San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-09-03
II ShouLpi BE DONE.

The LIGHT Is no alarmist, but 1
San Antonio is going to maintain hel
record as the most desirable city IN
Texas for residence she must get
move on herself. 1t has long been
her boast that for security to person
and property no city in the south car
show q cleaner record. That boast
cannot longer be maintained unless
the city council take instant steps to
increase the police force Of the city,
the night police especially, aud give
more ample projection to the more
thinly settled sections of the corpora
ton. In North Texas, Arkansas and
as far north as st. Louis the tramp
has had his day, and has been driven
out or forced out by reason of an utter
refusal of the people to maintain him.
These tramps have drifted southwark
and reinforcing the bad elements
always found in every city
have evidently camped in
On Antonio. The unprecedented
lawlessness of the past few weeks,
the frequent attempts at highway
robbery in the suburbs and less
thickly settled portions of the cor
porate limits, and the numerous
burglaries and deeds of violence Ere
ported prove conclusively that this
city is besieged by a criminal class
which must be driven out. To effect
this the night force of the city, po-
lice should be strengthened. and the
mounted night police increased very
largely so as to cover the ground in
the suburban districts. The arrest
of all tramps and idIers should be
rigidly followed up, aud every one of
these gentry who cannot give a
straight account OF himself should
be banished the county under pain
of imprisonment at hard labor for the
longest term allowed under the va
grant law. The saloons that run after
midnight should be required to fur
nish their own special police
man, commissioned by the city,
and this would leave score
or so of the present night force
at liberty to move outside of the sa-
loon precincts and more generally
patrol their beats. The special SER
vice night police required for this
emergency might very we'll be in the
nature of secret police force, the bet
ter to observe the movements OF sus-
picious parties them selves unobserved
and totally unsupported. The time
has come to move energetically and
10 move promptly in this matter. The
security of our citizens from robbery
and from personal injury and even
murder is at stake, and being commit
ted to the council of the city it is to
them that the people look for ade-
quate protection. In the meantime
our citizens should use extra precau-
lions in closing their house. We
have been so long accustomed to
sleeping with doors and windows
open in the perfect security the past
has afforded that we have grown
careless. Tn is carelessness may prove
fatal until the city is purged from the
presence of the present gang which
has taken up quarters here. These
deeds of violence on the street are
committed by tramps; these burglar
les by the worst members of the
tramp gang, their information as tC
location OF probable booty secured NJ
doubt from the disreputables of this
city, of whom there are Away
enough:
The remedies for this evil lie in an
efficient patrol OF the city, In the su
burbs ard more thinly settled section
> by the mounted police; and, in tn,
arrest, not only of every suspicion
character, but of every unknown VIII
cannot give proper account of him
self. Follow this up and in fev
days San Antonio will be free as here
tofore, and her citizens secure alik
from flood, fire and fiends.
If THE Hamburg dispatches spea,
t.rtL tha ra,N,ouaI 81 a,,7