The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-29

without remedy de may be riding in a car
filed with passengers, nearly all of whom are
respectable citizens, but in She event of his
being made the target Of brutal insolence his
peacesbly- disposed fellow passengers will, in
nine cases out of ten, keep their sentiments to
themselves, and represent the cause of order
by mastery inactivity. Nobody knows
whether the foul-mouthed aggressor may
not by an alderman or part proprietor Of some
local justice. He might have the ear of the
Governor, or might be one of the shoulder
bitters who bask in the smiles of Tweed
TO forcibly eject such fellow, in the inte-
rests of decency and order, might somehow
turn out to be a State prison offense, while
TO demonstrate with him might probably be
the signal for little promiscuous shooting,
for which he would not unlikely 90 unpun-
ished. In such case, therefore people who
value their lives aud their liberty cautiously
let the insolent rowdy alone, and oonpratu-
late themselves that they have not happened
to the recipient of his attentions As for the
drivers and conductors of street cars, we
have yet to hear of one who will turn a pas
senger out for any reason short of being
unable to pay his fare. He NAV be disgust
ingly drunk, filthy in speech or violent in
conduct; but the company s servants, having
but low idea at any time of the decencies
proper to public conveyance, may proba-
bly, have certain sympathy with the Of
fender, and will certainly not, unless in very
exceptional cases, have bim put out or ar
rested.
melancholy illustration of how much a
ruffan may dare and do with the tolerance of
on-lookers wes given on Tuesday night. Mr.
Avery ID. Putnam was a passenger in a
Broadway car, and was accompanied by two
ladies. He occupied seat near the door
opening on the front platform. Beside the
driver stood a man named Foster, said to be
al ex-conductor of the Broadway and Seventh
avenue line. This fellow took it into his
head to exercise the natural right of New
York rough to insult lady. He opened the
door several times, and by look and action
behaved insolently towards the younger of
Mr.. Putnsm's female companions. quiet
remonstrance from the gentleman APP
pears to have been regarded by the
rovdy as perfectly unwarranted in-
reference with his special prerogatives.
Awaiting the time when Mr.. Putnam and
his companions alighted, Foster seized the
hook of the apparently sympathetic driver,
and stepping from the car, delivered his VIC
tim blow the head which fractured the
skull, and will probably result fatally A
more atrocious outrage it would be impossi-
BILE to imagine, and its significance lies in the
fact that nobody who has any experience of
right-cars will be greatly astonshed at it.
People will say that the safest rnle in such
cases is not to notice the affront, but quietly
to get out of harms way by allghtiug. But
will they at the same time reflect how utterly
degrading to the inhabitants of the greatest
city of the greatest of free people is the
confession involved here? Our roughs have
got the upper hand of us, aud we give
sDeaking Endorsement to their rule. Tdeirs
is the unbridled license, and ours the quak-
ing submission. Theirs lis the power to COM
mand executive pardons, pigeon holed in
dictments, and reverence from the police.
Ours are the taxes that maintain ruffiauisna
III riotous and insoleut ease, aud ours are the
votes they are hired to render worthless.
The morbidly cautious passengers of q
street Car are but type of the society to
which they belong. We are sacrificing man
hood, fair play chivalry, everything that is
worth being proud of, from slavish fear of
the dregs of our populace who have come to
the surface. How inseparable are political
misrnle and social license is brought home to
every mans understanding by an incident
like the present. If our ruffisns were not
pampered, fiattered, and paid by the knavlsh
ring that misgoverns us, they would be far
less bold and infinitely less dangerous There
is no perceptible dividing line between the
men who, If the law did its duty, would
be in the State Prison and the men who
control both the prevention and the punish
ment of crime. Their interests are perfectly
identical, and those who believe in the
stability of the one will be likely to fear to
dispute the immunities Of the other If the
public who ride III street cars woNld respect
themselves little more, and the class of
rowdies a little less, we should soon see
marked reform in the insolent de-
mesnor of these worthless, and perhaps a
corresponding regard to decency in their
political patrons. 1t will he but melan-
choly consolation to the relatives of Mr..
| Putnam to be told that he has fallen victim
to such brutal passion as grows up side
by side with political depravity, and to
| whose excesses we are all equally liable.
| The present offense is so monstrous that it
| cannot fail to excite universal sentiment
of public indignation. 1t may thus help to
direct attention to the primary causes that
render such an act possible. 1t will without
| doubt, incite general demand for the better
| regulation oi our street cars and a more care
| full choice of the men to whom they are en-
trusted. Mr.. Putnams unprovoked and brutal
murder may thus, by the startling disclosure
| it affords of the need for reform, be the
means of producing partial remedy for SINH
lar outrages. For his sorrOwiug friends
| every respectable inhabitant of this commu-
| nifty will have but one sentiment of heartfelt
| sympathy and for his dastardly assailant but
one indignant demand for the full measure of
| justice
| IFyFsHaREzggsf -Z---[-1