Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-10-12

CHILD CRIME-THE SECRET BALLOT.
Special Correspondence of THE EVENING STAR.
New YORK. Oct IL.
Yesterday the committee on the worlds fair
went back again to first principles and held
mass meeting at which reports were heard
from the various subcommittee and policy
sketched out for the future. During the week
the enterprise has taken more definite shape
than ever before, but still it is in a very I'M
| satisfactory condition. Even after everything
was passed upon yesterday the fair could not
be said to have passed out of the stage of a
project. Nor can it be more than that until
Congress shall have put its imprimatur on the
scheme. The committee see number of
troublesome law suits ahead of them the minute
they try to inclose the desired site. and it does
not yet appear where they will find
the money to take the first steps toward
occupying land and building upon it. One of the
recommendations from the buildings and site
committee was TO the effect that III view of in
evltable litigation authority should be procured
from the Legislature not only to condemn land
put to instruct the courts to advance ali worlds
far business so as to decide all points at law
within ninety days. This recommendation
shows the anxiety and the desperation of those
who are best acquainted with the situation.
THE DEADLY ELECTRIC LIGHTS.
Mayor Hugh Grant has got his Irish mad up
about electric lights. The companies have
been killing about man day for some time
and as mayor of the city Mr.. Grant has con-
Guided it devoves upon him to defend it's in
habitaDts so far possible. As the Sun said
recently, Singapore has had the name of being
a risky place to live in because of the report
that the tigers in the neiShborhood used to
average a citizen day among them for their
lunch, but that New York had become quite as
dangerous on account of these deadly wires in
the streets that demanded their daily victim.
The comparison is not exaggerated, for as a
matter of fact far more persons are killed by
electricity in New York than by tigers in SIM
Gapore.
WAR OF EXTERMINATION.
Mayor Grant demands that these death-deal-
ing wires shall themselves go under ground in
stead of hurrying inoffensive people their be-
fore their time. He has already obliged the
telegraph companies to rid the principal streets
OF the nuisance of wires and poles and now he
has declared war of determination against the
more dangerous if not unsightly wires of
the illuminating companies. OF course the
companies insist that they are burying their
wires as rapidly possible, but no one is de-
celved longer by such humbug. 1t is as plain
as print that these companies have no inten-
ton OF doing more than they are compelled to
do, and it is because of this selfish stolidity on
their part that they get no pity from the public
when at times they are driven little too
harshly by exasperated authority. In the
meetings of the board of electrical control
during the week past it has been admitted by
the companies themselves under the mayors
interrogations that these exposed wires are
constant menace to life. The managers of the
companies confess that they would not dare to
touch one of their own wires to find out
whether 1t was properly insulated or not.
Edlson's witty remark to the proprietor Of one
of the arc light works IN London, that his
operatives had better move into a powder
factory for safety" sums up the situation very
clearly.
AN EPIDEMIC OF CHILD CRIME.
It's an old maxim that things go by epidemics,
and just now we seem to have an epidemic Of
child crime in this city. Within a fortnight
there has been succession of most revolving
crimes committed by mere children. To in
stance few samples there was the abduction
OF nine-year-old boy by gang of boy tramps;
then a few days later we had a story about a
gang of kindergarten toughs who assaulted in
central and very respect table part of the city
good little boys on their way to school and stole
their watches and knocked them about And
two or three days ago we had a shocking ac-
count of a group of twelve and fourteen-year-
old street girls who killed one Of their number
in free fight. Perhaps Young America is no
worse than usual but the constant recurrence
of these items is rather uncomfortable. OF
course in the case of the boys one obvious
CAUSE VI tulS precOclOu5 uepTdVllV Is the Vlle
cheap literature of the sleuth-hound, boy de-
tective, Observation-Disclosures type. As re-
CARDS the girls l am told that one
very demorallzing new practice is the
custom that is growing of sending them
to bar rooms and of voluntary patronage Of
saloons by the girls. All who have visited
foreign countries. and especially England, have
been shocked by the spectacle of women and
children herding in the gin palaces This
habit, unfortunately, is spreading rapidly in
this city. Most saloons have their Family
entrance" where women and children are sold
liquor much as in similar places abroad. And
as Americans and foreigners living in America
seem unable to indulge themselves with any
kind of moderation this evil is becoming ram
pant and must be checked. Great Britain is
drunken enough, heaven knows, but even there
one does not find that obnoxious, rowdy brawl-
ing type which our looser police administra-
ton and something in our very atmosphere de-
velop In this country. One might hunt the
world over, including the Cannibal Islands,
and not find such bad manners as can be
studied on the elevated railroads late Sunday
afternoons, when the hoodlum element is re-
turning from looking Through nature up to
natures God" in the beer saloons and base ball
lots of the suburbs.
ALLoPATHY AND HOMEOPATHY.
In Washington, where homeopathy is so
strong, much interest will be felt in the fight
between the two schools before the next legis-
Nv hibahy. no uOucOpdtIlstS charge
the allOpathists with a scheme to get into ope-
ration a licensing board to be controlled by
them which will refuse to grant licenses to any
other school, and last night they had a meet
ing at the Ophthalemic hospital in this CITY to
organize for the fray. Every homeopathic
doctor in the state is expected to contribute 81
to a campaign fund The homeopathists' idea
is that there should be two or three licensing
boards, representing the different schools.
which could issue licenses on an equal basis OF
authority and regularity.
THE SECRET BALLOT SYSTEM
Politicians here are watching with keen in
terest the working of the secret ballot system,
and they scarcely know what to make of it.
The "organzers," bosses and other "wheel
horses" in short the party hacks, are verv
much afraid that it will develop independent
voting to an alarming extent. The power of
these men consists in their ability to
who has attended election booths
is familiar with the ordinary modus operandi.
The worker" overlooks the voters he controls
| and makes sure that they vote fright" BY CIV
ing them their ballots in the first place and see
| ing that they do not get exchanged or mixed
up till they are dropped into the ballot boxes
Where party is well disciplined and the rank
and file are under the command of captains of
tens and captains Of fiftes il lis easy under the
present system to "bring out the vote" But
where the voter retires into closet, selects
his own ballot, covers it in an envelope, and
then deposits it, how is the captain going to
know IL the man has voted the straight ticket