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Show 5 " ' VANDALISM. ; For raanj' years the streets of our city j ; have been without any signs to indicate ; their name. Alwut a month since, the City Council had the names' of the streets " put upon the lanip-poste . where there s I were lamps, and on those streets which j " were without lamps, posts were put up 1 'j and a neat board sign with the name of ! j the street painted thereon fixed to the J top of the posts. It was a needed f work, and one for which the citizens felt to thank the Council. Already some ) of these signs are being defaced, and I I some vandal with destructive instincts j L has broken these sign boards off the posts on A, B, C, and D streets, where these j : streets meet South Temple street. This wanton destruction of public property i seems to have been done on Saturday t night. Aside from the destruction of the f proierty, which is a crime, the public are put to the old annoyance of guess- i t ing the name of a street. These I j things are done at night when few ; I people are upon the streets and j when the police are on duty in the j more opulous parts of the town, j .. Whether men or boys have done these j things cannot be known, but certain it is J that in some parts of the city boys from F the age of ten to fifteen years make these I street signs a target at which to try their j skill in throwing stones. Their skill in i j throwing stones is much suerior to their I J sense of decency. We are not telling I j this upon hearsay, but from our own i j knowledge, as a, week ago yesterday we I saw a half-a-dozen boys in the Twenty- 1 I first ward indulging in this pastime, j Why it is that jeople in a neighborhood ; I will permit boys to do these things S and never - utter a word of pro- I f test, is hard to understand. i : r Boys who go around destroying j I j and injuring public and private property j !;j might very easily le apprehended if some j effort in that direction were made ; and if any shall be apprehended, they should be dealt with by the Police Magistrate, and J punished by him. It is a false idea of 'J leniency which allows bojTs to destroy ji property and when caught, to merely give k them some good advice. We can very I , readily understand the reluctance of a Police Magistrate to commit a boy to a i I common jail, and it is a proper feeling. ', I The remedy for this is for the Legislature this winter io make an appropriation to f build' a . reformatory school. Another I f remedy, and one which . needs to " le applied first of all, is for parents to ba i more stringent with their boys and to 'I teach them that public property is as : sacred as private property, and that when I public property is destroyed every tax- : payer in the community is more or less injured in his purse. In the meantime we hoie the police will be on the lookout for all persons who may destroy or deface i the street signs, and that all citizens M ill ! : aid the police to the best of their ability . ; to discover all who engage in this wanton " injury to common projerty. |