The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-07-31
THE RUTLAND DAILY GLOBE TUESDAY MORNING, JULY 81, 1877

dlebury militia company, Saturday-for-
warding to the commanding officer a forged
telegram, signed by the proper authority,
requiring them to report at Rutland imme-
diately to aid in suppressing a riot-was
certainly very funny and the hight of wit,
as practical jokes always are. Its author
was undoubtedly a wag of the first water,
and enjoyed his joke hugely. He must
have laughed to himself at the success of
his joke. It certainly was very funny to
see some forty or fifty good, law abiding
citizens laying aside their ordinary work,
assembling at an armory, arming them
selves, and quietly marching to the depot
prepared to aid in enforcing the law and,
If needs be, giving up their lives for that
purpose. 1t ods funny. How much that
wag must have laughed to himself at the
success of his joke. 1t was very funny to
see these men going, as they supposed, into
danger, going to risk their lives for the
preservation of law and order. But, after
all, did not the chief wit consist in the
striking contrast it afforded 2-the contrast
between the militiamen's devotion to duty
and the outrage on all decency exhibited
by the Middlebury wag? However witty
a practical joke may prove, is there any
thing more mean and contemplate than a
practical joke, especially one of this kindf
The writing, signing and issuing OF the
hO0na tpln0ram no fr1p xuag ,norallu au
much an act of forgery as though it had
been prohibited by statute; and it was as
much a crime against public policy and the
public peace as would be the forging of a
bank bill. Its object and intent was to de-
fraud, and it's effect, just at this time,
| might prove disastrous. We haye in Rut-
land, as we'll as elsewhere in the state, q
dangerous element, and it has needed only
a little spark to kindle it into a flame.
Nothing but the fact that our railroad men
are of a different class from those which
have disgraced other states has preserved
the peace here. Had they not been staid,
sober, intelligent citizens who understood
that the safety of the community is their
safety, and that their protection as well as
the protection of the people is involved in
the public peace, nc one knows what might
have been the result here. 1t would have
taken bat the slightest disturbance con-
nected with the running of the freight
trains to have rallied o mob which would
have taxed the utmost exertions of the
authorities, civil and military to control.
Every intelligent citizen understands this,
and many feared the result. Happily all dan
ger, if any actually existed, is now passed,
and we only refer to it for the purpose of
showing the gravity of the offence com
mitted by the Middlebury wag. Suppose
an outbreak had occurred Sunday or Mon
day, or should to-day, would We not be in
the position of the shepherd who continu-
ally cried "wolt," "wOlt," and when the
wolf actually came could get no aid from
those whom he had so often deceived ?
Would this M%iddlebury company or any
other military company, after this very
funny joke, be very apt to respond to q
call for aid in a case of actual danger I
Wonld they not consider any telegram ask
ing their assistance as another very funny
joke from one of Middlebury's renowned
wags2 Every one who understands any.
thing of human nature knows that such
would be the case and can imagine the dis.
astrous consequences which would be sure
to result.
1t is very strange that with lines of tele-
graph in operation in this state for up
wards of thirty years there is no law max
ing 1t even a misdemeanor to send a bogus
telegram that although it is a criminal Of
Tense to deface a shade tree, yet a telegram
may be forged and delivered, by means of
which fifty men may be called from their
business and taken thirty miles from home,
and it is nothing but a practical joke.
There is, neither by statute or common
law, any crime involved in the forgery of a
telegram, or the issuing as true of a forged
telegram-it is only a harmless piece of
funny mischief. Is it not about time that
measures were taken to protect the CON-
munity from this kind of 'fun," and a
way provided for sending such wags' as the
Middlebury one to state prison?