Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-11-01


1t Is with reluctance that we are called
upon to comment upon the unusual
prevalence of crime in our city which it
has. of late, been our unpleasant duty
to chronicle. To say nothing of the re-
cent riots in our midst, with which the
public is already familiar, two murders
and one dastardly attempt at murder
have been reported in less that two
weeks. and it seems that Sunday is the
favorite day for the commission of vii
famous deeds. On Sunday week, the
mutilaeed body Of the murdered fireman
of the steamer Crimdon was found lying
in the streets; before week had passed,
a negro employe at the Central Railroad
wbarves made a desperate attempt on
the life of Mr.. John Foster, and yester-
day morning there appeared in our local
columns another account of the probable
murder on the day before Of the colored
man James Pollard, by the negro James
Williams. And what is worse, the vii
lains who have thus reflected so much
discredit upon the city of late have, as a
rule, so far, gone unwhipt of justice, for
of the three murders and one attempt to
murder, committed recently, with the
exception of the case reported Yesterday,
all the criminals are still at large. We
refer to the murderer of the lamented
Sergeant Harvey, to the murderer or
murderers of the sailor Pedro, and to
the murderous assailant of Mr.. Foster.
This is a fearful record, and it is
made all the more startling from the
well recognized reputation of Savannah
for law and order and the prompt pun
ishment of offenders. What is the
cause of this sudden epidemic of crime
and impunity to criminals we know not.
We have one of the most efficient police
forces in the United States, and force
always prompt and ready to do its whole
duty, but, nevertheless, criminals
escape, and justice is cheated.
Perhaps the force is not
sufficiently large to be as efficient as ne
cessities demand, or perhaps when crimi-
nails are once out of the State, or beyond
the confines of the corporation, not suf
ficient inducement for their arrest in the
shape of rewards are presented. In either
event the remedy should be applied, and
whatever else may be necessary to make
crime fearful to criminals, and force
them to respect the laws should promptly
be adopted.
We know that many will take the
ground that we should not give so much
prominence to this state of affairs, as it
is likely to injure the city, but we hold
otherwise. In the first place, it cannot
injure Savannah, for the present is an
abnormal condition of things, and is no
worse than exists elsewhere, and besides,
the villains invariably, as soon as their
misdeeds are committed, strive, without
delay, to shake the dust of the city
from their feet, and place themselves
beyond the reach of our local authori
ties, thus giving proof of the fact that
they dread the usual promptness Of our
city government in ferreting out and
Furnishing crime. In the next place it
is clearly the duty of journal, interest
ed heartily in the welfare of the city, to
expose fully, and comment freely upon,
whatever is matter of public interest
requiring rectification, with the view of
arOusing a determination afresh that
such rectifcatiOn shall be accomplished.
This is why we, at this time, dwell so
strongly upon the matter under cOnsid.
Grafton. We trust that those in authori-
ty may at once redouble every exertion
to bring the criminals now at large to
speedy justice, and to stamp out the
spirit of lawlessness of late so startlingly
manifested. Let the police force, if
necessary. be doubled; let liberal rewards
be offered for lawless and desperate char
acters who may have eluded police vigi-
lance, and then when captured let stern
punishment swiftly and speedily follow.
If this be done, we shall soon hear no
more of crime in Savannah, and we shall
be relieved of the most unpleasant duty
of chronicling and calling public atten-
ton to criminal misdeeds.