The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1880-01-29
IRoN-OLAp ORDINANCES.

IRON-0LAD ORDINANCES.
Under pretext Of commencing moral
reform, p the City Council has entertained
q report from the Committee on Health
and Police, which looks little more
like business than anything in that d.
rection we have seen which has at
tempted to assume legal shape, in
long time.
Section provides that it shall be IN
lawful for any person or persons to set
up or keep any sort of house Of ill-repute
or assignation. Section . provides for
punishment, by fine and imprisonment,
any person or persons who shall violate
section l. Section 3 defines the intent
OF section l. Section 4 makes it a
misdemeanor, punishable by fine, for
the owner or agent of any house or ten
ement to rent, lease or ortherwise per-
NIT any premises to be used for the pur-
poses named In section !.
Another ordinance very properly pro-
poses 10 provide efiectuany against any
person carrying any sort Of concealed
weapons. Also, that 20 prostitute,
courtosaa or lewd woman shall stand or
appear al the open door or window Of
any hoass OF Ill-repnts within the city
limits, nOr b sord. sign Or action ply
their vocatIon, etc. etc. II is further
proposed that noneoi these women shall
ride In al open carriage 10 the day time,
nor visit any drinking saloon, under
heavy penalty and that il shall be un-
lawful for any person or persons to dis
turb any lawful assemblage OF people
bv rude and indecent behavior, or be
found lettering at the street corners,
etc. and that no bell, or other sounding
instrument, shall be used upon the
streets as a means Of attracting people
to an auction or other place.
With section Of the first named or
dinance, and the other sections relat-
ing to its enforcement, the wives and
mothers Of men of Portland are in
hearty accord. That such a law is
needed they are painfully aware.
Not one Of them can attend church on
Sunday or go shopping on a week day
without passing these meD-supported
harems, where the ultimate result Of the
generally accepted doctrine of woman's
subjugatiOn to ser is Haunted in their
faces from behind the latticed doorways
Of the dens Of shame.
The next proposed ordinance IL good
in part, and was doubtless the work Of
an honest brain. And yet, when it
comes to denying the right Of any per-
son or persons to simply ride upon the
street in an open carriage in the day
time, OF at any time, no matter who or
what they are, the demand is unconsti-
tutional and silly, besides being wholly
unnecessary. Let section Of the first
ordinance be enforced, and there will be
no need Of any attempt like this to keep
lewd women out Of carriages for the
men from whom they get their money
10 hire carriages will have no place in
the city to meet them, and, with the
cessation Of mems patronage, their bus
tness and credit will cease. Then, as to
their visiting drinking saloons, we say
keep them away by all means; but
keep the men away too If one act is
constitutional, so is the other. What
is sauce for the goose, is sauce for the
gander.
We Ike the proposition for keeping
military drill or musical professions
from annoying public assemblies on
Sunday or any other day and we be-
lieve street gatherings Of every descrip-
tion, including patent medicine vend-
ers and corner preaching and singing,
should be prohibited by law; and that
rude behavior is a misdemeanor, and
should be treated as such. But we con-
slider church bells within the city limits
an objectionable nuisance which ought
to be suppressed along with the auc-
tiOneer's bell-boy, the military parade,
the patent me1icine vender's harangue,
and street singing and preaching.
Grown people ought to know when to
assemble at church. The bells are a
barbarous relic Of by-gone days when
there were no clocks nor newspapers.
aud when nobody but the preacher
could readi aud any business, religious
or secular, that cannot prosper without
them in this era Of intellectual enlieht-
enment is not worth preserving.
II these ordinances are passed, in any,
or all Of their sections, we believe Mayor
Thompson will do the best be can to
enforce them; and yet We do not see
how men are to be kept from supporting
the social evils named, except by the
power Of the military, and even then,
we fear they'd fight family.