Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-06-07

through the cycle of criminal outbreaks at
this time half a century
Political ago as may be judged by
p,dr;.,,, this item printed IN The
Star of June 3, 1858:
Last night party of about twenty
five young men and nearly grown boys
took the town. as il were, in and around
the fifth and sixth wards. Their ostensi-
BILE errand was to tear down bills on
which was displayed the name Of a candi-
date in the approaching election. Not
content with thus outraging the rights Of
their fellow-citizens, on arriving opposite
the house of Mr. Thomas Fug1tt, on
which one Of the bills was posted. they
fired a general vOlley into it from the re-
volvers and pistols with which they were
all apparently armed. Though there were
twelve or fifteen persons in the house.
fortunately no one was wounded. The
scoundrelly ruffians took to their heels in
stantly after discharging their weapons
A bullet dropped by them in front of the
house has been handed to us-a murder
Gus one truly. such as is made at the
Washington arsenal to be used in patent
arms. The gang perpetratng these out
RACES are some of them known as the
Rams who, with other kindred thugs
seem bent on controlling our municipal
affairs after their own peculiar method
X X
Much of the disorder experienced by the
citizens Of Washington fifty years ago
was attributable to the fact
Steam Fire that the fire department
was maintained on the vol
unteer basis. In The Star
of June 3. S5S. is the following paragraph
on this subject:
"A bill passed the House last Tuesday
to aid the city Of Washington in estab-
fishing paid fire department. The
property holding citizens have been pray
ing for something like this for consid-
cradle time. and 1t is TO be hoped that
the bill viii pe enacted into law without
delay. Such law would be a long stride
toward an era of law and order among
us. The bill appropriates $1,000 toward
the purchase OF four steam tire engines
and $1,000 toward the establishment OF
fire alarm and police telegraph. To
any one who has ever seen the steam fire
engine in operat ton it's advantages over
the manual engine are too obvious to re-
quire any explanation. one OF them being
worth at least three of the engines now
in use in our city and when we'll worked
by competent engineers will do the work
OF four common engines
<
The election for mayor aud members
of the municipal councils occurred Oh
the 9TH of June. 1853.
Election Party feeling ran high
p,+: and there was great ap-
prehension lest the dis
orderly element should gain control Of
the situation. In The Star OF June D.
Among those named by tho mayor for
service on the special police Mon
day arc many well known citizens of as
much weight of character as any others
in the federal metropolis. who-e presence
at the polls. wearing badges designating
their functions, cannot fail to have due
influence in depressing any spirit of VIC
lence that might otherwise manifest In
self then and there. as rampant as il Is
at this time in our crowded thoroughfares
by day as we'll as by night. One has but
to pass along Pennsylvania avenue from
ID to 9th streets at any period between
10 am. and 10 pm. to comprehend the
fact that there are crowds Of violent men.
strangers to more than nine-tenths of
our population. now here heavily armed
and ready to seek control of the election
il they be not checked, as they certainly
will be on their first demonstration TO
hot