The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-12-25

San Francisco. Dec. "a, 1S93.-TSpecial.
= Never was the business of vice more
shamelessly carried on in this CITY
than at present. The worst mining
camp. governed by no law and res
trained by no propriety, has not toler-
ated greater outrages of decency than
are permitted in San Francisco now.
The preachers who proclaim that this
metropolis is ruled by sin can daily
point to scenes that disgust the be-
holder in order to illustrate their re-
marks. The citizens want their streets
put in better order, SO that a good i'm
preston may be made on the Mid
winter fair visitors. So loud was the
cutlery against the immoral tendency
OF 'Fakirs' row that the officials of
the fire department did the city a SER
vice by beginning proceedings against
that array of seductive tents
Worse than the streets or the fakirs.
however, is the pernicious nuisance on
dupont and other streets to which
only the municipal authorities are
bllnd. The people who come to the
falr need not go out of their way to
see the license Which brazen females
are accorded here. They cannot avoid
the sight, for the blocks which are
given up to vice and on which these
women behave in a shockingly often
s1ve manner are in the very heart of
town.
If The Herald were to print the fore
going as a correct photograph of San
Francisco from moral point of view
every one of its readers here would
make emphatic and indignant protest,
while our press would make casual, if
not caustic, comment upon alleged
social and matrimonial eccentricities
in Utah. But it is the introduction to
a three-column article printed in last
Sundays San Francisco Chronicle
which points out the public manner in
which lewd women ply their trade, and
the Immunity which the footpad en-
joys, not only from punishment but
from any semblance of police inter
ference. 1t is altogether a savage
article and lays all the shame at the
door of the police department, which
it scores without mercy.
The article goes on to say that in
eastern cities policemen are tall and
well built. fleet of foot and with a
reasonable amount of common sense, -
while here the physical qualification
is that he shall be feet s inches tall
tinuing, the paper says:
But they do not even meet the re-
quirements made by law. One who
looks may see scores of 1.-THE finest"
barely feet inches In height. What
they want in height they secure in
width. One loves to look at the street
policeman in repoSe. The fat, heavy
face tells of exercise never taken. The
well-rounded paunch measures So
inches if it measures one. The air of
calm superiority tells why he fragrant
lily violates the law and shoots at men,
women and children rather than chase
la wrong-doer. He cannot run. He
knows it is physical impossibility
for him to run and that is why he dis
obeys the law, which says he shall
draw his pistol only in defense of his
own life or at a murderer who seems
about to escape"
AS The Herald staff is composed of
men selected, not only because of their
intellectually but also on account
of their probity, my acquaintance with
the police force is too limited to enable
me to judge of the justice of the fore
going criticism as far as it is concerned,
but in other respects the article is very
much more sensational than truthful.
1t is all rot for San Francisco to boast
of being as bad as the worst mining
camp ever was. This assumption of
being bold and bad should be drop
ped by papers and people here. 1t is
true that low license has established a
myriad of saloons, the majority of
which are vile and which produce des-
titution and misery among the lower
classes, but in other respects the city
is no worse than others of its size, and
nobody need stay away from the Mid
winter fair because he can't afford to
buy an arsenal for his defense while
1-i1 uric Of
sometimes make chumps of themselves
when they visit large city, but the
person whose intelligence is of that
rare order which prompts him to go in
doors when it rains hard, or to prefer
the cool end of the poker, may if he
| choose, visit the fair without being des-
poiled either of his life, his purse or
his virtue.
But, in reading that article / could
not help feeling proud of our Salt Lake
| police. The Chronicle man should take
a run up there and see the boys. He
might have something pleasant to say
about the physiques of Captain Dono-
van and Sergeants Wire and Eslinger
saying nothing about the fragile and
estl1etic McGinty.
| The internal revenue collector is now
| getting ready to reopen his books fol
the registration of Chinese under the
provisions of the McCreary act, which
grants an extension for six months OF
the operation of the Geary law II
will be remembered that under the
Geary law but few registrations were
made, the Chinese relying upon lega.
advice and the declaration of thei1
owners, the Six Companies, that the
law was unconstitutional and should
not be obeyed. Under this advice. .ac-
companied by a menace, the Chinese
serfs did not register, but when the
supreme court maintained the validity
of the law and deportation threatened
them the Cinnamon were vociferous ir
! their demands for registration, but the
time for so doing had elapsed.
| Nobody seems to know just what
the Chinese VIII do now. The laborers
| look to the Six Companies for instruc-
| ton in the premises, and those bosses
have not seen fit to take the public
| into their confidence. 1t is safe to say
| however, that those thrifty organiza.
| tons are not apt to recommend a line
of conduct to their sierfs which will
in the least degree curtail the revenues
of the bosses.
| But the law expressly excludes from
the privilege of registration every Der.
son who has been convicted of a felony
There are said to be several hundreds
| of such Cinnamon in this city and they
are now being located with a view tx
their forced return to China. The lis
will include nearly all the highbind
ers, and because OF this they can bs
easily apprehended by the officers, al