The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-05-24
TO THE CITY BOARD OF TRUS-
TEES.


TEES.
There are occasions and subjects upon
which personal address to public officials
is the most direct and the essentially
necessary and proper form. The pres
ent time and the matter in hand justify a
public journal in addressing you seyerally
and jointly, as officials of the city of Sac
ramento, in a demand in the name of the
people for an immediate, wholly costless,
and absolutely necessary enforcement of
some slumbering statutes in your books
of ordinances.
Those referred to are but few among
the many unenforced local laws, the
number of which have brought upon
this city the reproach of being without
the United States" You are now asked
to rigidlY, to the letter, and at once to
compel the police authorities and those
under you, in the street and other de-
partments, to clear the sidewalks, which
are the property of the people, of all OBJ
SSA NNSASA1SS uAoAShbAJ OOJCSlo anu O4e-
gusting and indecent exhibitions-to do
this or advance some good reason why
the instructions should remain.
You will find that this duty doing
asked of those you can command is so
far from being difficult task one that
they can accomplish inside of twenty
four hours if you order it, Let us call
your attention to the fact that in no
typical Southern California city, for ex-
ample, upon business or residence streets
are to be found upon the outer edge of
sidewalks rows of ancient beer kegs or
other barrels, piles of pioneer drygoods
boxes or bales and crates stored on the
highway till gray with age, signs for bills
of fare for restaurants and free lunch
establishments, bill boards for news
stands or the announcement of medi-
cines for uncomfortable diseases In
no city having any sort of desire to ap-
pear decent and clearly in the eyes of
visitors are huge wooden hands pointing
to indoor attractions permitted to be
nailed to awning posts, or to protrude
across the way, nor letter ga" sign boards
to occupy the sidewalks to the offense of
the eyesight and the outrage of the
English tongue. In no Southern Cali
fornia city, and in no other decently regu-
lated community, will you find upon a
chief business street, or a residence one
either, that any man is permitted to run
dilapidated vehicles upon the sidewalk
labeled ''for sale,' to the inconvenience
of footmen and the obstruction of passage
of the general public, as is a common
practice in Sacramento. Haunting, miser
ably painted, torn, dilapidated canvas
rags, supposed to be signs, are not as here
permitted to occupy third of the walk
ing space and slap the passer-by in the
lace with their ragged offensiveness.
Cool beer, new-brand cigar, sure cure,
five-cent shine, shaved-ice soda. free
lunch menu, restaurant bill of fare. beer
barrel, dive, dance hall, five-legged calf,
bearded women, fish market and shoot
ing gallery signs are all restricted to the
inner line of sidewalks and to the very
limited space there permitted, and if
sign or device is at all offensive or indie
cent, it is not permitted even there.
In our city, gentlemen, precisely the
opposite rule prevails, for here the COM
munity has fallen into the habit of max
ing its walk ways strangely offensive and
of yielding them up to whosoever sees fit
to occupy them, so much so that the mat
ter is one of surprised comment by every
visitor, especially all those who come
through the south first and from cities
where the public walk ways are kept so
clear that you can stand upon the curb at
the foot of any street and follow its lines
of curbs with the eye as far as the sight
permits, without single obstruction in
teryening to break the line of vision.
Had you, gentlemen. been within ear
shot of the private comments of our
recent visitors, you would have found
that the one chief. regretfully expressed
and surprised criticism was that a city
of such character, prominence and thrift
as the Capital City of California should
consent to have its walk ways so Uttered,
INSTRUCTED and disgraced, and should
permit that which in other communities
is deemed nuisance and condemned as
such, and which is neither evidence of
business activity nor commercial pros
perity, but rather of Incidence, bad taste,
and contempt for the authority of the law.