The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1915-04-01
Edh.r yssssssrr Grit.AA,eeste.

Edksr Jslesbssv Grit.Adsseste,
II you will kindly allow space in
your valuable paper for the express
Ion Of thought. which 70 my mind
is OF vital interest to the citizens and
residents Of Julesburg, l would like
TO call the attention of our citizens
and town officials to condition which
has existed for long time past and
is getting worse every day. l allude
to the hobo element which is infesting
the town: our town Is overrun with
men. mostly young. vigorous and
strong men. who are travelling from
one place to another by heating their
way on railroads. and begging meals
from the citizens OF the town. They
have no money, and. although in some
cases they pretend to seek work, they
don't want II. In the business section
Of the town they beg for money to
buy meal. and In the outskirts they
demand something to eat, and in many
instances create terror and fear a.
mong the women and home folks, while
the man OF the house is away. This
condition is becoming deserate, this
array of hobos is increasing fast, the
Panama exposition seems to allure
them westward. and when that is over,
they will return the same way, they
expect to live off the people by beg
ging. and If they don't succeed in this,
they will resort to burglary and thete1
We have just had an experience of
this, when the business place and resi-
dence of one of our business men was
burglarized, the house ransacked and
property stolen. while the family was
at church on Sunday evening; thanks
to our town nlarshal's prompt action,
the thieves, four Of them were caught
and most Of the stolen property re-
covered; they are now In jail having
been bound over to the District Court
for trial. Court will not meet until
the latter part of May and in the mean
time these men must be fed by the
County at an expense of three dollars
day, and this must be paid by the
taxpayer. l would earnestly recon-
mend that our Town Council take ac-
tion at once to put stop to this con-
dition. 1t can be done effectively, 1t has
been tried in other places with unfail-
ing success. but in order to do 80 dras-
tic measures must be adopted; it will
be necessary to increase the police
force of the town, so as to provide at
least one officer at night, one man
cannot serve both day and night. Let
every hobo and vasrant who comes in
to the town be taken up and brought
before the public magistrate as a va
grant. place a good fine on him, and
instead of giving him hours to leave
town, put a ball and chain on him,
give him the necessary tools and put
him to work on the streets and make
him work; there is plenty of work of
this kind to keep these fellows busy
for quite q while; If such a step is ta-
ken and enforced, 1t will have the Ger
tain effect Of keeping other hobos
from stopping in Julesburg, for II
there is anything hobo does not like
it is work. 1t will soon spread to this
element and they will keep away.
1t may be objected that such a
course would be too expensive and the
finances of the town cannot afford it,
but 1t seems to me this objection is
untenable; would it not be better and
more economical to provide against
loss by our citizens in the manner sug-
gester than to await the perpretation
of crime by this element and loss of
property by our citizens? The saw
ing of the expense of prosecution and
conviction OF these criminals would
more than Offset the expense Of pre-
vention. Our citizens pay taxes to sup
port the government of the town, and
Ssre entitled to protection. They should
not be left unprotected and be made
to suffer loss.
A. F. Perrier.