Show HOODLUMS > Some Just and Sensible Criticisms SALT LAKE CITY Dec 91881 Editors Herald A few years ago the good citizens of the state of California became somewhat exercised over the development devel-opment of a dangerous and disturbing disturb-ing element of society for which they were at a loss to find a name However their innate Yankee ingenuity in-genuity came to their rescue and they styled this new element hoodlums hood-lums and designated the traits of character peculiar to it as hood lumisni The hoodlums made themselves notorious for their utter disregard of the principles of law and order and appeared to disdain and to hold in contempt the habits customs and usages which at all times give evidence of culture and good breeding As a naturalconse quence the hoodlum element became be-came a source of much annoyance to the higher and more refined classes of society and it was sometime some-time before any effective measures were adopted with a view to suppress sup-press it and to curtail its influence In their misguided imagination the hoolums had mistaken license for liberty and had suffered themselves to believe that as nothing had been done to curb them at the outset they might continue their defiance of law and order with impunity and even add crime to crime I Happily however a reaction followed fol-lowed and the principles of light were again made to prevail but not until a great deal of suffering had been entailed in one way or another on the persons property and feelings feel-ings of good and well disposed citizens citi-zens To belong to the hoodlums then is certainly an unenviable and undesirable position It is thought by many and I am not sure but I am of the number that there are evidences of the existence ex-istence of a similar element in our midst only lacking the boldness at present which if once acquired would tend to make its influence formidable and dangerous One of these evidences is the supreme disregard dis-regard for the feelings and principles princi-ples of others which is exhibited by the large number of bovs and vonner men who usually congregate around the entrance to places of public worship and in utter defiance of all that has been taught them to the contrary rudely and shamelessly puff clouds of tobacco smoke into the faces of those who are passing in to attend the services Another evidence of the existence of hoodlumism is the fait that in some places of worship the singing of the opening hymn is the signal for a general rush of the above named boys and young men into the house of God with a noise and a clamor which may well be termed sacrilegious It is certainly not an evidence of good breeding that the smoking is now abandoned for the equally offensive of-fensive habit to many of chewing and the consequent expectoration of large quantities of defiled saliva onto on-to the floor and sometimes I fear on to the apparel of their neighbors Neither is it a sign of culture or smartness that during the progress of the services the speakers are frequently interrupted or at least annoyed by the halfaudible at tides altogether audible conversation conversa-tion of the intruders Nor is this all The hoodlums for such in truth they are resort to all sorts of tricks and contrivances to amuse themselves during the continuance of the services and it is not at all to their credit that their devices are 30 directed as to designedly annoy those who have assembled there for a better and nobler urpose Service ended the same unseemly crowd is to be found at the door each one emitting clouds of smoke as before If not at the door you will find them on toe footbridge at the corner rudely discussing such remarks as may have caught their attention during the services and from the station they had taken on the bridge forcing ladies and others either to leap the ditch or failing in the attempt to fall therein r f 11S It not a species or hoodlumism to carry off the gates of peaceable citizens at night V Is it not indicative indica-tive of hoodlum propensities to disturb people by shouting and yelling on the streets occasionally breaking out into snatches of ribald songs Without stopping to enumerate enume-rate the many other evidences we have of the presence of this element at the theatre at the dance at all public gatherings in fact everywhere every-where it is possible for them to create annoyance I think it must be admitted that we have at least a share of this element in our midst And what are we going to do about it 1 would like to see public opinion aroused in the matter as I am sure there is a sufficient number of lawabiding citizens to crush hoodlumism as it exists here today i to-day if they will only interest themselves them-selves in its exterpatiou Let those who desire order bring to the notice of those whose duty it is to obtain it every wilful and flagrant violation thereof Let those whose duty it is to administer justice in such cases deal summarily and earnestly ear-nestly with the offenders and thus impress them with the dignity and majesty of the law and carry to their minds the conviction that it is cheaper to observe order than to defy it It will be better for the community to deal squarely and decidedly de-cidedly with the matter now while it is possible to do so with comparative compara-tive ease than to continue nursing the evil and foolishly permitting it to grow until like the fly in the eastern fable of Abdallahit becomes so large as to overpower it u Of course in the conduct of public pub-lic worship it is the duty of those presiding over the congregation to maintain order and decorum and to endeavor to inspire a proper respect for the place the congregation and t u i object of their assembling But if they fail to do this as some of them apparently do und cannot by the exercise of their authority maintain main-tain order recourse should be had to the civil authorities either by the presidents of congregations themselves or by members of the congregation who are so persistently persis-tently and deeply annoyed by such irreverent acts as I have mentioned That a spirit of reform may be inaugurated in-augurated that shall eventually dispel dis-pel the influence of hoodlums and hoodlumism is the desire of I OBSKRVLK j |