Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-08-23
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4
tits assumed, and has been stated
by some whose purpose it is to forward
such rumors, that THE GAZETTE, IN
refusing to publish the resolutions
adopted at law and order meeting III
this city, expressed its hostility to the
object OF such meeting. II is hardly
worth while to refer 10 the utterances
OF THE GAZETTE in the past to show
its active support Of any movement OF
measure la behalf OF virtue and
against crime. The resolutions a.
passed at the meeting Tuesday night
were incorporate in language and I'M
true ia fact, constituting slauder
upon the good people of Fort Worth
and calculated to injure the reputation
of the city. To limit their power OF
hurting as much as possible, THE GA
ZETTE refused to give currency to
those resolutions, and refers to them
now only because other papers,
though with but local circulation have
seen fit to publish them.
The assertion that "bold robbery
has become holder, and murder,
arson, rape, gambling houses and
houses of prostitution have be
come so common and riotous
that 1t il now actually asserted,
etc, etc, is untrue and injurious in
the extreme. Will the gentlemen
who adopted those resolutions, pre-
summing to speak for the people of Fort
Worth, cite the instances of robbery,
arson and rape,p that have made those
crimes so common? There have been
few cases Of robbery in the recent
past, but the victims were usually men
who sought the company Of the law
less element and by exposing their
money offered prize for robbery.
Nobody is in danger of being robbed
in Fort Worth il he will keep out of
the way of robbers, and avoid their
resorts. So general is the feeling OF Sc
curity among the people OF the city
that few of them think of locking
their doors at night, and burglaries are
extremely rare. The reference to arson
and rape as of common occurrence Is
even more unjust than the charge OF
ROBBERY. The number of fires in Fort
Worth Is very few, comparatively, and
almost without exception due
to accidental causes. Incendiarism
Is almost unknown. These gentle
men must have had Dallas i'll their
minds eye when they added ''rape"
to the catalogue of crimes which had
grown so alarmingly common. Fort
Worth is remarkably free from that
crime. There il good foundation for
the charge of excessive prevalence OF
gambling and prostitution in this
city; but there is broad distinction
between these evils and the preceding
enumerated crimes. Robbery, rape
and arson are active, aggressive in
their nature, and may assail anybody,
however much he may avoid them
but gambling and prostitution are
passive and will hurt nobody who
does not seek them. We
do not say that they are any less IA
crime, and that the efforts of all
law-respecting citizens should not be
directed against one as we'll as the
other; but they are not intrusive, and
ifa man does not put himself in the
position of particeps criminis he will
not be hur:.
The real injury, though, to Fort
Worth, Is in the coupling of murder,
robbery, arson, rape, gambling and
prostitution" and asserting that they
have become so bold as to overawe the
better classes, when in fact the active
crimes are of less prevalence in this
city, perhaps, than in any other OF
like size In the state. The reader is
left to judge that one of those crimes il
as great as the other, and that all are
extensive. The opinion of strangers
Is thus warped and made up against
Fort Worth by the testimony of our
own citizens. Tell the truth, but TO
add anything to IL Is TO depart from II