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Show !I0KSE3IE ASI) SPOUTS S. TilK 1'EOPI.E. A snor.r time since Arthur L. TiKHuas et til. i4.titioned tho City Council to seta-Art a portion of Liberty Lib-erty Park for a race track. The subject sub-ject wasreferreJ toa committee. At lart Tuesday's session of the Council tiie committee rc-iortc-I in favor of tlie petition. Then thecity attorney called attention to tho fact that ttcre was au ordinance which conflicted con-flicted with the granting of tiie prayer ol the jk. titiou; nhcriujona motion w as made, put aud carried, referring the matter to the commit-U-cou muni dial laws with instructions instruc-tions to frame an ordinance which would provide for tiietstablishmttit of a race track as aked by Iho petitioners. pe-titioners. Coiincilmin Hall was the only member of tile body ho appeared to liave either tlie ccuragc or dijo-sitwn dijo-sitwn to make the laiute-t protest against this flagrant encroachment en-croachment upon the rights of tho iieuple. Tills motion is Intended In-tended not only to grant an oijectioitblo privilege to a clas, but, in order to do so, taswtcp auay a wholesome ordinance which protected pro-tected the opuiar right in tiie premises, pre-mises, and which was enacted to prevent pre-vent just such invasions as the one now about to lie periittraled. Liberty Patk was purchased with tlie -topic's money, and is their property, the officers or the corporation corpora-tion bilng mtrely their agents to transacttlitirbusincss. Thegroundj. I in question were procured by Use city to be u-ed as a public ark, a place to which the general inhabitants inhabi-tants could resort for innocent pleasure and recreatiou, aud was never intended for class uses. Horse racing,whicliisinsepa table from betting, bet-ting, a dangerous form of gambling, is not popular but distasltfuMo the mafe ef the people. If thire are public pleasure grounds used in any itt of the United States for horse-racing and its oljixlionable ind Inseparable concomitauts we arc not informed of the fact. If there are aDy such instances they ate rare exceptions, and necessarily so. llace courses arc, as a rule, owned by private corporation"-, jockey club, or other organizations of that nature, not by munkJittl corporate bodies. To iierpetuate sudi an act of class legilatioH In favor of owners of fast hordes and sports to tlie injury of the j copied rights is nothiug short of Lelng a high-handed and di-graccful outrage, and we doubt if it would stand a legal test. The transaction Is none the more consistent because the pcti-tion pcti-tion forit is headed by the signature ofthe Governor of the Territory. It simply shows that either lie Is be-iug be-iug used by a certain class to enable them to accomplish their -lur-iose In the premises or he voluntarily engages In a bu'Iness thai do cs him no credit. The latter Idea is not likely to be the correct one, for the reason that ilr. Thomas has no refutation as a turfman. The summarydisposal of this subject sub-ject so far as it has proceeded adds to the growing impression among all classes of the community in regard re-gard to the City Council as a whole lhat it is the most "thumbs uji" or "thumbs down" body of the kind that ever laid claim to being a deliberative entity In the IV-cky Mountain region. It Is a matter of remark, the judgment being based on tacts and appearances, appear-ances, that when matters of the weightiest importanci are placed before be-fore it, especially when the subject Is based upon requests from presumedly presum-edly important persons of its own patty, the Council simply and mechanically opeDS Its mouth and swallows. Xo matter whit the subject sub-ject may be, it Is generally treated w Ith tho exception of a few isolated isolat-ed scintillations like flashes) from pcrcUEsiou caps on a dark night by a sort of owlish silence. The way in which measures are thus automatically sliprcd through the Council without even an attempt at Intelligent analytical dlscuion,has no parallel in the histotryof his city. Is this the iult of incapacity or lack of independence, cr liotli? Occasionally Oc-casionally a member will make a good strike in the direction of statesmanship states-manship by stating a reasonable objection ob-jection to a proposition, even when there is a potential "Liberal" influence in-fluence behind that against which he makes au attempt to contend, but the solitude of his position seems to overwhelm him aud he subsides. Arc we to understand that the members of the Council, with the exception, we believe, of Mr. Hall, are a unit on this Invasion of the rights of the public In Liberty Park asked for by Governor Thomas and his fellow petitioners, or is their acquiescence ac-quiescence the result of timidity.lu-ability timidity.lu-ability to grasp the situation, or supine IndiSerencu to the weal of the people? All we ask of any person who may imagine that our strictures ti-ion the Council are not well grounded is. that he note, scan and weigh the proceedings ol that lody. |