A Suggestion.
The Provost
Marshall has it in his power to render essential service to our community at large; for armed as he is with martial law, and its discretionary interpretation, his power can effectually reach many capable of eluding civil authority.
It is the province, and should be the design, of all police regulations to prevent rather than curb crime, hence, as we are infested with hosts of thieves, blacklegs, prostitutes and others, who daily offend the nostrils with their obnoxious and polluting presence, we deem it fitting to remind and request our worthy
Marshal, that the public thoroughfares be no longer blockaded by such disreputable characters, who lounge about and sponge upon the community at large.--Gambling dens abound in every direction — their directors are below all polite consideration — placed beyond the pale of all civility, and are only fit to grace the chain- gang, or to work on the common roads.--
Gunning in every art of imposition and seduction, they wink at all law and order, swindle the innocent, corrupt morals and manners, at the same time enticing the unwary or youthful into their gas lit gambling dens, with all the temptations which deception and abundance of liquor can invent.
If our worthy
Marshal and
Gen. Winder desire to see peace and order maintained — if they wish to rid the city of a host of profligates from all the
South, who live and fatten on the vices or simplicity of the unsophisticated — and think it wise as well as expedient to clear the city of scores of ‘"officers"’ who blockade the sidewalks, jostle and stars at ladies, &c., they would do well to make a sudden descent upon the many gambling ‘"hells"’ of the city, send the ‘"sick"’ officers to camp, and place in the hands of the fashionably dressed gamblers Spades or Clubs far more useful than those pretty ‘"papers"’ they finger so scientifically nightly.
Some of these worthies of whom we speak — nay, most of them — are the very ‘"off- scourings"’ of the
North, and need be watched!
Does not the Conscription bill reach this demoralizing riffraff?
We appeal to the sense and justice of the city government, civil and military — let not our youth be longer ruined by these harpies, and particularly let not our wives and daughters be insulted by the unabashed impudence of these fellows crowding our streets, and sapping the life of our liberty and morals.
