The herald., 1896-07-13

Some good people are wondering
whether human beings have any rights
that certain policemen are bound to re-
spect, and whether horses and wagons
and mules and carts and old boxes and
barrels and plows and machinery that
occupy the streets are, after all, very
much superior to the good men who dare
not stand in the holy streets for fear of
incurring the enmity Of the all-power-
full police.
There are also some people who Won
der why it is that policemen have the
authority to order men to move on,
and many do not know how far is meant
by ON
Until we have better defined limits to
the authority Of policemen we may eX-
pect to see honest men arrested and cart
ed through the streets in the open patrol
wagon after the manner or old drunks
and victims on accidents ana otner
choice objects that are viewed by the
passers-by to the keen delight and moral
elevation of the passers-by.
Why is it that the police courts are
the only courts in which people charged
with crimes are presumed to be gullty
until proved innocent? Why is it that IN
with the defendants? Why is 1t that
we pass over matters of personal credit
and discredit and shame and disgrace
with such levity and disregard, while We
pay so much attention to simple suits OF
law that do not involve questions OF
honor and dishonor?
In the way Of shame and discomfort
and modification, we lovers of liberty
seem to submit to more than any other
people under the sun would think OF en-
during.
We ride on the electric road to Santa
Monica without a drop of water or any
thing Of the sort to quench thirst, or
refresh or resuScitate one in faint, or
| add little to the physical comfort Of
/ the strong or the feeble; we permit the
| infiction of the most tiresome bores that
ever addressed audiences without pro-
vfding sergeants-at-arms to lead them
away, where they would not disturb the
| public; we seem to think that one who
| is inveigled into hall where some one
| is speaking is bound by false courtesy to
endure even the greatest bore to the
end of his almost interminable discourse;
we sit silent in street cars where uncon-
victed lunatics carry on the most coarse
| and vulger and profane discourse in loud
tones and in the presence of women and
children-and gentlemen; we permit
thousand such things in public and pri-
fend the sacred police by not moving
on" into good strong jails where they
can see nobody but the said police.
Evidently the City Water company is
| expert at figures. The water rates are
lowered" upon the people with telling
force. One small family living on First
| street has been paying $3.50 month for
water for a long time. For this month
! the rent was lowered" from 50. so down
20 f0, 4
| Such reductions are what we have en-
dured for long time. and water is get
ting to be dearer than m,',S and almost
as dear as air and suns~ me. and the
company Of the Landlords" that make
us pay high rent for our own homes by
surreptitiously cornering gas and water
| and taxes.
The circular" or mail. advertising
nuisance is growing worse and worse.
| There are few newspapers and maga-
! zines whose managers are too honorable
| to admit the advertisements of the fla
grant frauds that offer gold watches or
diamond. I'ings to the idiots who will
send 10 cents and promise to show the
goods to all their friends
! to aid in Introducing the
said stuff There are many
modesa and decent people whose mail is
burdened with the flaming circular
lies of medical fakirs that guarantee to
cure all sorts of private and disgrace
full diseases. Many people who are thus
| insulted with the consent of Uncle Sam
are much embarrassed by the uncalled-
| for comment and veryEnatu tural suspicion
| of neighbors and members of their fam
lilies who happen to see their daily mail
The advertising fakir and trespasser
must be suppressed.
Another abuse of the mails is the send
ing of unmarked and occasional copies
of newspapers to. busy men. The su-
premest petty annoyance is the receipt
of an unmarked copy of some out of the
way and very local paper and the con-
sequent feeling that it must be read and
reread till some obscure matter is
brought to light.
One who has studied men and politics
and politicians could not read Senator
Hills speech before the Chicagoj con-
vention without a feeling of great ad-
miration for the senator, who was be-
lieved to be a mere politician and who
proved his great ability by making one
of the greatest convention speeches ev-
er made in America.
The respect for the genius of Senator
Hill would not be diminished by read
ing the marvelously eloquent, convinc-
ing and unanswerable argument which
was the product of the overmastering
genius of Bryan.
Bryan's address was full of the misery
and groaning of millions who were born
free and who were enslaved as they
grew tolmanhood; 1t gave an answer to
every sneer of the cynic and every lie
! of the sophist; and it closed with the
most eloquent declaration of indepen-
dence ever uttered in the fervid elo-
quence or human speech. Yours truly
n