The age-herald., 1901-12-04
THAT
 ENGINEER INSPECT
 THE WATER SYSTEM
WORST CITY ON GLOBE
 SAYS NEW YORK HERALD

to such a height that they assaulted and battered other citizens 66O9 were arrested for vagrs ncy, of housebreakers there were 1869, and, sad confession, there were s64 homicides Arrests for all other of- fences aggregated 3o.54i.
 This homicide showing is the only showing for which we really have to blush. It Is far in excess of the figures for any other locality under the Ameri- can sun, and 1t shows that right here in New York, the foremost city of the Un- ion, hum an life is held cheaper than 1t is on the alkai plains or the canons of the Rockies, celebrated in song and story as the home of bad men
 But the lightness of New York's other offences softens this sting and brings the percentage down to the figures before given.
 Now for Birmingham. Ladies and gen tlemen. here is a marvel! Here is the curious spectacle of a magic city that Is at once the wickedest and one of the most progressive towns in these United States
 There are SS. 415 citizens of Birmingham today They are the "liveliest pfoposi- tions" as they term themselves, that cry backward. They are alive to land values and can establish title in a way that would make a Philadelphia Lawyer take off his hat They are ahead of date in tariff and trust matters. They have the latest things in blasting fur naces and rolling mills They are. as they say in the Bowery, "wise.
 And after that they are wicked!
 There were 9,626 arrests in Birmingham last year.
 Do you grasp what this means?
 It means that twenty five per cent of the population saw the inside of police stations.
 It means that every fourth person in the city had an unpleasant quarter of an hour or more with policeman.
 It means that Birmingham. Ala, nine. ty-ninth in the order of American Citiss, stands at the head of the list when it comes to breaking the law of the land. It Is something to have a record:
 Drunkenness and larceny are responsi- hle for Birmingham's high-water mark Of arrests. There were more thieves caught in this place last year than were caught in proportion. anywhere else in the coun- try. And leaving aside all questions of proportion, the number, 112S is exceeded only by nine other citiesrNew York. Chi cago Philadelphia, St Louis, Boston, Bal timore, Cleveland, Buffalo and Washing ton; and in any one of these Birming- nam might be slowed away in an odd corner and nobody know 1t was there
 After Birmingham in point of wicked ness come Atlanta and Butte. trifie more than II per cent of the entire popu- lation of the Queen City of the South was arrested last year for various of- lenses. The Atlanta citizen looks with favorable eye upon the rich red liquor as a panacea for all his ills. The number Of arrests for drunkenness was 4244 last year
 Also the citizen of Atlanta Is on record as being of a cumulative nature. Last year 7063 of him were locked up for dis turbing the peace of the rest of the city. Out of a total population of S9,S72 the total arrests, 15,632 bring out a pretty stout percentage.
 We are accustomed to consider the wild and woolly west tern land as the house of too much trouble" hence there will be less wonder at the bad record of Butte than at the showings of cities in the supposedly peaceful South. Thirteen per cent of arrests Is the figure for the SO470 folk who live in the city on the hills of Montana. As in the case of other cities, Butte's naughtiness is ascribabie, in the main to rum.