The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1885-11-29

i
papers TO newsdealer John Mershelmer;
and those residents of the Hudson City
district who desire the paper will kindly
notify other dealers to deliver it at their
houses.
Heaven forbid the suspicion 1t isn't
possible that the Journal reporter who
found the two policemen, that should have
been guarding the lower end of Newark
avenue, in the American District Telegraph
Office Sunday night, awaited himself of the
opportunity their inattention to duty
offered to ''crack" the Misses Livingstones
store. And yet be is SO particular to make
his abb cover every second of his time
that one may be excused for thinking that
he desires TO foil suspicion. Ii his alibi
can be sustained, there is an end OF the
suspicion. But he might have fortified it
with some additional details, complete as
tits. He did not tell US what he was
writing in the District Telegraph office,
nor what be ate when he went to the
classic Meschutt's for midnight luncheon.
These may seem unessential details to the
ordinary reader, but they are pregnant
with importance. It isn't possible that,
fresh from the exploit, he was writing up
the story Of the burglaryl And if we knew
whether he disposed Of little repast Of
slugs and slops,p or stopped to relish a
daintier meal of .fcafe and mushrooms"
we could the easier judge whether he was
absent the proper length Of time. Then
he gives the probably over-suspicioms
public notice that he can back up his
abb A friend was with him. The mid
night wanderer who committed the rob-
berry doubtless had IA friend" with him,
too. If we knew who the Journal mans
friend was. we might be in position to
Judge whether he would be capable of
joining the reporter in raid on anything
more vicious than plate of beefsteak and
onions. The Journal reporter should not
haveleft out these particulars, which would
have served as aids to judgment, if he cared
to have his alibi accepted with unquestion-
ing faith. And perhaps, after all, The Journal
scribe does not deserve all the suspicion
or any of it-that his carefully written
alibi seems to invite. He may have rung
himself into his narrative, by way of
letting the Journal editors know that he
burns the midnight tallow in their faithful
service, or to have himself called as WIT
ness at the approaching trial of the
negligent policemen; or it may be possible
that he wanted to let the people know that
Journal reporter can indulge occasionally
IN the luxury of amt al at Meschutt's.
Refnements are being sought ont to ex-
euse the slaughter of four little children
in the ruins of the fallen building on Nor
ris streetlast Wednesday. We were at
first told that the building had been con-
demned and its demolition directed by
the Board Of Aldermen. And then we
were assured that it was not that building
but the building next to it that was the
object of the Aldermanic onslaught, and
that that was destroyed in accordance
with the Board demand All accounts
seem to agree however that the building
which fell was SO insecure that no one
not even the population of squatters who
assume all risks for shelter-would ven-
ture to make home in it. The mere fact
that the Board of Alderman condemned
falling building and failed to condemn an
equally unsafe one adjoining it, will not
excuse the owners from responsibility for
whatever risk attached to his neglect of the
uncondemEed building. If it were not in
condition to keep up on its piers, he is as
culpable as though the Board OF Aldermen
had found 1t out and ordered its destruc-l
ton. If it falls at sacrifice of life, he
should be ::made to answer for it, 'sohll
but the children had no right in il, say
these apologists for the owner. "They
were trespassersl They went in to steal
the timbersl They were more than tres
passersl They were thievesi, The little
ones knew nothing of the law of trespass;
and the rights and wrongs Of the question
cannot be weighed with the same precision
with which they could be determined If
party of adult thieves, presumed to know
the distinction between q Meum and
Tuum.. had paid the penalty of their
trespass with their lives. The law that
justifies the taking of life in exchange
for worthless single has an inapprecia-
BILE element of equity about it. If it exacts
the life of an innocent child because the
little one does not know the law Of tres
pass, it is simply brutal. We hold, on the
other hand, that no man has right to
tempt babes into a death-trap; and that if
they go in at its open doors, and are slain,
q large measure Of responsibility for their
death rests upon him. If there is no law
to meet such case as this, one should be
rushed upon the statute books as speedily
as possible =
The hearing in the great railroad tax
certiorari proceedings has been postponed
by the Supreme Court to the opening Of |
the new year; but meanwhile the highest
Courts in the land are making sadder |
havoc with the railroads case than even
the accomplished jnrists who represent
this State can make, One by one the |
props on which the railroads have built |
IL ...L( 11..-<- H., f~<S. -, /