The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-21
they give people at dangerous street

they give people at dangerous street crossings ought to earn for them in the course of a year as many life saving medals as they could conveniently car- ry. But when it comes to strict en- forcement of law against drunkenness and disorderly conduct on the streets, the London policeman surely falls short
 Perhaps he thinks this fault a virtue, and possibly it is a virtue. It may be part of his instructions and a wise part. If every instance of street disor- der led to an arrest, the courts, 1t is certain, would be kept much buster than they are, yet it isn't at all certain that there would be corresponding decrease of street brawling or of the intoxicaton that foments It. Of all the institutions of Old England the very greatest socially is the public house, and while that is kept in full swing, patronized more or less by all classes, what consistency would there be 1n en- forcing the law very strictly against the sad output from this influential plant? When you tolerate one thing that isn't just what 1t should be com mon sense compels you to put up With some other things that are not just right.
 But as regards disorderliness on the streets one good thing at any rate can be said of the London policeman He may not haul people in when you think he should, but he is always on hand. He hasn't at all the faculty of not get ting there until it's all over; he couldn't there are so many of him. His first efforts generally are to get the crowds In motion. Come, gentlemen, move on; move on, please" is his usu- al form of coaxing address, and he doesn't at all look, when he says and repeats this. as though he could bite your head off or as though, if you didn't get a move on quickly, he would be likely to make the atmosphere blue with explosives not in the dictionary. Such gentle, coaxing treatment is rare ly intellectual in disposng of the crowd, and by that time, as rule, the rowdy, brawling principals have disposed of themselves, and that, of course, ends the matter.
 If the London policeman should find you reeling drunk he would be far more likely to see you home or help you to a cab than to bring you up at the nearest police station. This, if you were not in appearance fellow of the baser sort, given to that kind of thing; though even then he would give you a good chance to save him from arresting you by getting out of his sight as quickly as possible and wouldn't mind in most cases even if you were too far gone to be able to do that in any way except by crawling. All of which, as I have said, may be just the right policy in coun- try of the social tendencies of Merrie England. Still, it's an infinite pity that womanhood is permitted to de- grade herself so much on these London streets.
 One evening business kept me for an hour at Ludgate Circus. It was just about the time when so many honest young workers of both sexes are emp tied from the factories and shops of that neighborhood and take their way homeward across Blackfriars Bridge. In that one hour I saw two cases of crawling between men and women and one awful instance of female intoxica- ton. And of course what l saw was equally on view to the hundreds of de- cent young people who were going home from an honest days work. The drunken woman was not interfeTed with by the police. She staggered across the street and continued stag gering until she was out of sight, the only interference being from some street gamin who followed and pes tered the poor creature for the sake of the fun the spectacle afforded.
 Retiring recently from twenty-four years of service as a London magis- trate, MT. Wyndham Slade said, "The saddest thing that I remark in this court is the great increase of drunken ness among women. Formerly that vice was chiefly confined to the male sex, but now there seem to be more drunken women than drunken men. Whether" he added. among the low CT classes, excessive drinking by wo men is or is not one form of asserting woman's rights, I cannot say, but the results are deplorable."
 HENRY TUCKLEY.