Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-25
WASHINGTON STREETS
PEDESTRIANS SAFE FROM PETTY
ANNoYANcEs OF OTHER CITIES

.'The streets of Washington are famous
for their beautiful trees, stately buildings
and magnificent vistas," remarked a. head
quarters detective sergeant to Star re-
porter yesterday, but they are also nota-
ole, or ought to be, for other reasons which
perhaps may not be SO conspicuous to the
casual thinker.
IT was reminded forcibly of this fact when
read the other day of pretty and we'll
dressed blonde doing up the theatrical por-
ton of Broadway, New York, on new
touch to I've extent of a dime from each
victim ST. represented to the touches
that she was shy dime to make UP the
price of a telegram to mother in Montreal,
and she put it UP to everybody she met Tor
a half dozen squares, from the tfeasurers in
the box offices of all the theaters in line to
the cashiers in the stores, ana ABOUT every
body else she met who looked as II he had
the price in his pockets. She worked this
petty graft very rapidly, and as every man
fell to the touch on account of her good
looks and the smallness of the amount she
gathered in considerable sum. 1nyeStiga-
ton proved that she had worked this game
on other streets on previous days. The po-
lice 1t was stated were looking for her.
Had this enterprising young woman at
tempted to work this graft along PennSyl-
vania avenue the headquarters men would
have got her inside of an hour. We shouldn' t
streets of Washington are singulary free
from grafters of all sorts, and 1t is mat
ter of congratulation that they are. The
city Is practically rid of these street pests,
and it is the intention of the department to
keep it so. Even the hard-luck story chap,
the most pestiferous frequent and I'M
worthy of all the street parasites who hold
up pedestrians with their lying solicitations
of aims, have learned that if caught in
Washington plying their business it means
a workhouse sentence.
Streets Safe and Free.
1.-The police of Washington proceed upon
the theory that the citizens shall not be an
noyed by beggars and petty street grafters,
and in the furtherance of this principle our
policemen are constantly on the lookout
for this undesirable class. The streets of
Washington are likewise free from other
Objectionable characters at all hours, day
or night. No other city in the country is
SO free from this class Of street annoyances
as is Washington, whether the hour be noon
midnight. Then, we are compare lively
free from street brawls and fights. A street
fight, so common in many cities, is quite in
frequent here. l do not refer to the alley
scraps of certain class of our populatio
as my remarks have to do with the streets
and avenues. Alley brawls can be cassed
as an offense peculiar to their residents
and their location. and even these the police
keep well in hand.
Passing from the minor to the major
offenses on a city's streets, highway rob-
berries and holdups are not frequent as COM
pared with other cities; we have some, it
is true, but nothing like in proportion to
other large centers of population. Broadly
speaking, citizens of this city have not the
almost constant dread of being held up and
robbed, as is the case in so many cities--as
In Chicago for instance, where ii amounts
to deadly terror, and has been declared
by committees of safety in the windy city
to be an urban calamity and curse.
Fewer Washers.
Again, the 'masher' nuisance is nothing
like so prevalent in the capital as elsewhere
Our female population may walk the streets
unattended at any hour and feel secure in
this respect, as compared with some cities
of which l have personal knowledge where
the police seem to be unable or unwilling to
put this form Of street annoyance down. 1t
is true there was some comment recently
one or two much-frequented cor
ners. but the police acted at once upon COM
plant and broke up the practice
Our sidewalks are given over to the pur-
pose for which they are intended-the use
of pedestrians. You do not have to pick
your way through boxes and barrels, STUN
BILE over skids and planks stretched over the
pathway from business houses to trucks,
travel around teams backed up to the store
or warehouse entrances, compelling pedes-
trian to wade through the mud, and, in win
ter time the slush of the streets, to find
a passageway. Showcases are vigorously
kept within the prescribed limits and are
not permitted to stand half way to the
curbstone. Neither are merchants allowed to
place large portion of their stock of goods
way out upon the sidewalk TO attract pass
ers-by. There are no dangerous swinging
signs projecting far out over the sidewalks,
presenting a continuous menace to those
who pass beneath. The sidewalks them
selves are now largely of cement affording
a firm and even foothold, the old style of
brick-laid walks being well on their way
of passing for good and all time, and for
which none will shed a tear of regret.
Snow and Ice.
There is one problem regarding the
streets of Washington, however, which is
a matter of Importance, the solution Of
which should not be delayed longer than
this winter, and that is the snow and ice
question 1t is not the fault of the police
that this question has not been finally and
judicialy settled. We made arrests last win
ter by the wholesale, but it has been shown
that by reason of the peculiar situation
here as regards the fee simple of the side
walks that the matter is one which the po-
lice cannot determine. 1t is question which
may be settled by other authorities, and
once it has been fixed SO that dispute Is no
longer possible, the police will see to 1t
that there is no further complaint against
recalcitrant property owners, residents and
non-residents, on the score of not keeping
their premises free from ice and snow.