The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-02-26

court rooms. with conspicuous prod
igalty that would have furnished
plenty of material for Dickens. But
new administration has come in, Doc
Bill" Kerr has passed into oblivion, the
warning posters one by one have dis
apepared, and the Objectionable habit
has not been suppressed. 1t still RACES
as an epidemic. Travelling in an Amer
lean train, Dickens imagined some per-
sons were opening a feather bed in the
car ahead and that flying feathers were
escaping through the open windows.
He discovered, however, that 1t was
only the passengers expectorating.
That was fifty years or more ago. To-
day not only the men but the business
women of Chicago who invariably
carry toothpicks between their teeth
at the hour of luncheon, make no ado
about expectorating in the crowded
public thoroughfares.
PISTOLS IN POCKET.
The practice of carrying concealed
weapons is perhaps more general in
Chicago than elsewhere in this coun-
try. The reasons for this are not far
to seek. There is no street, however,
respectable the neighborhood, in which
pedestrians are safe from footpads af-
ter nightfall. Magistrates themselves,
whose business it is to fine other per-
sons for carrying guns, hardly ever
venture out without going armed. 1t
is still fresh in the public mind how
Justice Jarvis Blume, a west side mag
istrate, returning home one night from
a social function, shot and killed a
footpad by whom he was assaulted.
having n revolver handy in his over
coat pocket for the emergency. The
other day Gabriel Vieilhomme. French
vice consul in Chicago, lost 500 while
! boarding at cable car at Madison and
| Dearborn streets. With a roll of bills
| in his hip pocket was a revolver and
the money was inadvertently pulled
out when he transferred the gun to his
| outside Overcoat pocket. to be well
prepared for any attack. High and
! low, rich and poor, make it a rule to
go armed The Western cowboy, when
| he arrives in this city. takes off his
! belt and slows away his gun out of
sight; and he usually has it conflscat-
| ed before he gets out of town The
! mayor and the chief of police are pest
cred constantly by apprehensive citi-
2ens who want permits to carry re-
| Nolvers for self-protection, and re-
| quests OF this kind from persons of
| good standing are usually granted.
Dr. Thomas and other militant and
warlike clergymen have thundered
| from their pulpits the advice that peo-
! pie should carry arms and shoot down
lew OF the terrorizing highwaymen
as an object lesson. Bank clerks and
| express messengers go about like walk
ing arsenals. Recently west side busi-
| lp1 h,-t
members of their set, formed a large
association upon the platform that each
| individual member should save his
money and buy a gun" The gun stores
anu pawnshops do a great trade in
| revolvers. Many citizens practice the
art OF shooting from their pockets
! without displaying their weapon at all.
The pistol pocket is a great institution
in Chicago. So many street cars have
been held up by bandits that for a
| tlme IT looked as though the companies
| would have to equip their 10000 en-
| ployes with revolvers to protect their
harvest of nickels. Judges of the
courts, editors who mould public opin
ion' ana reporters are compelled. in
! some instances, as they would be in a.
| frontier town or mining camp TO pro-
| Nlue themselves with siX-shooters
J CHICAGOS RIVER
Unlike the versatile Seine in Paris
J the Chicago river is not a fayorite for
suicides. Lake Michigan has clearer
water and is more frequently chosen
by those who prefer the water routa
OF exit from unhappy surroundings
ne river rs nothing more than a filthy
canal Kind of sewer, affording sew
erdl miles OF dockage and WHARFAGE
put oHerlng no poetic recreations and
holulhg out no inducements to fisher
men. a committee from congress is
ABOUT TO investigate the sluggish and
prosalc stream and report upon its
| future possibilities.
The black canal which floats Chi
cago 5 lake commerce, seems TO have
strange fascination for visitors from
other cities and countries. They like
10 make jokes and epigrams about II.
lts fame as a naviga bic stream has ex-
tended far beyond it's deserts. Foreign
tourists come here and look at if with
sense of disappointment. then oo
away and write about its lack Of ro-
nance and surfeit of smell. Mr.
Chauncey VI. Depew. when he comes to
lChlcago to make after-dinner speeches
very often says funny things about
TINS inky river TO point a moral or
adofn tale. Justice David ]. Brewer
or the United States Supreme court
made some humorous references to II
and its permeating fragrance at the
Lincoln anniversary banquet at the
Marquette club. The learned legal
gentleman used the river as n neg ON
which to hang his introductory word q
and to put himself en- rapport with his
audience. He said:
In Chicago the sense of smell is
never disappointed. Germany NAV
boast of her many-scented city of
Cologne, but as the proud dweller nv
the stream which courses through your
midst shifts the evening breeze. he chaI-
lenges the world for larger variety
or a greater intensity of smell And
with prodigality of enormous wealth
and charity tempered by wisdom. Won
DO not propose to appropriate all this
fragrance to yourselves, or to waste II
on the desert air, but to distribute II
freely among the dwellers by the banks
or the Illinois and in the upper Miss
issippi Valley"
The last sentence, of course, referr-
ed to the drainage canal. When Lord
Colerldge, Chief Justice of England
visited this city some years ago. the
tall buildings did not strike him so for
chilly as curiosity as did the compo-
site bouquet of odors furnished by the