Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1875-03-06
THE ACT.
you shall comprehend oil vasrom lei

THE vAGRANCY ACT.
"You shall comprehend oil vagrom men,"
-DoGBERRY.
Eureka is, perhaps, as badly afflicted
in proportion to its population AS any
town in the State with that class OF
worthless material which is defined in
the following section of an act passed
by the Legislature of 1873, entitled
IAN act concerning Migrants and va
grancy," which reads as follows:
Every person Except Indians) with
out visible means of living, who has
the physical ability to work, and who
does not, for the space of ten days,
make proper inquiry for, and use due
diligence, to seek employment, o
labor when employment is offered
him; every healthy beggar who So
licits aims as a business; every person
who cams about from place to place
without any lawful business; every
idle or dissOlute person., or associate of
known thieves, who wanders about the
streets at late or unusual hours of the
night, or who lodges in any barn,
shed, shop, clubhouse, or place other
than such as is kept for lodging pur-
poses, without permission of the owner
or party entitled to the possession
thereof; every person who frequents
gambling rooms, not being employed
therein as an attache, "check guer-
rilla," /. e., one who frequents gam
bling rooms, and solicits money, or the
checks used therein to represent
ey, from the proprietors, bystanders
or betterS, and who has no other means
of living other than the money OBJ
tanned thereby; every lewd and disso-
Lutte male persCc who lives in and
about houses OF ill-fame; and every
common drunkard, is a vagrant, and
punishable by Imprisonment i'm the
county Jail not exceeding ninety days.
The enforcement of this statute in a
few exemplary instances would un-
doubleday have a most salutary effect.
The arrest and conviction of a few of
the most incorrigible cases would serve
as a warning to others, who would
either seek some legitimate employ
ment or light out for greener fields
and pastures new. We refer more
particularly to that class of individuals
who, in the full vigor OF physical man
hood, are too indolent to work and too
cowardly to. steal, who exc out a pre-
carious existence ny laying around
saloons and faro games, and "striking
for a piece every successful better or
other person whom they think is cred
ulols enough to believe that the money
will ever be returned, or too good
natured to refuse them. There is no
reason on earth why these fellows
should be supported by men who are
no better able to earn their living by
honest industry than themselves.
They are OF no use to the community
in which they live, to the world at
large, or to themselves. They are
lei pensioners upon the bounty Of
a class of people that can but ill afford
to contribute towards supporting them
in idleness. In their present position
they are not worth four bits q dozen
for any earthly purpose, but by rigid
enforcement Of the above statutory
enactment. some of them at least
might be driven to the necessity of
earning by honest labor the bread
they eat. They come as fully under
the provisions of the statutes as does a
highwayman or a burglar, and are a
more ~intolerable nuts nee than either,
and the law concerning them should
be as rigidly enforced. A few cases as
examples will prove sufficient. The
balance, when they are given to un-
derstand that they will no longer be
permitted to subsist by their present
contemplate practices, will either rid
the community Of their presence or
resort to some other means-of which
there are none more discrsditable-of
earning . livelihood. The enforcement
Of the law will meet the approval of
all the decent people in the town, and
It is to be hoped that the matter will be
taken in hand by the proper author
tiles.
HnN Tuoa Wpr~ -Tho folIow;nu