Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-04-13
Dignity We. Resolution.

O6AAsy tSs ASCSOAAsAOhs
Cities possess Municipalities that
are at times rs marked rs those OF
mankind. One of these, that is COM
mon to class, is for small municipal
ties to make every effort to maintain a
Dignity that it assumes to be essential
to the commonwealth after it arrives
at the stage of metropolitan growth
which may be denominated Getty"
The smaller the city the more tena-
cious it appears to be of having the
distinction recognized. 1t is only
such oil municipalities as New York,
or Chicago, or Philadelphia, or cities
OF such magnitude, that can afford to
relax the assertive right OF being
called city on all occasions, and
hence we hear in these old-fashioned
places such expressions as uptown
establishment" or " Downtown store
or Cross-town route" and kindred
terms which show that their people
realize that they have passed the limit
when the eye must be on the alert
the ear cooked" and the tongue
ready, to preserve Dignity which
might never be suspected if not assert.
ed.
These reflections arise when we con.
slider the ferment which arose over
the Sunset Telephone Co. digging q
few holes in the streets of Shelton
last week, in which to set up its poles
upon which to string the wires for an
exchange service. The company pro
ceeded there, just as it did here, with.
out saying By your leave" or asking
permission of anybody-and the city
authorities of course felt that this was
a true case of contempt of authority.
They had never had the experience OF
our city, or they would not have
kicked over a trifle. We know better
up here. The telephone company
cuts and slashes, what were once beau.
tiful shade trees it tears up sidewalks
and leaves them in a condition to in
volve the city in $1,000 law suits; and
this goes on, year after year, without
protest. But then Olympia has out.
grown her swaddling.clothes, and has
no Dignity, to speak of, to contend
for, and hence the vandal work goes
on unchecked.
But it is different at Shelton. Soon
as the lone-starred policeman of the
"city" discovered the corporations
hireling shoveling up the asphalt and
cobble of one of the principal streets.
he ordered the work stopped, but the
Man with the Shovel kept right on,
Indifferent to the remonstrance of the
city's authority. Then a warrant was
issued by the city's magistrate, and
the trespasser-who, strange to relate
was a no less unlikely party than
Mile Tilley-was hauled into the
city's police court and fined $40 and
costs.
The corporation paid the fine, and
then when the Dignity Of the city was
re-established, applied for a permit to
excavate. and therein it was main.
tanned.
"All's we'll that ends WE'LL" has
hitherto passed as an infallible axiom,
but here it fails. The ending has re-
suited in the utter Encouragement OF
Mr.. Tilley, who says that after q rest
OF twenty years he had been induced
to attempt earning a livelihood by
honest toll, when he was met at the
very threshold OF commendable en-.
deavor by the humiliation of arrest
and imposition of a fine. That set
ties it. No more work for him. He
declares that he will never again raise
his hand to do "a lick of work" long
as he lives.