Milford chronicle., 1906-05-18
A Clean city.

| 1t to be morally clean Ahdl city a.
stantly becomes clean and the bad ele
ment runs to cover as quickly as the
tigers and the jackals fee to the Jun
giles and as the prairie dogs tails dls
appear into their holes at the hunters
approach. When the buildings OF san
Francisco fell as fat as the walls oil
Jericho at the blast OF the rams horn
then San Francisco arose in her moral
and spiritual strength. San Francisco
was never as free from sin as on the
first few nights following the awful
confagration.
No sooner did those huge office build
,pgs and apartment houses and mann
moth hotels tremble and totter IN the
grin Of that horrible earthquake IKE
an aspen leaf shaken in the winds than
at once the thieves and the robbers and
tbe Ubertines and the ghOuls Of the
night clapped their hands and began
TO cry: aha! Now for our harvest!
All the wealth Of San Francisco Is
living where our hands can clutch 1t.
But these thieves and robbers CON
graduated themselves too soon. NO
! sooner did these moral lepers start to
loot than at once the soldiers rifles
shot them down like mad dogs. No
sooner did they try to enter the tum-
bled down stores and pick up the gold
from amid those ruins than they were
halted at the point of the bayonet 1t
was only necessary to kill half a dozen
Of the miscreants. Then these coward
" marauders-for they are always
cowardly at heart-crouched in fear
and begged for mercy and ran away
from San Francisco by scores and hun
dreds to find safer quarters in other
towns where justice was not so quick
ly dealt out.
A Safe City.
Thus as 1 kept walking up and down
those streets, where 1 felt as safe as a
little child would feel in his mothers
arms, l kept saying to myself: with
the fallen walls Of San Francisco as an !
object lesson why will other cities any
longer trife with evil doers? Why will |
a city like Chicago allow the holdup |
men to prowl about its back alleys!
Why will they allow the lecherous
hands Of its ruffians to stretch forth |
and destroy its fairest and purest wO-
men? Why will we not do as Diaz did |
in the capital Of Mexico and as San |
Francisco is doing today2 Why will
we not maize It a capital punishment
for any man to put the pistol Of a
to our foreheads and de-
mand our money? Why will we also
not make It a capital punishment for
any man to try to destroy the purity
and sacredness Of the home" If the
holdup crimes were dealt with as
quickly and as severely in our eastern
cities as they are today in the Pacific
metropolis our streets would not only
be safe, but the women-our wives and
mothers and sisters and daughters
would be able to walk out at any time
and be held as sacred as they are by
our own firesides.
But the quick cessation Of robbery
and theft in San Francisco was not the
only lesson of good government to be
learned amid those smoking ruins. The
new laws or the martial laws not only
declared, Thou shalt not steal," but
they also affirmed, Thou shalt not be
m extortioner," and Thou shalt not
take an unfair advantage of the weak
nesses of tIrt neighbors," for just as
the murderers and the thieves were
ready to loot their victims at the point
of the pistol the extOrtioners were
ready to squeeze the lifeblOOd out Of
their victims if they could do so in a
legal way.
"HOw?" you ask. Well, let us for
moment picture ourselves in this burn
ed city. The flames in the business
portion seem to be everywhere. The
wafer pipes and the gas pipes and the
electric wires are broken. The escap- |
ing gas has been ignited by the live
wires. The fire engines are helpless,
for the water supply is gone. The
flames are creeping nearer and nearer
to your house You rush forth fran
tically to hunt up an eXpressman.
"HOw much?' you ask ''Will you |
carry my trunks out of the reach of |
danger?" "Give me fifty Or a hundred
dollars" is the answer. Cant you .
do it for less?" NO. he says; ''there
are only few wagons, and we can get
any price we ask" Or the flames have
burned themselves out and there are |
only few bakery stores left. You
enter one and ask for bread. "How |
much is a loafY' zone dollar" says |
the baker. Cant you sell the bread |
for less?" "No. I can raise my price, |
and instead of getting 3 cents a loaf
I am going to get a dollar" This was
the condition confronting the people Of
San Francisco during and Immediately
after the confIagration Now what
happened? Why, General Funston sent |
forth orders something like this: IF
any man who has a horse and wagon
is found overcharging cOnfscate his
wagon and horse If any man who
owns a bakery store is found over
charging take away his store and drive
him out from behind the counter"