The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-05-30
With the Entire East in the Grip of the Enemy the Coun.
try Feverishly Hastens to Repair in Six Months the
Negligence and Inactivity of Years, Only to
Find That It Is Too Late

England was complete. Not a word
came out Of 1t to the rest Of the
United States.
The city of New York was equally
sealed. Nothing was permitted to
pass u OF the gagged n fettered
The messages that stormed at
II were delivered to censors who did
what they pleased with them and
passed practically non to the persons
for whom they a been destined.
In this sealed city. for the first time
in mems memory, there were no
crowds on the streets. Broadway from
Fffty-ninth street to the Battery was
almost naked Of people by day AMI
by night. Its electric signs were dark.
Its hotels and theatres were all but
dark.
Whenever. by chance, people found
themselves in a given block in num-
bers sufficient to make a throng, there
always was a hasty scattering, as II
they feared to touch one another. As
these little knots scattered they cast
swift glances Of apprehension at the
high roofs.
There had been an official notice on
the front pages Of all the New York
newspapers on the morning after the
occupations:
All assemblages or gatherings on
the streets are strictly Forbidden
By order Of the Military Governments
There was no threat as to penalty
for infraction. None was needed. The
machine guns in all the towers and
skyscrapers were sufficient warning.
The shape of the island on which
the borough of Manhattan lay, with
immensely long straight streets rum
ming north and south through its mar
row width, made it a simple matter
to isolate all sections in which there
were populations who might become
unruly. The crowded tenement dis
tricts of the East Side We're cut of
from those in the west. They were
separated into units within themselves.
Very soon the soldiers moved
around the city with the ease OF care.
less visitors. Officers. mounted and
in automobiles, went where they
pleased. They paid apparently no at
tention TO the people, and these in
turn could not guess anything that
the %conquerors had in mind or what
would be their next act in the next
minute.
The city's newspapers. like those of
Boston and all New England, were
controlled and edited by military GEN.
sors. They were permitted to tell their
readers nothing of Importance. This
utter Ignorance in which the multi
tudes were kept made them more
helpless than did even the guns that
watched them everywhere.
1t was a city surrounded, perpetu-
nnxy annfrnntaI and annrnSond hy Aha
unknown. The veil of secrecy and
silence was lifted only when newspa-
pers or placards printed some new
proclamation in formal. legal verbiage.
The first one to be issued had pro-
claimed the occupation and the insti-
tuition Of a military government. 1t
had added that the existing civil au-
thorities had been empowered and or
dered to continue their administra-
ton with the sanction and participa.
ton of the military government, and
that all civil and criminal laws re-
manned in effect subject to changes
demanded by military exigency.6
But Immediately under this an
nouncement was a paragraph headed:
Laws Suspended" which said:
ION and after this date the following
classes of laws are suspended: %
The right to bear arms. t2) The
right of suffrage. go The right of
assemblage. 90 The right to publish
newspapers or circulate other matter.
(5) The right to Quit occupied terri
tory or travel freely in same.e
Another announcement that struck
home after the people saw its real
meaning under its smooth wording