San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-10-11
CONTRIBUTED SCRAPS.
Written for the LIeHr.l

vastly improved if somebody would
''put head on them"
Bicycle riders should be fined for
riding without lamps at night.
Pedestrians are entitled to cross
the streets without being knocked
down by reckless bicycle riders.
The council and the police should
give this matter prompt attention
ere somebody is killed.
The practice of arresting persons
without a warrant is very dan
gerous power to lodge in officers
and liable to be most grossly
abused. 1t has been abused quite
frequently where there was pros
pect of scooping in reward. The
practice is becoming an oppression
and a nuisance.
If it comes within the province
of the grand jury that body should
indict all officers who may have
oppressed and wronged citizens by
arresting them without warrants.
F. j. Vargera was arrested with.
out any warrant and kept in Jail
four or five days, land the affair was
kept profound secret from the
public. There are no letters de
cachet in this country, and the
constitutional rights of men must
be respected and vindicated.
Officers stand very much in need
Of lesson in this matter.
Scion being asked which was
the best governed country, replied,
"that country, where all citizens
regarded wrong done to a fellow
citizen as wrong done to Them"
The poorest vagabond and the de-
spised tramp are under the protec-
ton of the constitution and laws
just as much as the rich and influ-
entail.
Is there any statute making it a
penal obese for a man not to pay
hack fare, or for a meal at a res
taurant? If there is no such
statute where does the recorder
get the right to fine men for not
paying hack-hire and for meals at
a restaurant ?
The failure to pay for those
things is no more of a penal offense
than is the failure to pay any other
debt. The statute of Texas eX-
pressly declares that no citizen
shall be punished for any act, or
omission, which is not made an Of
Tense by the statute law, so that
no ordinance of the city can fly in
the face of a statute.
When will the city administra-
ton commence the work of "cut-
ting it's coat according to the
quantity of cloth" by retrenching
What is it waiting for?
The law of necessity is memorable,
and even our mighty municipal
are not exempt from the
law of necessity. Let the prun-
ing knife be used, vigorously, on
the city expenses.
Prize fighters should build a
large boat and go out three marine
miles from the shore, with the
crowd of spectators, and have their
mill on the high sea. The juris-
diction of a nation extends but
three marine miles from the shore.
The Pharisees thanked God they
were not as others, but they held
out no helping hands to such as
were in need and practiced no
charity. The sect of the Pharisees
is still a very numerous one in
1895, and follows in the footsteps
of their brethren of the time of
Extraordinarily pious, and all
that, but, inwardly, as wicked as
the veriest sinner that ever lived.
The "good Samaritan" does not
appear to stand high in the esti-
nation of this generation if the
fact of his having no followers and
imitators be entitled to any weight.
These times, if man falls among
thieves, is robbed, wounded and
left bleeding and insensible on the
highway, he is trundled off to the
poor house, or flung into jail as a
suspicious character, while the
Pharisees and the Levites piously
roll up the whites of their eyes and
eXclaim: "The fellow had no bust
ness to be about thieves, and he
richly deserved what he got. The
poor house is the place for him."
"No good Samaritan" comes for
ward to minister to the poor fellow
in his need. Perhaps he is sent
out of the city for his health.