Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1898-03-19
GENERAL ITEMS.


the current news respecting the ringing of the
curfew and its effects on the morals of the
young people. This is an ordinance com
pelling all children and youth under fifteen
years of age, unless accompanied by parents
or absent with leave apprentices and those
unemployed eXcepted) to be at their homes
at the hour of nine p. M, i'll summer, and
eight in winter The earliest date of its en-
forcement is about year and it is law in
some three hundred towns and cities in the
West. No Eastern town or city has tried it.
From Lincoln, Nebraska, the first city to try
this method of prevention of crime, after
year Of trial. the Mayor writes:
The results of the enforcement Of the ordi-
nance in reducing crime were a complete
surprise, both to the police and city officials.
There was decrease of 10 per cent. in arrests
of youth for the first months enforcement of
the ordinance. This result has required no
increase in our police force. There has been
a decided improvement, socially and morally.
of the youth, and pecuniary saving from
the falling Off in the number of arrests.
This seems to be the strictly proper way Of
reducing crime among youths Of the cities of
the community.
"There has been a decrease in commit
ment of delnquents to the reform school
NllcIe tHt OTullluHtt mas Dppn tl1Orteu,
writes Superintendent Mallalieu of the
Nebraska Reform School
Samuel E. Melck chief of police, Lincoln,
says:
Teachers in public schools say that since
curtew went into force boys who formerly
kept late hours on the streets at night and
were behind IN their studies, under curtew
come regularly, are punctual and mentally
refreshed up with their studies.
The testimony from other cities is equally
emphatic Chief of Police Broder, of St.
Joseph Mo, writes:
After seven months of enforcement of the
curfew ordinance, beg leave to inform you
that 1t has proved an unqualified success,
and at the present time | am saying that at
least seven-eighthS Of the people of this city
give it their sincere and cordial support 1t
has been instrumental in keeping hundreds
of children off the streets away from public
places at night, who previous to the passage
and enforcement of the CureW were aC-
custOmed to run at will at all hours of the
night. There has been reduction Of 80 per-
cent. in commitments to the reform school
from St Joseph since the enforcement of the
curtew ordinance
The Mayor of North Platte, Neb, writes:
For two years before passing rhe ordinance
we sent fourteen boys and girls to the reform
school and for the two years we have en-
forced it we have not sent any.
Says the chief of police of Omaha
We have had no occasion to make any
arrests under its provisions since it has been
i'll force When 9 O'Clock comes the children
make it point to 90 home. 1t is now an
easy matter for parents TO enforce home rules.
And the chief of police of Denver agrees
with the chief at Omaha. Mayor MacNicar
ofDes Moines adds to the general chorus of
approval by writing:
| beg to say that we consider the Curfew
ordinance a very wise law, and wonder how
we ever got along without such regulating
ordinance. There have been lew arrests
made under the law but the effect is all that
could be desired. The signal is respected by
all classes.
The curfew was first tired in Evanston,
suburb of Chicago, only few weeks ago,
and the Chicago papers report that from the
first the ordinance has practically enforced
itself
The enthusiastic popular approval of this
law, regulating che habits of youth wherever
1t is tried and the weighty testimony of its
effect upon its commitments to State reform
schools have greatly encouraged the associi-
ton that first recommended the ordinance to
press 1t upon the attention of other towns
and cities both in the United States and
Canada The success of the curfew thus far
renders 1t very practical matter. Any
measure so extremely simple as this and so
mildly restrictive that can demonstrate its
ability to help save our boys and girls from
waywardness and lives of crime deserve care
full consideration.
When we reflect that the street education
of our children in many cases altogether out
weighs the home influences most parents are
able to briAg to bear on their offspring, it
does seem as if some such measure as this
ought to meet the hearty approval of every
parent. night on the street is an offset
ettectual and permanent, to a day at Sunday
school, and many a man can say to his sOr-
row that the poison he absorbed in a single
night on the street corners is never eimi-
mated to the end of his life
A matter of great interest also is that such
laws do not require legislative action, but are
municipal, and any town can have its own
curteW law passed by its town council. Can
not the mothers of Richmond, and other
places in Virginia move in this matter, and
save the boys?
Our conditions have so changed of late that
we must have changed laws and new rules
There was Il time when, on the farm, our
boys saw but little of the outside world
Now all this is changed, and we must change
also.