The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-01
As 1rfrY DO IN rvANsrowN.

Al THEY DO IN EvANSTOWN.
 Evanstown, Ind, has adopted he- roic remedy for auto- o-scorching. and if 1t is faithfully administered there can be but little doubt of the effect. The police have been provided with stop watches to time the speed by. and are instructed when they find a man ex- ceeding the limit they signal him to stop. If he refuses to obey the signal the order is flashed to the next police man and he proceeds to shoot holes in the tires of the offending soorcher. The first case caught was on Wednes- day of last week when a policeman plugged the tire of . speeding ma chine causing it to come to stop and almost to upset. Of course the occupants were furious. but they had no recourse, for the policeman was obeying orders and that ended 1t. The owner declared. so 1t is reported, that the shooting up of his machine was ''an outrageous performances" :,
 We'll, perhaps 1t was. looking at it from. the reckless drivers point of view. but the public will look at 1t very differently. This speeder was going through the city at Q speed that was "a menace to pedestrians and to other vehicles He paid no attention to the officers signal to slow down. and if we may judge from some recent happenings If he had run over and killed some person he would have put on extra speed to get out of the way. That Is the way most of them act when they kill or cripple some ono.
 In a case like this 1t was the duty of the policeman to obey orders and he did 1t promptly and effectually. In another case in the same town, though, tho officer stopped a speeder by pointing a revolver at his head. This was not in accordance with tho orders issued to the police, and though 1t had the desired effect 1t was dam gerous. and the officer might have found himself facing a charge of mur- der. Shooting the tires full of holes will answer every purpose and is not so dangerous. We don't know. but presume that the Evanstown police will have to take lessons in shooting at a moving target SO that they will be in no danger of plugging the by islanders. Evanstown may solve the problem. after all.
 But Evanstown is not the only place drastic measures to abate the evil The town of Glencoe. a suburb of Chi cago, has quite an original scheme, and one that promises to add zest to the business of auto-specdins. The town authorities are having six-inch bumps" constructed at every street. crossing. with a tolerably sharp grade each way. An auto or other vehicle going at a moderate speed will go over them without inconvenience, but one going at forty or fifty miles an hour will bounce the occupants several them in the street. The New York Mail we'll says of this scheme:
 What comments the scheme is it's sanity. moderation and. as We may say. automatic quality. Speed ordinances require legal machinery to enforce them. the constables pistol sometimes brings dovtn the innocent bystander, siag cast in the highway injures the hoofs of horses, gates or other barriers across the ros(i are needlessiy brutal. To require the lawless auto man to bump the bumps is "to make the pun ishment fit the crime," and-exquisite refinement of justfce-to make the off, fender punish himself. That comes near being automatic Jurisprudence.
 That Is really the best idea we have seen mentioned. If reckless autoist takes one of these crossings at fifty miles an hour and suddenly finds him. self doing stunts in the upper atmos- phere. or testing the hardness of the pavement. he will probably feel dis gusted or something of the kind, but what can he do? He can't sue the city for providing for the public safetN and while he Is nursing his bruises he will have time to ruminate on the un- certainty of things. and may possibly reach the conclusion that 1t was all his own fault. He may also have the satisfaction, such as 1t is, of knowing that he has afforded amusement to the citizens, with no admission fees. There are always several ways of do- ing a thing. and Evanstown and Glen COG have given us the latest.