Year: 1867

They have short and sharp ways of dealing
with loafers in BOstOn-ways which remind us
OF Puritan times and of primitive statutes.
The other day one Michael Nolan, about whom
there is nothing extraordinary whatever, but
whom we here kindly mmortalize by mention
ing his name, was sent to the House OF Cor
rection for four months for being IAN Idle ana
" disorderly person. Wrathful in the extreme,
he abused the Judge with insOent abandon,
and received sixty days more for the Wlld
freedom of his remarks. Michael is not, we
suppose, what you may call literary; if he were
nc might employ part of his seclusiOn from
the world, either in composing a satire upon
the fact that millions of idle people in all
parts of the country remain at large undlS-
turbed by the police, or else i'll giving us MS
views of the policy applying the Massa-
chusetts law to the great work OF recon
struction. In the most troublesome Southern
localities, if the idle and dsorderly persons
could be set to some useful work. and so forced
fu portion of their time to keep the peace, 1t
would not make much difference whether the
President meddled with the Major-Generals or
not. 1t might then be possible to hold Con-
vention without riot and an election without
the dread of one Nine-tenths OF all the
troubles which come to us by telegraph and cor
respondence are OccasiOned by vagabond social
element, by men to whom order is as painful
as hard work. and who pine in peace for the
pop of the pistol. Most of the disorder which
is so discouraging comes of lazinesS which Is
congcnital i'm great deal of the white blood of
Southern regions and which is never discarded
except for the excitements of riot orfor an atray
in front of the grocery. Industrious Southern
men with real stake in the country want
nothing so much rs peace; while there Is
nothing more thoroughly out of place and out
of season just at this time in those parts than
idleness There is an old saw that those who
will not work must not expect to
eat; but somehow they do eat and
drink, and smoke, and sleep the
sleep which they have not earned, and quarter
themselves upon unhappy society, and frustrate
the political economies, and make themselves
thoroughly improbable nuisances, sometimes
stealing, and sometimes begging, and always on
the look-o for n shindy or a lynching. In
the present condition of the Southern States, 1t
is nothing less than crime for anybody to
shirk his share Of the toll necessary to restore
prosperity; and we know no better method
of bringing the drOnes to reason than that
adopted with Michael of Boston. The jails
might be little crowded at first but, rather
than work, great many of the ragged cpl
cureans would commit suicide, and in time the
rest would muster energy enough to die natural
deaths. We are satisfied that it will be n fine
thing for the South when they are all defunct
and buried for we are perfectly sure that there
will never be another generation like them
thriftess, lazy, sensual, and lawless. We ad-
wise them to make the most of their present
opportunity, for we can assure them, we think
with perfect confidence, that their time is
short. We do not expect them to go volun-
tarly to work. but we do expect them to live
quietly and TO die speedily.