The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1910-11-02
CITY Authorities
\ ARE NEGLIGENT
Did Not Take Necerray Precautions
for Halloween and as Result
Property Was Destroyed.
SPECIAL OFFICER lNTIMIDATED
The Boys Having Been "Put Wise" to
His Appointment by Regular
Members of the Force.

The city authorities are not en-
titled to any boquets for their efforts
to suppress the lawless element in
the city during the last two or three
nights. The excuse offered for the
depredations committed is that on
Halloween the boys are expected to
relax in their efforts at good be-
havior.
Not for many years has such pro-
pensity for evil been shown as on
Sunday and Monday nights. A num-
ber of young men, at a late hour on
Sunday night, hauled from different
sections of the city to the school house
lot in East DenisOn, several out
houses and located them in a row
west of the school building. The
fact that taking and carrying these
buildings away from the premises of
the owners made the parties engaged
in the act guilty of larceny did not de-
ter them in their mischevious purpose.
The effort of degeneracy evidently re-
quired more labor on the part of the
actors than they had legitimately per-
formed for weeks before. Two of the
owners of the buildings came forward
on Monday and claimed their prop
erty and caused them to be hauled
back to their homes, thus leaving five
of the buildings remaining on the
ground on Monday evening. The law
lessness which started on Sunday
night, as we'll as the record of previ-
GUS years, should have warned the
city authorities as to what was to be
expected on Monday night, but it
seems that little or no preparation
was made to head off the mischief
which was brewing, and which the
young men only awaited nightfall to
carry out.
We understand the subject had beeh
discussed by the city officials during
the day, but that no adequate pre-
cautions were adopted to police the
city during the following night 1t
is said that one gentleman, who be-
lieved he could maintain order, was,
at his own request, commissioned by
the mayor to act as a special police
man in the vicinity of Washington
park, and that after he had been so
designated, members of the regular
force put the boys wise to his ap-
pointment and hinted to them that
the new recruit should be given an
opportunity to show his courage, with
the result that after assuming the
duties of the position he was fright
ened out of his wits and fled from the
locality where he had tlattered him
self he would be able to maintain or
der
A number of rowdies caught horse
and led him up the stairs OF the north
school building and tied him to the
desk of one of the teachers. In al
most every part of town everything
of a portable character was either
carried away, upset or otherwise in
jured.
At a late hour on Monday night a
number of young men visited the East
Denison school grounds and set on
fire the remaining buildings, which
had been hauled there the night be-
fore, and caused the total destruction
of each one of them. While the fire
was Illuminating that portion OF the
town and consuming the buildings,
the boys stood a short distance away,
silent spectators of their dastardly
work. The city authorities were noti-
fed and told of what was going on,
and when aroused, one of them simply
said that he had been asleep and that
he understood arrangements had been
made for policing the town, and that
he had gone home and to bed. 1t is
said that Nero fiddled while Rome
was burning, thus showing that he was
still awake, while the guardians OF the
peace of Denison quietly slumbered
during the time the depredations OF
these young men were carried on with
in the distance of a block of their
homes in such q spectacular manner
as to attract almost everybody else.
Too much censure cannot be
lodged against the young men for
their lawless acts, and too little praise
cannot be bestowed upon the ofhcers
of the city for their indifference to
what was transpiring within stones
throw of where they lived. 1t has
been the custom of other years for
the mayor to instruct his police force