The herald., 1895-05-12
The District Attorneys Office
Gets One or Two
ANDTHEN THE SCHOOL BOARD
And Engineers Who Travel Too Fast in
the City
Again to the Front With
Numerous Objections

Editor Herald In the balllwlck WIllcn
I call mine lives | oor woman whose Ia
year-old son has proven incorrigible, al
ter the fashion OF large per cent OF the
boys of thisperiod, the period Just abaft
the millennium.
The particular lad referred to has bee
and it now consortng with thieves, vag-
abonds and cutthroats OF his own age so
much that no other bpeds seem to have
any attraction for him or any control
over him. Just now, like the average VI
c:ous idiot of his age, the boy is stealing
ride from place to place on freight
car and is probably lending dexterous
hand at whatever mischief his more skill
full partners plan to do.
His poor mother in her distraction i'm
agined that the police or the sheriff's nu
merous ornamental brc-a- brac might,
could. would or shopld do something to
aiu her in the search.
At the sheriff's office she was informed
that no one there could aid her unless the
district alto rey would do something.
At the district attorneys office she was
informed that the mighty men of that
quarter would do nothing whatever to aid
her, unless she could swear to a specific
complaint charging her boy with theft
or something of that nature.
She ventured to suggest that. as she
she was unable to make complaint of a
special crime of that nature. She thought
that the law concerning vagrants and
those who consort with known thieves
would enable the officers to issue Il war
rant. perhaps to send him to the reform
that she had better let the boy go his
own road in his downward way; that it
was her own fault if her boy ran in bad
company; that the state had enough to
do already: that the Whittier school was
a paternal nuisance and should be ahol
shed; that the district attorneys office
would not aid her either to find her boy
or to commit him when found, and that
BOYS would go to the devil in their own
way whenever they pleased, as the speaker
had discovered to his own sorrow
] venture the assertion that can name
1000 persons in this city, the disappear
ance of ny one of whom would raise
commotiun among the moralizing officers
hereabouts.
But the woman was poor, and the boy
was only her boy and the devil laughed
again at the ease with which he could
gather in the poor as well as the rich.
The city is now about to spend S306, 600
for new schoolhouses. 1t is to be hoped
that no more schoolhouses will be built be-
side such noisy streets as Spring street,
Seventh street and dozens more of such
noisy thoroughfares. At the Seventh
street school. where | am writing, many
thousands of vehicles. most OF them heav-
lily laden, pass every day with all their dis
tracting rafting ard rumbling. 1t is u
wonder that children in school near by
bl ng of the vehicles is not the only objec-
tlonable thing to contend against.
Nobody but teachers can ever know how
many passing idiots there are who mag
inc that they must 1irt with or insult all
the little girls who may be seen on the
in sob pl at a
windows of the school rooms.
As the police never respond to an in
vitation TO punish an offender of such Il
kind | usually act as Il special officer on
such occasions. 1t is pleasing task.
Place the school houses on qui ct streets
and in decent localities it such can be
discovered.
The recent mangling OF pedestrian at
the corner of Commercial and Alameda
streets is another proof OF the fact that
watchman is sadly needed at that II il
road crossing; also that our civilization
mi ght progress faster if our car of Jug
gernaut were to run more slowly.
A number of the unmangled citizens in
that vicinity have requested me to request
the authorities to compel the beneticiaries
to appoint watchman for the said
crossing.
With a single exception all the engi-
neers of the Southern Pacific trains ap-
preaching the Arcade depot from the
south are now running past this school
house at very moderate rate of speed
The single exception is an engineer
who brings up the noon train from Long
Beach at a terrific rate of speed tor city
thoroughfare, especially in the vicinity
of schools. If he does not quit dallying
along out in the country and making up
time on the homestretch in the streets OF
the city, shall be compelled to show
him trick or two. | have devised lit
tie scheme whereby | am enabled to
prove to fraction of a second his speed.
Yours as always