Our Man About Town

The electrio lights eem to be good targets for the boys these nights. I have uoiiced on several corners that the boys congrégate to see which one can tlrst hit :he globe with a snowball. I wonder there are not more persom injared wbile coasting. To see the way in which the boys, and girls too for that matter, slide down hill is a oautioo. The flrst of the week, I am told, two boys wbile coasting on State street hill, colhded with a post, and the boys were thrown from their sled and severely bruised. One, Murphy, bad the skin of both hands oonsiderably laceratcd. It is well-known that last season was an uncoinmonly busy one for building thronghout the city. In conversing witb a number of contractors I am led to believe that Ann Arbor will witness another great boom in tbis direotion with the advent of warm weather. There is nothing like a steady growth, which bas been witnessed in this city for years back Aud may it continue. The Courier last week published the new truancy lan which provides that an officer of a city can make a oomplaint of any boy or girl who is absent from school or who roams the streets continually and they can be Bent to a reform school. ] l-nink now, tliat if our cllieials do their duty, the post office for one place will be rid of tbese nuisances in the shape o boys hanging around where they have no business. I have not heard of any one being se riously injured on the toboggan slide east of the city, but of course it is no fanlt of the proprietors. The wonder is however, that some persons have not ha( their limbs broken. Fortunately thev ha ve escaped here, but in ether places a number of ohildren have been eitber kill ed or maimed for life on the dangerou slide. Of course tbere is danger in coast ing, but nothing to be compared with that of tobogganing. I see on the petitions that are bemg cir üu'ated for signatures favoring the sub missioD of the queation of local option the names of many men who are in the babit of taking a " smile " now and then But these men have boys who drink, an they perhaps think that with local option temptations would, in a measure, be removed. The open saloon would unques tionably be done a way with, but how about the dozens of olub rooms that would be startfd. Why the ordinances pertaining to coast ing and skating on the sidewalks are not enforced, is a questiou that " many citizens" would like to have the authorities answer. During the recent icy season dozens of small boys bave monopolized several of thesidewalks in different portions of the city, wlule pedestriana have been obliged to heed their warning of " clear the track" or take 10 the road in order to escape from being knocked down by some hand sleigh . I am astonished at the number of persons I hear who talk "local option.' They seein to feel sanguine of its being oarried by n good rouod majority when it is submitted to the voters of Washtenaw county. Those who füvor the movement feel encouraged by the vote given in other counties, and they feel that now is a good time to try and carry this county for local option . Wbat their success may be, of course, remains to be seec, but there is no disputing the faot that tbe causa bas a largo following. I do not tbink that horses drawing cutters or sleighs ought to be driven without bells. A outter runs so quietly that before one is aware it is upon him. I have seen a number of childreu, and grown persons too, barely escape being run over by a cutter coming quickly around a corner almost without sound. If I mistake not, there was, at one time, an ordinance to the eftect that when sleighs are being used there must be bells either upon the norse or vehicle so pedestrians could be warned of its approach. If would be a good idea to investíate that old luw.