St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-10-14


Every now and then rather more
glaring case than usual occurs to EN-
phasize the objections of sensible men
to the carrying of pistols by the police.
The ill-tempered peripatetic cadies of
the tenement districts behave like YER
table bashaws and seem to club and
pistol people at their own sweet will in
a wonderful way. No wonderfully
are made too much of. An ignorant,
burly ruffian is promoted from Ia
bOrer's position to an income of ST.
200 wear, dressed in clothes that look
to him gorgeous enough for a Major
General, and is bowed down to and flat
tered by an entire population. All the
old women 90 to the ''cop" with their
troubles. All the children take pattern
by him and initiate his strut, his
Oaths, and often his brutality. If he
has Il cold in his nose, or dislOcates his
thumb in an encounter with Il billy
goat, the papers recount the important
circumstance with all the details of
time and place. He is Il sort of court
of first instance, and one policeman in
thickly populated neighborhOod
will decide more cases with owl-like
istrates will in week. His power is
i'll some respects analogous To that of a
Roman Catholic priest in Ireland, and
he thinks he has perfect right to ad-
monish and control everyone within
| his ken. He orders men sitting on
their front stOOps to 20 inside, enforc-
ing his suggestions with gentle taps of
the club. If he sees two boys togeth
er, he calls them ii gang, raps for as
sistance, and gathers in half the crowd
into the police station, shooting the
other one. There are quite number
of excellent officers on the police,
probably indeed majority of the force
are good, but the irresponsible dispen-
ser of sidewalk injustice is more com
mon type. An improvement might
easily be effected by keeping the men
in barracks, giving them clothes and
ratiOns and about - Il day at the very
outside. They might then realize their
true position as servants, not masters,
of the public.
EX-Carpetbag Governor Moses, OF
South Carolina, has been arrested
again for sneak thieVing and swindling.
Such an anomalous product of misdi-
rected Republicanism might advan-
tageOusly be sealed up in bag with
Guiteau, and sent c. O. ID. to the
Apaches. Perhaps they could find
some use for the pair. They're only a
nuisance in these regions.
An amusing and somewhat profitable
trick was started by some enterprising
but unknown spectators, who for Il
day or two must have made lots OF
money by the gullibility of the multi
tude. They struck off innumerable
placards which were distributed III
stores, stating that the government
had put certain values on mutilated
coins. \ little examination of course
would suffice to show ridiculous dis
crepancies in the percentage allowed
and other earmarks of Il fraud but
the coins are nuisance and few peO-
pie took the trouble to make any sort
of examination, but just stuck up the
notices in their stores and over theiI
peanut stands and what not. OF course
the spectators were around, and by
offering just Il trifle more than the al
legged government rate pretty well
cleaned ont the market of detaced sill
yer. A dime with Il hole in it has act
ually become quite rarity. After the
mischief, or swindle, or whatever You
may call it had been perpetrated, the
government woke up and issued Il dig
nified disclaimer of any such prepos-
ferrous order. Meantime IL vast num-
Der of people feel that somebody ha.
got the best of them. RADIX.