The Saint Paul globe., 1896-11-20

Words fail to describe the shame and
infamy Of the present municipal ad-
ministration of this city, especially
that part of it which is carried on
through its politically reOrganiZed po
lice department. 1t seems to have
reached it's climax in the. arrest, on
Wednesday, of a man suffering from
a fracture Of the skull. the preferring
of a charge of drunkenness and the
locking up Of this poor fellow in a cell,
where he died unheeded and alone. 1t
would be going too far to charge the
parties guilty of this unheard-of per-
formance with murder, but their Of
fense, constructively, stops little short
of that. A patrolman finds man un-
der circumstances which suggest to
every rational mind that he is the vic
tim of an accident. He is standing
near a horse, has one end Of a halter in
his hand and is bleeding from the face
and scalp. A five-year-oId child would
understand, or at least assume that the
man had fallen from the animal or
been injured by it, and any one with a
heart in his breast would be NOV
ed to examine his injuries and
to offer help. This man little while
after is reported by a neighbor, who
had charge of him, to be acting
queer The patrol wagon goes after
him and he is taken to the station.
He is so helpless that he has to be
carried into the cell. He is locked up
there to suffer and to die. The assump-
tion Of drunkenness is a purely gratui-
tous one, warranted by none of the
circumstances in the case, as far as
we can see, except an incoherence of
speech that was more naturally at
tributable, under the circumstances, to
some injury to the brain. The daily,
cold, ,diaboHcal, stony y-hearted routine Of
officialism prevailed, and this wretched
victim of mischance suffered a fate
that no state would dare to deal out to
it's worst malefactor
We do not accuse the police depart
ment of this city or it's official head of
deliberate and willfuI misdoing in this
case We will stretch a point so far as
to admit that they might, if they had
known what was the matter with the
man: have sent for a physician and
permitted him to be released from the
cell and taken to the city hospital. We
do say that the making of any such mis-
fqlyn inUO1XiYop ho oh
of so slight an examination as would
have shown the injury to the skull, is
something a great deal worse than
neglect. It is a discredit and a dis
grace to everybody connected with OF
responsible for it. Let the peo-
pie of ST. Paul look upon the
work which they set forward
last spring and comprehend the mag
nitude of their blunder and their Of
fense against good government Never
In all the history of the city, either
under Democratic or Republican OF
reform" rule, was the police force sc
unblushingly and unsparingly used as
now to pay political debts and to Offer
living to political favorites and heel
ers. This is what comes Of it. The
clubbing of inoffensive citizens, OF
which complaints have been made, the
incessant burglaries throughout the city
by day and by night, and finally the
condemnation to a lonely death in a
prison cell of man whose crime was
that he needed sympathy and help, are
the fruits that this community gathers
from the Infamous regime Of partisan
ship and government for and by the
spoils.
What a spectacle the conduct OF ST
Paufs affairs is at this moment fol
gods and men. Here we have the at
tention Of the entire administrative
force concentrated upon a situation
and a problem which is an of,
fense against decency. An order has
been carried into effect to collect
and colonize upon one Of oul