An Iced-Water Fountain and San Francisco Crime
By Editor
A millionaire is setting up an elaborate iced-water fountain at a street corner in San Bernardino, Cal. He proposes to endow it with sufficient capital to perpetuate its use. The purpose is to make it unnecessary for men to seek saloons for cold drinks. The beneficence is a worthy one; but, aside from the purpose, it is not necessary, in any ordinary town, to go into a saloon to get a "cold drink." It is seldom that one resorts to a saloon for a "cold drink," unless there is a desire to fortify it with something not so cold. It is true, however, that saloons do furnish certain free accommodations for both man and beast that other business men and most municipalities neglect to supply. For this reason many people are disposed to palliate the existence of the otherwise evil institution. It is the privilege, however, of saloon opponents to see that every pretext for the toleration of the saloon in any community be obviated, and Mr. Baker's enterprise to this end is commendable. Of the disorder in San Francisco the News Letter says: "Probably not ten per cent. of the hold-ups and vicious assaults committed on the streets along and near the waterfront reach the columns of the press. The police are diligently trying to suppress details of the reign of crime which is now prevailing in San Francisco, most of the crimes described in the press having been discovered by the newspaper men themselves. The police do not want their helplessness of incompetency or apathy exhibited too conspicuously. The fact is, that the decent man who goes along any of the streets between Kearney and East Streets after dark runs great risks. It has been said by people whose business calls them there that violent assaults and robberies, either attempted or accomplished, occur almost nightly. The records of the emergency hospitals bear this statement out." However, there is one allowance to be made for the police—they are laboring under conditions of a greatly increased criminal force with a police force considerably reduced since the fire for lack of funds. It is also known that the criminal element has been largely augmented by arrivals from other parts. They have been attracted to the city by what is to them an extraordinary opportunity for plying their vocation. The police of the various cities around the Bay have been notified that thousands of the tramp class are headed this way from the East and Middle West. It must not be forgotten, tho, that there was but little trouble in preserving order during the two months when the saloons were closed. It would seem that the most heinous of all the crimes committed in the city was that of the supervisors in allowing these nurseries of crime to be reopened.