A Loose Check Rein

The Courier on Wednesday, in dttempting to answer the charges of he Argus against the present municipal authorities, starts off by saying 'the Courier is surprised at some of these assertions," referring to that Dart of the Argus charges relative to he prevalence of women of bad character in this city during the past winter. If the Courier means that ït is surprised to learn that such a state of things has existed as the Argus described, the scribe who wrote the article certainly is about the only person whose duties cali íiim to the business portion of the city daily who has been kept in ignorance. But this is a case of "where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise," for had the Courier been acquainted with the true facts, it would not have made itself the laughing stock of the citizens who are posted and published a column o r more of "assertions"- not facts - in an attempted defense of a city govemment that has been derelict and negligent in every promise made. The poor Courier, as well as the public who represent the Municipal club element, and pat themselves on the back in congratulation at great reforms made in the city during the year, have simply been hoodwinked by those whotu they placed in office a year ago and who desire to be placed there again next rnonth by the suffrage of the voters of this city. It is hardly possible that the Courier can be as ignorant as it wishes its readers to beiieve, and that its editors and reporters have r.o inkling of facts that are familiar to all the "down-town" portion of the city, frora the rnerchants to the street gamins. Can it be possible that the Courier has had no intimation that within a block of its office it least four places of questionable character have been running during the past winter? The Argus does not beiieve this possible; but even if the Courier has been in a Rip Van Winkle sleep, the authorities surely must have had at least a suspicion of what was going on. ' Would the dear old Courier dare to announce to its readers and to the rank and file of the Municipal club that the reform administration has allowed rooms to be run for immoral purposes or places to opérate where both sexes of disreputable people made meeting places on at least three sides of the court house square during the past winter? The Courier should be acquainted with these facts, and the officers must know them, but still to defend a negligent administration the Courier says "never since it became a city las it been so free from immora characters," and claims the Argu is making wild assertions. The Ar jus again says, without fear of con tradiction by those who will investí gate with their eyes open, that every word it has uttered on this subjec is true and can be proven. Several things have happenec during the past winter that show that the authorities must have bee cognizant with the facts as given b the Argus. Read this and se whether the Courier, the mayor anc the authorities generally have bee aware that women of bad character have infested the city. Within a month a fight occurred in a block in this city in which beer bottles were used as weapons and at least one party drew a revolver. The details of this fracas were published in the papers of this city. Ask the authorities where this fight took place. Do you suppose they will teil you that it was in rooms occupied by girls of shady reputation? If they do teil this, ask them if the reform move was then in operation and if so why these girls were not ordered, then and there, to leave the city instead of waiting until the election pot was beginning to boil before such orders were given. If you get a satisfactory answer, the Argus would be pleased to hear it. Another question the Argus would like to have the Courier and the members of the Municipal club propound to the reform administrador: k "Is it true that within a block of the court house a place has been running this winter where questionable characters congregated and liquors were sold although the place had no liquor license?" The Argus says that this is so, and the place has been run so publicly that if the authorities have not known it they have been neglectful of the verv duty they are sworri to perform. And still another question the Argus would like to have our namby pamby reform administraron answer for the Courier and the Municipal club members who have been told by their leaders that the city has been free from women of loose morals during the past winter, "Did the authorities notify the keeper of a small business place that he allowed disreputable women to frequent his place, and unless he stopped it he would be arrested? If the authorities acknowledge that this notification was given, how could this man be guilty if "the city is free of women of bad character?" The Argus has it on authority that such notification was given, that the place of business is still running, and that until recently it has enjoyed the same class of patronage. If you still are ignorant, Brother Courier, of the fact that this city las been infested with women of the ower order during the winter, invesigate a little story that has come to he Argus. It is to the effect that man who lived with his faraily not ar from the court house found that he tenants adjoining him were two 'oung girls; that at night such a noise was made in their rooms that he man and his family could not leep; that the nightly visitors of hese girls were young men, some of hem of pretty good family; that complaint was made to the authoriies and an investigation promised; hat the investigation was made and he character of the girls found as suspected by the man; that the auhorities promised to relieve the man of the nuisance as soon as one of the girls, who was UI, recovered; that notwithstanding the illness ot the girl the nightly carousals continued; that at last the sick girl was seen on the streets and the authorities notified of the fact; that no steps were taken even then to rid :he city of these characters; that the only way the man was able to obtain a relief from the annoyance and questionable distinction of havïng neighbors of this kind was not 3y any efforts of the reform government, but by reason of the girls having a fight between themselves, and the stronger putting the weaker out of the house, the latter retaliating by getting possession of all the furniture, this latter episode occurring nearly a month after the authorities had been notified that the sick girl was well enough to be out on the streets. On the theory that our brother of the Courier will acknowledge that the Argus was right, after asking the questions proposed, the Argus will go a step farther than in its last issue with the charges against immorality in this city this winter and will claim that not only has the city been infested with a larger number of women of ill-repute, but that a majority of these have been of the lower classes of these women, for even among them are distinctions. Those who have been hdre have been bold and barefaced in their actions, of the caste of the "streetwalkers" in the large cities. Soliciting has not been unheard of and a representative business man is authority to the Argus for the statement that within a week two of this class accosted a young man on the Street and invited him to their room. Another example of the character of these women may be gleaned. from the statement of a reputable physician to the Argus that venereal diseases have been more prevalent this winter than at any time during his years of practice and that one of his brother physicians had had 75 cases of the worst possible kind of this character. Now, Brother Courier, do you honestly believe that the number of women of loóse moráis who have lived and thrived in this city have been few since our namby-pamby reform administration took hold of municipal affairs ? The Argus has taken some little pains to investígate this matter and has in its possession the names of two dozen girls whom it is claimed come under the head of immoral characters who have resided in Ann Arbor since last fall, and as this does not claim to be an authentic census it is probable that fifty would not be too large a total.