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Show IN THE DISTRICT COURT. The motion of Prosecu ting-Attorney Yrian in the case of S. H. Lewis and the ruling of the Court thereon created a genuine sensation yesterday. We do not propose to discuss the law of the case, nor to say whether it was right or wrong, but to make some general comments. This case was brought in the Justice of the Peace's court and the defendant was found guilty as charged in the complaint. He appealed to the District Court, and there his case was dismissed without prejudice. The statement of the Prosecuting-Attorney showed that houses of ill-fame ill-fame had been established in this city for the express purpose of entrapping men into them. The scheme seems to have been very successful, according to all the rumors. When men had been entrapped into these places they were then spied upon by men there for that purpose. The men who resorted to these houses went there for the purpose of violating vio-lating a law, and while they were entrapped en-trapped they were not entrapped as innocents. inno-cents. The men, if they be men, who , performed the part of spies,debased themselves them-selves more than those who went there and weie spied upon. The man who could perform the part of the spy in these cases must have been actuated by motives mo-tives of revenge, and his nature is of that kind which delights in low and loathsome things, and he is entitled to the contempt of all decent men. The baseness of the spies does not palliate the guilt of the spied. The case of the spies and the treatment which thev should receive is well illustrated by the story of the gunner gun-ner in '93. He had allowed a cannon to get loose in the ship in the midst of a storm and the havoc which it wrought can only be told in the language of Victor Hugo. Byjuperhuman efforts the gunner gun-ner got control of the cannon and made it fast. A subaltern stepped up to the commander and drew his attention to the heroic manner in which the man had finally fi-nally conquered thecannon,and suggested that such conduct merited the bestowal of the Cross of the Legion of Honor. The suggestion was acted upon, and the gunner was given the cross for his heroic conduct in getting control of the cannon after he had let it get loose, but after his decoration he was ordered out and shot for letting it get loose. The evidence of the spies should be received and then they should be1punished for conspiracy. The establishment of these houses was clearly for the purpose of getting men to violate the law that they might be punished, pun-ished, and the sudden flush of virtue which the city and county authorities have had is altogether too spasmodic to be healthy. Houses of ill-fame are notorious notor-ious in this city, and the city authorities have rather encouraged than discouraged them, while the county authorities have completely ignored them. But this is not all. The District Court and the Pros-ecuting-Attorney have ignored them as well, and the instructions of the Court yesterday to the Grand Jury is about as spasmodic as the efforts of the city to suppress sexual vice in the last three weeks. Yesterday, we believe, was the first time that the District Court has ever adverted to the matter, and we have never heard of the Prosecuting-Attorney bringing a case under Section 199G of the Compiled Laws to the notice of the Grand Jury. This is the thing of which we comptain and not of the instructions of the Court to the Grand Jury in the Lewis case. Win' this has been we are unable to say, but it has been, and the . laches of the Federal authorities have been as great as those of the municipal authorities, with this exception, that the latter have used houses of ill-fame as a source of revenue. All laws should be enforced, and the shortcomings of one court cannot justify the shortcomings of another. It is to be hoped that in future there will be a more rigid, enforcement of the laws by both Federal and local authorities, and above all it is desirable that no sucli places as those referred to by Mr. Varian shall ever be opened again in this city, for their purpose is a travesty upon law and justice and an outrage upon humanity. - |