The record-union., 1899-02-21
Afternoon Session.

AAtcT0OOu session.
AT the afternoon session the special
file of Assembly bills was taken up, and
A B. 246, Kelsey, providing for the es-
Establishment and maintenance of sewer
districts adjacent to municipal corpor-
atoms, passed, % to l. Title ap-
proved.
A. B. 113 Boone-To amend Section
1850 of the Code of Civil Procedure. re-
lating to adverse claims; passed, 2S to
o. Title approved.
ALL ABOUT CARICATURES.
AT this point the gallery ceased to
chatter. Works caricature bill was
reached on the file, and it was what the
third house had waited for for days.
1t was known that oratory would flow
IN streams, and that the friends and
enemies Of the bill would build as great
a fight as the material would warrant.
But in the discussion which followed L
wide scope was allowed. The news
papers and the articles published in
them received much more notice than
did the alleged funny or malicious"
pictures drawn by the cartoonist.
Curtin of Tuolumne had an amend
ment to the bill in the form of a sub
stitute for Section of the bill. and
on that amendment was supposed to
fall the debate. The amendment was
understood to have been agreed to
by Works, the author of the BILL In
order that the cause of the trouble may
be thoroughly understood, both the
original section and Curtin's amend
ment are printed herewith. The sec
ton as it left the Assembly was as fol-
lows:
1T shall be unlawful to publish in
any newspaper, handful, poster, book,
or serial publication, or supplement
thereto, the portrait or caricature of
any living person a resident of Cali
fornia, without the written consent of
such person first had and obtained;
provided that it shall be lawful to pub
lish the portrait of a person convicted
of crime
Curtins proposed amendment fol-
lows:
1T shall be unlawful to publish in
any newspaper, poster, book, or serial
publication, or supplement thereto the
portrait of any living person a resident
of California other than that of a per-
son holding a. public office in this State,
without the written consent of such
person had and obtained; provided,
that it shall be lawful to publish the
portrait of person convicted of a
crime. 1t shall likewise be unlawful
to publish in any newspaper, handful,
poster, book, or serial publication, or
supplement thereto, any caricature of
any person residing in this State, which
caricature will in any manner reflect
upon the honor, integrity, manhood,
virtue. reputation CT business or polit-
ical motives of the person so carica-
tured, or which tends to expose the
individual SO caricatured to public ha-
tired or contempt"
Curtin, in opening the ceremonies,
said he hoped his amendment would be
| adopted. He said he thought it only
right that newspapers should publish
portraits of persons holding public Of
fees in the State, so long as the por-
traiture was in correct form. He said
that certain kinds of caricatures were
very useful, and should be permitted.
He thought the author Of the bill had,
in his effort to cure the existing evil,
drafted measure that was too drastic
Curtin's amendment had stricken out
the word "ridicule," and Leavitt want
ed to know why the word had been
eliminated.
Curtin replied that a ridiculous carl
ture was usually harmless. He himself
had been caricatured 'ridiculously,
but had been amused at it, and 1t had
done him no harm.
| Leavitt said it would no doubt be
amusing to the person who had not
been cut up. He thereupon offered an
amendment inserting the word ''ridi-
cule," making the clause to read ''ha-
| tired, ridicule or contempt"
Sims thought no law should be passed
to curtail the liberties of the press in
faithfully picturing the defects of pub
lie men. The press he said, was the
most powerful engine Of modern civil
ization, and had done more as an
agent of progress than anything in the
State or country for its advancement
Laws restraining the press, he said,
were already on the statute books Ha
read from the present libel law to show
that pictures We're included and made
equally punishable as printed libelous
words. He did not believe that a law
prohibiting caricaturing would stand.
as it would be unconstitutional lie
thought the law Of libel was sufficiently