St. Landry democrat., 1879-03-08
Concealed weapons.
IN. @. City Item.l

m O. City Item.]
There has been no little complaint
omonp the order-loving portion OF our
commnnity regarding the inefficiency OF
the law against the carrying OF con-
cealed weapons, as evidenced by the
number of tragedies occurring in this
city. It seems tous that contempo-
rarv in discussing this question loses
sieht of the real cause Of occurrences
like that OF Mardi- Gras night. We can
not see that the law is any more at fault
in this matter than the press, which has
certainly done its duty in denonncing a
custom SO fraught with evil. We our
selves have frequently inveig,hed against
the practice of earring murderous Wea-
mons vet in pursuing this very course,
we must acknowledge having suspected
the impotency of newspaper influence
in opposing popular folly.
The law is inefficient, indeed but we
can not we'll perceive how it could be
otherwise. No mere penal enactment
can prevent people from dong What
can be done secretly with little FISK OF
detection. so long as there is any rea-
son whatever for doing it. No Ameri-
can community would endure a law
empowering police officers to search any
person they might suspect OF carrying
concealed weapons, on the public streets
or elsewhere. In fact there is no civ
ilized community which possesses such
q law. Yet no other law could avail
against such practice. The man who
carries concealed weapons seldom eX-
hibits them except to use them and IN
that event he generally braves far more
serious consequences than being punish
ed for carrying knife or pistol.
Still it is worthy Of attention that in
England and elsewhere-but particu-
lariy in England,-under laws in this
resDect not a whit more efficient than
our.own, the practice of carrying conceal
ed weapons is little INDUCED in. Muir
derers and thieves the world over carry
concealed weapons; but the United
States is the only highly civilized COM
munity in the world where gentlemen
and persons Of high social distinction
indulge in a practice elsewhere consider
ed peculiar to criminals. Why do not
the English and the Germans carry
concealed weapons as we dog why are
not English pantaloons made with pis.-
tol-pockets as American pantaloons are
Certainly it is not because OF the superior
efficiency Of any special law.
land and in Germany strong popular
| feeling against the carrying OF conceal
| ed weapons exists,--a sentiment sc
strong that the man who carries knife
or pistol feels that the discovery of the
| fact would humiliate him in the eyes of
his friends and acquaintances,-a senti-
meDt that brands the act as cOwardly
| and criminal and unworthy Of a gentle
man. -,
Only such a sentiment as this will
ever do away with the practice in the
United States. People will abandon
this cowardly and murderous custom
when it is pronounced cowardly anc
disgraceful by American society,-Wher
a gentleman endangers his social stand
ing by such a practice,-and when Amer
lean tailors have changed the fashion Of
American pals,aloons. Only CONNER
cial traveller or bank messenger, accus
toned to carry about with him large
sums of money, has any real excuse fo
carrying concealed weapons in civilized
life. There are times and circumstance
which may JUSTIFY a man in temperate.
arming himself ; but we are not speak
ing of individual exceptions, but OF ;
malignant habit.
This is the true manner in our opinion
to regard the evil. Let the practice b.
denounced as unmanly, cowardly, crimi
nal, disgraceful let the press strive t.
create healthy popular sentiment Of
the subject. Only Thus can the vice b.
corrected. No legislation will do it.
And yet something remains to be salt
upon the matter, from a patriotic poin
Of view. 1t is an American practice
this, of carrying concealed weapons
No other Anglo Saxon or German 0
Northern nation is cursed by it. Is
that the virile force of Northern bloo'
is weaker in America than elsewhere
rs it that we are by nature less manl
than our European ancestors ? Surel
not, Is it then because we are bein
contaminated by the customs of Spai
or Corsica +? Certainly pot. The prim
cause is not one Of which we need b
ashamed. This practice to an age i
: which carrying them openly was a ne
cessity of life,-the era of the frontiers
man,-the epoch of pioneer civilization
in West and ath,-the time in whic
men lived with their weapons in thei
hands and slept ready for battle wit
sayaees. As q superstition outlleves
religion, however, so the, practice o
| carrying arms has survived the neces
sity. Our country is young ; and on
social system still in some respects rud
and defective. The necessities of on
age became the vices of later epoch
thus is it with the carrying of conceaie
weapons.