The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1884-10-11
OH, OMAHAl
The Send-Of Giren the City By One of its
Leading Journals.

The Send-Of Giren the City By One of its
Leading Journals.
Omaha Republican
Is this a city of civilization or den
of thieves? Do the drunken policemen,
the thieving contractors, the house
breakers, the burglars in and out of the
city council fairly represent the intelli-
gence and morality of the city or do
they notp In heavens name what has
come over the people of Omaha that
they permit thieves and cutthroats to
ply their trade in peace?
Sodom had no less care of itself than
Omaha has. With us it is not so much
depravity as wicked, criminal, damn
able apathy. People in this town who
claim to have brains and energy have
permitted the city council to steal their
front yards, trees and flower gardens
and to leave their houses slap against
the street. Real men would have re-
sisted this sort of unwarrantable indig-
nifty. Even if the city possess the legal
right to the ground, the city council
would have had hard work to secure it
for the nefarious purpose OF giving
some fattening contractor a ''job"-if
the men of Omaha had possessed energy
enough to call meeting, or write to a
newspaper.
Who cares? When the mayor and
the marshal of this city were selling their
positions daily to the gamblers and
prostitutes, who caredP The people?
They had no more interest in the matter
no more desire to secure good, honest
government, than the horses that draw
our street cars. The newspapers, as
sisted as soon as was possible by the
district attorney, drove out the late
venal administration. The people had
nothing to do with it. If the Shah of
Persia should claim dominion over
Omaha, the people would accord it as
matter of course, and would shut their
eyes and ears to his personal vices and |
official maladministration.
We have been trying to get some |
pavements, and the chances are that we |
have been dealing with thieves from |
beginning to end. The Asphalt men, at |
least, have outrageously violated their
contract and imposed upon the people |
as shamelessly as any common robber |
could have done. And this is the peo-
pies fault. They will not watch-they
do not care. They expect to be robbed,
and they are robbed. Wren they meet
a stranger they give him all they have,
and pass on in silence. Omaha is eX-
pending hundreds of thousands of dol
lars in improvements and there are not
ten men in this city of $4,000 people
who know or care how the money goes.
1t is disgrace that will curse this mu-
nicipality for years, and it ought to.
s ~ =,
in the city, will he look at that city
council and tell us how he expects
watchfulness, intelligence and scrupu-
lous integrity to have any show in such
a crowd? Honest men are there, but
most of them are so dumb that thief
can easily impose upon them. And
whether they are honest or not, there
are not in the body more than three or
four who have any better right to be
at time like this than they {
have to be astronomers. And they rep {
resent the people {
Twenty-Five policemen, most of them
asleep, drunk, or spending their time {
in orgies in houses of prostitution, while {
people in other parts of the city are '
being slugged and robbed this is fair I
picture, and yet it will awaken no emo t
ton. The citizens of Omaha are used |
to it. They have made its production t
possible and its reproduction neces {
sity. There is no law and it is their {
fault. They do not care. Let the ]
thieves thrive, the jobbing contractors {
steal, the door-yards vanish, the fraud I
nlent pavements rot away, the police i
men drink and sleep, the sluggers muir {
der and the burglars ply their trade S
here is nobody to oppose their wishes t
IL to punish their crimes. /