Our Man About Town

Tbree men held up Mr. Jacobus. oí he third ward last Saturday night, when he was returning from his work. The attack was made near 1). Hiscock's coal yards on the T. A. A. & N. M. tracks. Mr. Jacobus proved to be a match for all three of the gang, and went on bis way rejoioing after leaving all of his enemies flat on their backs. Now Our Man is glad that Mr. Jacobus was so strong and read.y for his assiülants, but he can't help thinking what would have been the result with a more helpless person. These desperate eharacters aregetting too numerous around Aun Arbor and this is not the first time that a robbcry has been attempted near these coalyards. The city marshall ahould attempt to ferret out all these gangs and lock them up. Now that the fall season is at hand, and Ann Arbor's shade trees will soon drop thousands of dead leaves on our 8idewalks, roads andlavns, Our Man thinka it only proper to cali attention to the bonfire nuisance and to ask our citizens to refrain from filling the air with sm ke and the streets with ashes. It was formerly the custom hcre for everybody to build bon tires in October, and the air was so filled with smoUe as to be very disagreeable. Our eitizens have in late years awakcned to the faet that leaves are good fertüizers for flowers, trees and grass, and are rakin; them up for that purpose. If one does not care to keep them himself, he caD have them cartcd away and bnrricd outside of the city limits, ur give them to soraeoue who does want them for fertilizers, Our Man hopes that our beautiful city will not be disgraeed lilis fall by smoky air and dirty ashes in the streets. Said a lady to Our Man the other day, 'Vhy will bicycle riders persist in passing directly in front of horses? I was driving on one of our streets this morning when a wheelman turned directly in front of niy horse. It was only by puiling the reins so as to drag back the horse almost upon hi haunches that I avoided a collision.' It is much easier for the bicycle rider to regúlate the speed of their machine than for drivers to givern their horse and Our Man ttiiuks that the lady had just cause for complaint. If au acci dent had occurred, and the bicycl rider had been injured, the lady wouli doubtless have been blmned and, perhups, prosecuted, although the fault would not be hers but the bieycler's If the horse had run avvay and the lady had been hurt, the careles wheelma would have a good deal to auswer for lttcyeles are noiseless steeds and i broad daylight they can be easü. guided out of the way of horses o pedestrians. The resident of South Un'versit avenue and that vicinity have harill pardoned the city fathers for th bungling mistake of gradina tbei street in such a careless fashion befor another just cause of complaint arises. The great lot of loose sand which was heaped on the road ims been partially removed and piled about the row of trees in the center of the street. This has been left to the raercy of the vvinds for several days and the dust there is something avvful. The South University are. people want the grass plot with the row of trees parkedand coped, but they want good dirt put there and good sod. They want the work to be done in a proper way.and to be finished within a reasonable time. It has been an exceedingly disagreeable thing to walk down South University avenue this week, as one is obliged to breathe the suffocattng dust and his clothes are oovered with dirt Our Man would suppose that the annoyance which the S. Kuiversity folks have borne f rom the grading mistake would be enough for most raortals, without this dust nuisance. Let the city sprinkler visit that place and wet down the sand heap as ïnuch as possible, and let the board of public works complete the grading, parking and coping without further delay. Our Man thinks that our business streets would be greatly iinproved in appearance if certain storekccpers would remove the unsightly rubbish before their doors. The road sides on Main st. and the other business streets present a disgusting sight with the dirty papers, orange and bauana peels, decayed fruit and vegetables, sticks and stones which are too often seen. Our Man has often seen store clerks empty pails of dirty water in the surface gutters and dump waste paper, packing straw, excelsior, old boxes etc. It is bad enongh to allow the ing of boxes and barrels on the side walk, to the great annoyance of pedestrians. Uut when store clerks presume upon the publiés good nature so far as to leave the empty boxes standing for days before their stores and bloekinjf the way, they should be forced to remove such obstructions. Our Man is torced to thiuk that the store keepers who are guilty of this offence are either too lazy to cart away the boxes, or that they think the public will be impressed with the volume of their business when they see the large boxes. Our Man. for one, would think far less of such a store keeper for this foolish policy, and he thiuks that other sensible folks would think the same. Remove those boxts ye storekeepers of Ann Arbor,and stop throwing rubbish into the streets, and our buying public will appreciatc your efforts to keep clean sidewalks land clean streets.