The Savannah morning news., 1901-09-04
THIRTY CRIMES A DAY.


One of the few failures of Gilbert
ard Sullivan was an opera called Rud-
digore. In 1t one of the leading char
acters was condemned to commit a
minimum Of one crime a day or forfeit
his inheritance. He found 1t exceed
ingly difficult to evolve from his an
ner consciousness criminal ideas
enough to produce even one crime per
day. Had he lived in this country his
life would have been one succession of
soft snaps. We have such an intermin-
able intricacy of laws, many of them
forgotten and most of them more hon
cred in the breach than the observance,
that II is almost impossible for any
person to get through even one day
without fracturing one or more of
them, notwithstanding it be in the
most innocent and non-criminal spirit.
One legal wag, as a matter of fact,
has made a close calculation by means
OF which he estimates that 1t is not
possible for a citizen to live a day
without committing at least ten mis-
demeanors.
An illustration OF how the American
citizen is continually running afoul of
municipal or other laws was summed
up in the New York World recently A
well-balanced young family man in
New York city the other morning got
up and dressed by his window, with
the blinds up, Zine IS or six months
in PRISON.; placed potted plant in the
window, around which there was no
railing, $50 or six months); took his
dog out for walk, without chain (s3
or 10 days.; wrote note asking pay
ment of a debt, using postal card ($5
or one year,; struck a match on
mail box $1,000 or three years.; ex-
perforated in a street car ($500 or one
year) dropped and left newspaper
on the car floor ($5 or 10 days.; gave
away a transfer on the street railway
$3.50 or months; dropped a banana
peel on the street ($5 or 10 days.; sub
scribed to charitable lottery scheme
$1,00O or years.; carried his baby on
bicycle $3.50 or months; jumped
over the fence of Central Park and
walked on the grass ($5 or 10 days for
each offense); played with the monkeys
in the park, and said bad word (S5 or
10 days for each offense), and so on.
In short, in the run of the day the
young man had committed no fewer
crimes and misdemeanors of about the
general character set forth in the fore
going, than thirty, mourning liability
cnment aggregating nineteen years,
eleven months and ten days. If he had
been detected, prosecuted, convicted
and sentenced in each violation of the
law as it is on the books, his days do
ings would have sent him to prison for
one-fourth Of an average lifetime. New
ertheless he was just an ordinary law
abiding citizen, and no cases were
made against him and no fines assessed
or imprisonments inflicted.
1t is not risking anything to say that,
proportionately to size and import
ance, New York has as few tu-penny
laws as any city in the country. Sa-
vannah's ordinance books are full of
them. SO are the books of every other
city. Many of them are passed to
please some whim, and are then for
gotten. 1t is possible that if every law,
state and municipal, were stringently
enforced, there would be a mighty
small proportion of the population out
of jail. What is really needed in city
and country is not mass of fiea-bite
laws, but better enforcement and OBJ
servance of the really important laws.
Mrs. Nation attempted to push her
way into the Democratic Club, New
York, last Sunday. The attendant told
her ladies were permitted to visit the
club on Sundays. rs there anything
inside that you're ashamed Off" she
asked, continuing: 'Td find It so inter-
esting." That's it, precisely, and the
secret of the woman's notoriety. She
is looking for things that people are
ashamed of, or that she thinks they
ought to be ashamed of, for the pur-
pose of advertising herself. She has
no sense of delicacy, or of art. She
delights to tear the bandage off a moral
sore and expose it's hideousness to the
multitude, for the benefit of her lee
ture box office. She has no ideal above
prudery. To her the Venus of Milo is
merely naked woman, and she never
fails to call attention to the nakedness.
In short, Mrs. Nation is not only a