St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-03-05
MINNEAPOLIS.
IIMhLY 1UflIs,.

The terrible case in the municipal
court yesterday comes at just the right
time to demonstrate not only tie wis
dom but the necessity for some such ac-
ton as has been taken by the health de-
partnent for the quarantining Of GER
tain infectious diseases which are
certainly more terrible and lasting in
their effects than the contagious dis
eases, TO the quarantining of which no
objection is made. 1t was proven on
the stand that some half-d0zen hoys
whose ages were about sixteen years,
had visited vile woman and had from
her contracted disease which has
planted the seeds of suffering which
may extend to as many families, and
for more than one generation. 1t Is
said that the number of victims OF the
depraved woman is at least forty-all
boys who were too young to understand,
let alone appreciate, the consequences
of their folly. The ease came to the
knowledge of the police through re
port to the health department, and such
punishment as IL is possible to inf1lct
upon the wretched woman has been
dealt out to her; but, better still, a stop
has been put to her terrible practices,
and an illustration has been brought to
the attention of the public Of the danger
of listening to the cutlery of theoretical
mOraliSts who say ''let the sinner suf-
fer rather than that there should be
any protection afforded to those who
violate certain laws of society, e|en
though ignorance and indiscretion
rather than ViciUuSneSS is the cause.
~
There has been considerable comment
caused by the withdrawal from the
budget of bills by Aid. Bradish of a
bill for 500 for services of the stenOg-
rapher in the cOmptroler's office, and
all sorts Of theories have been advanced
In explanation of it. The facts in the
case are these. When the present de-
partment of healthwaS organized Dr.
Kilvington discovered that under the
law the city was entitled to consider
able amount of money from the county
for taking care of contagious and liz
fictitious diseases. Just how much this
was no one knew. and the only way to
arrive at anything like a definite con-
clusiOn was to 20 over all the bills in
the cOmptrOler'S office. This entailed
an immense amount of work, and at the
request of the committee on health and
hospitals the StenOgrapher was EN-
pIOyed. The work done by the stenog-
raphrr so far has SHOWN that the county
is indebted to the city for taking care of
contagious and INFECTIOUS diseases, about
$4,000.
The attempt to GUST the assignee of
Wilmer d. Gutenberg, which has been
before Judge Smith tor four days and
was decided yesterday, was one OF the
most important cases, from legal
point Of view. which has occupied the
attention of the court this year. Judge
Smith says that it is probably the only
case of the kind that has ever been
tried in the United States, ana
by the last legislature. That statute
provides that, whenever a majority
of the creditors, both IN number and
amount of claims, desire that the as
Sgnpe he removed it can be done. arbi-
tTarIly, and that Is what the st. Paul
creditors of Wilmer & Gresenberg at
tempted t. do. Judge Smith held, they
bought up claims and then split them
up among several disintereSted parties
in order 10 secure majority in number.
For instance: They would take $1,000
claim and split it into seven parts, EN-
teTing each part as separate claim by
g separate creditor. Twenty-0ne claims
were SO treated, enough to have given
them a majority in number, had they
not been thrown out by the
court. That left only majority in
amount. which alone was not sufficient
to secure tile discharge of the assignee.
Had the st. Paul creditors of the firm
succeeded, 1t is probable that a vast
number Of assignment eases would have
been dragged into court throughout the
state, and an enormous amount of liti-
CATION caused thereby. This case
practically amounted to test of the
new law governing the removal Of an
assignee.