The Advocate and news., 1898-05-18

OsteEsible reason that the victim had
failed to give a list OF bOarders in a
boarding house, with which he had moth
ing whatever to do, for the purpose OF
enabling the police to rob each bOarder
Of SO as a tax imposed upon the luxury
of wearing a head; but the real cause
OF the mans abuse was, as fully proved,
that, being an old John Brown man, In
love with liberty, he had been guilty OF
standing by me in my city park meetings
held to denOunCe the outrages committed
upon the poor by the police. He was
thrust into the "bull pen" where, two
days later, called for him with habeas
corpus; a stone floor his bed, and not
chair or aught else upon which to re-
pose his weary limbs. I..... man was
ID. w. Boutwell,, whose herOism at
critical moment saved Kansas from a
rebel invasion. Old settlers called upon
the mayor to secure decent treatment
for the old soldier, but the mayor was
deaf The city councils almighty throne
could not even be approached. II was
always so. No cry Of police victim
could ever pierce the walls where the
mayor and council sat. In those dread
days, children of the poor left Off play
Ing and fed in terror at sight Of star
spangled protector Of the weak against
the strong. Working men were torn
from their homes at might, forced into
the patrol wagon, and taken to Jail, in
order to extoTt a poll ltaX from them.
One can go to the Office of the Register Of
Deeds and see the record of mortgage
after mortgage given upon sewing ma
chimes and cooking stoves, in those days,
to raise money with which to pay fines
for the most trivial offenses, or none at
ali, and get bread-winners Of families
from the disgraceful rOckpile and the
city Jail and enable them to earn living
| for their households. l remember an
instance that burned itself into my mem
ory forever. A cOlored man, late one
evening, returned to his desOlate home
and his orphan babe from the cemetery
where he had just buried his wife. A
policeman was waiting for his return,
and in the hour of bereavement which
even savages would have respected, ar
rested the man and took nm to the
police station, and, late as it was, he
was compelled to give chattel mortgage
on his scant household goods and raise
| SIS to deposit before he was allowed to
return to his home and his child. You
ask what the dangerous criminal had
done, that it was not deemed safe to
postpone his arrest till next day? He
had failed to pay tax on his dog! l
have seen a poor little girl, weeping over
the dead body OF her little dog, her only
pet and playmate, which heartless pO-
liceman had shot at her very feet and
while with childish tears she pleaded for
its life; shot because her father, being
too poor, had not paid tax on the ami
NAL. A poor young man, sick and a
stranger, was arrested while ne was
hunting boarding house, fined for be-
ing homeless and poor, and, despite his
evident illness, put to work on the rock
pile Of hot day. Before noon he fell,
and had to be hurried to hospital to
keep him from dying in the custody Of
the police. They were not unusual;
they were common; and they never
ceased to be common until the first pO-
lice commissioners were appointed.
From that hour there has been a change,
for there is now somebody to hear and
investigate charges made by citizens
against policemen, and officers have been
suspended or discharged for undue
harshness. Nothing of this kind was
heard of under the old regime.
But for the Metropolitan police sys-
TEN the tramp circular" could not have
done Its humane work; and times have
been easier for poor men in search Of
work ever since that circular called at
tentiOn to the inhumanity Of the Kan
sas laws against them. Under that sys-
tenn have seen the patrol wagon gath
ering clothing and food for distribution
to the destitute of the city, and my glad
eyes have seen the police acting as min
listers of charity distributing the sup
plies they had collected. The homeless,
penniless wanderer, always somebody's
child thOuph no no In raOa has fOund q