply their vOcstions
Who knows how much of the money
thus received is accounted for?
So much as this we learn from one who
has had opportunity to be well informed,
that the sum Of one hundred dollars per
month is regularly levied upon every
gaming house, twenty-five dollars a
month on the keeper of every house ofill-
fame, and from ten to fifteen dollars a
month on each Of the unf0rtunates, who
more deserve commiseration than TO be
plundered. How these Ievies are account
ed for, we DO not know. They are all ille-
gal exactions and extortiOns, not one jOt
more justifisble than those of the ban
dittl of the Appenines, who capture
traveller; demand ransom for him OF
his friends; if they refuse, cut off an ear
and send it to them, and upon another
refusal stab the victim and throw him
into a ravine.
Certainly these moneys, sharess0f the
wages of vice and debauehery and of the
piunder Of the gaming table, do not ap-
pear accounted for in the monthly re-
ports Of mo eys collected by the Police.
The statistics of the establishments 80
taxed are not given to the public. We
propose to take steps to procure them.
We do not charge and Of course do not
mean to insinUate, that any of these
moneys are appropriated to private uses.
We only say that it is quite possible for
that to be done without detection, if
greed or inclination prompts to it. We
shall not, even by insinuation, impeach
the honesty OF any public officer, if he be
only policeman, without proof Of the
fact.
We are quite aware, also, that the
same system Of black mailing prevails in
other cities, perhaps in all. Whether
the same absence OF responsibility, the
same HOn-sccountability prevails else
where, we DO not know. 1t is the sys-
tenn that we denOunce, and not individ-
uals,-the whole system OF selling i'm
munity for vice or prohigacy or crime,
for the payment Of a monthly stipend.
That it prevails elsewhere makes it none
the less abOminable. 1t makes the pub
lie to be the secret partner OF the gam
bier aDd prostitute, sharing the profits of
their trade, while its laws declare them
infamous. u is infinitely worse than
the tax levied by Vespasisn for
it sells for money the privilege of doing
what it in the same breath pro-
scribes as infamous. 1t is an equal
outrage on the parties, because
it Furnishes them by penalties, without
trial and conviction, and, as to the cour-
texans, absolutely without any law what
ever. These are dealt with hardly
enough, without oppression by officers of
the law and there is no warrant Of law
for entering a house, when there is no
disturbance or disorderly conduct to be
not in the commission of any offence
known TO the law, incarceratiDg them
dragging them before E Commissioner,
to sink them lower than before in their
own estimation, that they may, through
modification and despair resort to even
more ruinous courses, In order by flee.
cling them without authority of law and
for no offence known to the law, to
swell the monthly report Of fines, and
increase the revenue of a city, or help pay
the expenses of the police, with moneys
wrung from the miserable or the vicious.
The truth is that the whole business of
police justice in this city, SO far as we
are able to judge, the imposition of exor-
bitant fines by arbitrary Magistrates. on
poor devils whose worst offence is
that they are unfortunate, or weak
with the mere frailties of human
nature, the inings without law,
and the general vagaries of the magis-
tracy are singular mixture of the abb
surd and in guitous; but there is moth
ing in it all so utterly indefensible, 80
reprehensible, so much the patron OF
vice and debauchery, as the system of
leyying black mail. 1t is a misdemeanor