The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1898-12-31
THE CURFEW, CRAZE.
+ Il eei9ing Upon the People OF
the Northwest.
In lnAAesota and the Dakotas ChIldrsa
Mast Keep 06 the Streets &C Night
-Rsvival Of IN lhquisatoe-' ~
iA1 C1etonn.


Ma o1stan.
In our western states there II 50 much
faith In the mysterious power Of legis-
lation that not merely commercial ad-
vantage and political honesty are or
dered by law, but even private morality
II often made the subject of legislation.
This IL done, says the New York Sun,
n hopefully as if all 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. 1t is a revival of the
curfew custom, which does not seem
original until one considers that its ap-
plication. to life on the edge of the
twentieth century is in reality making
I new thing OF it. This revival affects
all persons under sixteen years of age,
and is the device of q Minnesota editor,
who hit upon the discovery that chill
dren of. evil inclination will change
their natures if they can be kept off the
isreee- Tbs plan was first putin pper7
Stion IN Still water last winter. ana has
swept lilce . 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 prerogatiye
OF parents the mass of the common
councilmen, 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 = hiss
spread into South Dakota, where four
or Ave towns have already adopted it,
and it is prophesied that by next Jan
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 predictsS
'the curfew bell viii 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
tho 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 fer the
police to clear the streets of children.
Then, where the law is enthusiastical-
ly enforced. sstern-search and chase
after children Is begun. They are pur-
sued along the streets, and ebatns aad
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 il 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 it's 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 &C.
compartment of protest. Men have
declared in print and in emphatic
speech that the curfew ordinaneesi is not
emily Unconstitutional; but that it il
productive Of worse conditions than
those it seeks to cure. They have
shown that it is born of . population
wherein some other element-whether
Scandinavianor 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 II Is unpru1res3ve. The essence of
the new rule has been shown to be
this: That if a child roams the streetat
night he is in danger of becoming .
criminal, and in order that this narrow
view sba1 triumph the law slips in and
makes him criminal by arresting him
and locking him up in the company OF
hardened characters and with. stain
upon his reputation. But these protests
have made no impression upon any
common coundl because the new IDEA
has BEEN slopted with enthusiasm, s.
peciaIly BY the half million foreign
born persons in the MinnesOta popula--
tion. "What If it is UNCONSTITUTIONAL"
they ask (and this question is repeated
i1d1t6rMlry IL the country press: 1T is
not more un@pnst ttational than maiy
another static shat graces abe law
books, and II is = good thing because 1t