The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1872-10-01
For the Register.
A Plea for a State Police,

Plea for a State Police,
To the Legislature elect of Vermont
-GENTLEMEN Il have run over a list
OF your names with peculiar satisfaction.
There are honored ones among them,
names Of men Of sturdy honesty, hard to
buy, cheat or coax. Let me promptly
call your attention to Vermont's great
want.
My dear native state has good laws,
but they will not execute themselves.
Good men who know of breaking hate
to get neishbor into trouble. A mans
barn is sometimes safer if he will let law
breakers alone. A minister's garden
could be robbed in sermon time, under
the eyes Of a sick wife, and while the
neighbors knew the thieves, and no arrest
might follow, because no one would be
willing to incur the enmity of the lawless.
We manage that better in Massachusetts,.
The deacon's daughter, girl of four
teen, writes letter to the State consta-
Bile, or to a deputy in a neighboriug
town. She gives her name and age, her
fathers name, the witnesses to the offence,
but perhaps not the name of the offender.
Soon deputy comes along, but keeps
away from the deacon's. The next thing
the girl knows of her letter is that the
offenders have been convicted, and that
curses long and deep are heaped upon the
constable, this particular deputy "whom
everybody knows to be a villain, and the
unknown instigator of the prosecution.
Sometimes there is an unsuccessful
search for stolen goods in the house of q
known thief, and then there is an outcry
against the violation of domestic privacy.
And the search is the more aggravatlng
because it is made by a practiced hand,
that could find keg in tub Of soft soap,
in barrel of -four, under ton of coal
or in groove in the cellar. Such men
have the sincerest enemies in the world.
and the most ardent.
Burglary is now a profession. The
gangs live in cities and forage in the
country. have known couple of dep
uties to follow pair of burglars out
twenty miles and fifteen miles back. Then
they confronted them at the stable.door
of tavern. Pistols were drawn, first by
the burglars, then by the deputies. Sew
eral rapid shots were fired at a distance
of six feet. One burglar died then and
there the other is in States prison.
The deputy follows the circus through
the state, attends every muster, fair,
camp.meeting, commencement, and every
gathering to which the pick-pocket has a
call. The Boston gamblers den has an
iron door and sentinel, but they never
sit down to quiet game without pickets
in the streets; and these precautions cast
a gloom over the proceedings within. In
fact, the institution is nearly obsolete in
Massachusetts, and this is entirely due to
our inexorable State police. A slight
change will probably be made in the laws
this winter that must abolish the last
gambling house in the Bay State.
The police overpay its expenses by q
very considerable sum. Its members are
the chief witnesses against criminals. The
fees that would have been paid them
had they not been in the pay Of the state
were Sl7, ,Sl2.S3. Had this been earned
by business men, it would have been at
a loss of $50, 900; but more than half the
men convicted would have escaped be.
cause of failure of witnesses to appear
Peddler's licenses brought in S14,4
but for the police, they would not have
reached the sum of s433. The liquor
confscated and turned over to the State
commissioner was estimated at $50 900,
The gaming house furniture sold for ST.
1856, and the liquor vessels for S901 .23.
The fines and costs paid on prosecutions
originated by the police were s173.199..
81. Tnc stolen property returned to
owners by them was estimated at $780,
lSl.S6. These sums, putting the licenses
at $4,000, and throwing out the Ii.
quor, foot at S232, ,l0475. The annual
cost Of the police is about exactly half
that sum. The saving by the prevention
OF crime is beyond calculation to the VIC
Tins, the criminals and the State mil.
lion is too small an estimate.
Outside the circle of jail.blrds there is
but one objection to the State police ::
they execute the proh,bitory law. Even
that is regarded by my neighbors as an
advantage. They want quiet neigh.
borhood. If they spree, they prefer to
do 1t in Boston. But We should have a
dozen liquor shops in month if the po.
lice were abolished. Five of my nearest
neighbors have been the victims of their
persecutions-several Of them within a
week. Some, at least, are better men
for their chastisement, and the town has
probably not glass of liquor or beer for
sale in it, except by the town agent.
Boston is an immense spirit mart. In
its neighborhood, in 1860, was made ST.
S2S,334 worth its export trade far ex-
ceeds that sum. Into its bounds has been
driven most of the retail trade of the
State. 1t is useless there to institute a
prosecution against man whose trade is
500 day. The sheriff and prosecuting
attorney fear him. At worst he is fined
once week for first offence" The
profits Of an hour balance the loss. But
year by year the circle Of fire is narrow
ing around him. All over the state, as
in our own, there is stiff majority for
prohibition.
Now, gentlemen, give Vermont just
such police as there is here, and you
will have earned the curses of the out.
laws of New York and Boston, and the
blessings of your constituents. Yours
truly, l. f. H.
A FALSE STATEMENT e CoNTRADIcrED.-
At a reunion OF Grand Army Posts held
at Arlington, last Thursday, Col. Sibley,