The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1895-08-31
THE CURFEW CRAZE.

The CUkEEW C8AAE.
r = aeasing Upon tho People OF
tho Northwest
n laanneee1a anA tAe Dakoeas ChildFsn
1Guse Kssp or - strsses ss Might
-1syaSal ef ~ ln4aisftoe-
~ OnstoA.
In our western states there Il 50 much
faith in tho mysterious power OF legis-
lation that not merely commercial adj
vantage and political honesty are or
dered by law, but even private morality
Is often made the subject Of Legislation.
This Is done, says the New York Sun,
as hopefully - il AL the Laws Of the
past had done what was expected OF
them. The latest Of these experiments
Is the Minnesota process for making
children good. It is revival OF the
curfew custom, which does not seem
original until one considers that it's ap-
plication to life on the edge of the
twentieth century is in reality making
q new thing OF it. This revival affects
all persons under sixteen years of age,
and il the device off Minnesota editor,
who hit upon the discovery that chill
dren of evil inclination will change
their natures If they can be kept off the
streets. The plan was first put in oper-
alton in Saltwater last winter, and has
swept like = fire over the state until to-
day nearly twenty cities have passed
ordinances reviving the old cover-fire
law which was borrowed from or else
gave rise to the military institution of
the reveille. Only the largest towns,
like st. Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth,
have held back and given reason for
the belief that parents are still entitled
to the exercise of their Judgment in the
ordering OF their home government.
Without considering the prerogative
of parents the mass of the common
scouncilmen, preachers and editors of
the state declare the system an excel
lent one, as it.undoubtedly is If the
rights Of the parents and of the indi-
vidual generally are not worth con-
sideration- The new practice has
spread into South Dakota, where four
or five towns have already adopted it,
and it is prophesied that by next JAM
uary all the towns in both Dakotas (the
same that were carried for prohibition
by the strength of the Swedish vote)
will put it into effect. Then, as one
enthusiastic Minnesota editor predicts,
''the curfew bell will ring in an order of
things that shall, in the not far distant
future, raise the standard Of manhood
and womanhood both morally and
physically and make better citizens of
the rising generation"
In some of the towns and cities the
church bells are rung at the curfew
hour, and in all of them the town bell,
either in the fire tower or the town
hall, rings out the command for the
police to clear the streets of children.
Then, where the law Is enthusiastical-
ly enforced, q stern search and chase
after children is begun. They are pur-
sued along the streets, and barns and
sheds are ransacked for them. The
police lurk near their haunts, and, no
matter how innocently they may be
spending their time, they are caught
and warned and dragged off to the sta
tion houses. The ordinances prescribe
the ringing Of the hour, which is nine
o'clock in some towns and ten
o'clock in others, but the law is usually
clear in its declaration that the hour,
and not the notice of its arrival, shall
be needed. No boy or girl can escape
arrest by reason of deafness or the
bare assertion that he or she did not
hear the alarm. This custom has
not spread in this way without the ac
compartment Of protest. Men have
declared in print and in emphatic
speech that the curfew ordinance is not
only unconstitutional, but that it is
productive Of worse conditions than
those it seeks to cure. They have
shown that it is born of population
wherein some other element-whether
Scandinavian or whatever-is stronger
than the Anglo-Saxon with its unalter-
able love Of individual liberty. They
have argued that it Is as un-American
as it is unprogressive. The essence Of
the new rule has been shown to be
this: That If child roams the street at
night he is in danger Of becoming q
and in order that this narrow
view shall triumph the law slips in and
makes him q criminal by arresting him
and locking him up in the company of
hardened characters and with 4 stain
upon his reputation. But these protests
have made no impression upon any
common council because the new idea |
has been adopted with enthusiasm, es-
pecially by the half million foreign
born persons in the Minnesota popula-
tion. s'What II it is unconstitutional"
they ask land this question is repeated |
in the country press). st is
not more unconstitutional than many |
another statute that graces the law
books, and It Il = good thing because it
will make good citizens Of bad chill
1ren."
ORGANISATION IN BOSTON.
specs Bsiae Bathlesaly
Wiped from View.
Notwithstanding the sentiment in
The commonytealth against the demoli-
don Of the state house It viii have to
"a, writes G. w. Wilfred Pearce, Of
Boston, to the New York Sun. The
drawings Of new building have been
and the work Of construction
Will begin next March.
The process Of disdguring the public
Ra1S1en and the common Eoes merrily
n. The old burying ground on the
,ommou, wherein rested tho bones Of
many soldiers Of the revolution and
Tullieu, tho inventor of Julien soup.