Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-06-05
OSKALOOSA CAN'T
HITCH ON SQUARE
SUPREME COURT SETTLES CUES
TON IN FAVOR OF THE
getty BEAUTIFUL" HOST.

Des Moines, June 3.-Old timers of
Oskaloosa and vicinity are denied the
time honored privilege Of hitching
their teams to posts in front of the
public square by decision of the SUI
preme court handed down yesterday af-
flrming the Mahaska county court
which refused to enjoin the city from
removing the posts.
The decision is boost for the cause
of "the city beautiful" and establishes
the rights Of city council or park
commission to remove anything from
billboard to hitching post if it is
considered nuisance and an inter
ference with the free use and enjoy
ment of public streets or parks.
w. R. Lacey, brother Of Congress
man Lacey, agreed with other old tim
ers who owned stores fronting on the
public square that the removal of the
hitching posts was an outrage and a
ridiculous concession to new tangled
ideas Of what city should look like.
Accordingly they brought suit to pre-.
vent the removal, and after losing in
the lower court carried the case up.
Called Nuisance.
IS pOSlS WSlS oluSACu lSlAoNCO
as an unsightly nuisance out of keep
ing with a city of 10000 people, by
the city council, just at the time in
the spring of 1907 when the municipal
improvement wave struck Oskalooss
and resulted in the election of board
of park commissioners.
Hitching post advocates contended
that the square had been used fol
sixty years as hitching place, that
the city had not proved the posts to be
a nuisance, and that the order was
made in order to throw the business
of the farmer from the stores about
the square to others whose owners hat
"come to the city at the eleventh houl
and wanted to reap where they hat
not sown."
After quoting many decisions t.
show that a city has the right to reg
ulate the use of the streets, in spite
of custom and usage, the court in al
opinion by Justice Weaver says:
"a prominent lawyers tells the cour
that his memory goes back to the yea
| 1854 when he skated upon the publi
square in the winter and with his dol
dug squirrels from it's soil in the sum
mer Doubtless also he could hay
then picketed his horse in the squar
or turned his cow loose upon tn
streets without exciting adverse CON
ment, but If the same witness shout
now relapse into the mood of hi
| youth and attempt revival of hi
ancient pastimes and practice upon tn
fields Of his earlier exploits he woul
hardly expect us to defraud his act"
Judge Weaver had little fun wit
the argument that the posts wer
abolished for the benefit of other me
the eleventh hour" He said:
Court Wakes Facetous.
"The court must beg leave to a
sumo that it is not yet near II o'cloc
in the history Of Oskaloosa and the
the prosperity and growth by which
has expanded beyond the immediat
surroundings of the original publ
square until the regions about Marke
Place and the city fire department Ii
up their ambitious heads in rivalr
with their older neighbors will Ion
continue to characterize that thrivin
community"
A decision Of the Virginia supren
court holding that the hitching plae
at the court house in Wincheste
must not be removed is discounted /
: the supreme court on the grour
that the cases are not analogous II
} several reasons, "to say nothing
the pardonable pride of Thomas Jeffe
sons neighbors in relieving that gre'
man from any possible charge
: wrong doing in tying his horse to
roadside fence while he walked to h
} Inauguration"