Rowdyism Rampant

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ROWDYISM RAMPANT.

What is to be done with the hundreds of idle, dissolute young men in our midst, who defy the law, disturb the peace and quiet of the community, and make themselves generally a curse to themselves, and to peaceable and quiet citizens? Our criminal law seems to be most imperfect and ineffectual in suppressing their outbreaks, and while, in some instances the punishment is exactly defined, in others entirely too great a latitude is allowed the authorities on the judicial bench. It seems impossible to mete out even-handed justice to the most incorrigible offenders against the public peace, or the most ruffianly and brutal villains, such is the extent to which political chicanery is carried on in our great cities. Political influence here paralyzes the arm of law and reaches to the halls of justice.

Look, for instance, at the disgraceful prize-fighting affair in the Western District yesterday. The statute against this offence is as explicit as can be, but it is systematically and shamelessly violated time after time, yet we never hear of the parties participating being punished. Here we see a party of men belonging to rival engine companies in the 5th and 11th Wards, bearing an animosity towards each other for some months past which broke out in numerous affrays. These parties are not only firemen, but are in the pay of the general government, in the Navy Yard. They finally agree that the matter should be settled in the bull-dog fashion—by mangling and mauling each other. The preliminaries are arranged, and two of these gentry, named respectively Downey and Giddings, are selected as the champions of the parties. A stake of $500 was raised by the respective friends of the parties, and the Pigeon Ground, in the rear of Litchfield’s mansion, on Ninth street, was selected for the contest. Three o’clock on Sunday morning was selected as the properest time for the precious exhibition. The ring was formed, the principals stripped, and the chivalric combatants were ready for the mill. Some four rounds were fought when the Police arrived and arrested some twenty of the spectators, while the principals, doubtless from having been in good training, took to their heels and disappeared, leaving their clothes behind them. The police of the 2d and 3d precinct did not act in concert in making the descent, and consequently all they did was to scatter the parties and prevent the conclusion of the fight; those arrested cannot be held, being some distance from the ground when taken. The third precinct police acted too precipitately. They did not wait for the 2d precinct posse, or until the fight had fairly commenced, when they might have arrested the principals and had proof of their intentions. The principals were stripped and eager for the fray, when the unstrategic approach of Captain Shaurman’s¹ party alarmed them, and the crowd scattered. Among the arrests are an ex-Alderman of the 5th ward, a deputy sheriff and a custom house officer, and other well known characters, who figure under convenient aliases. Downie and Giddings, the principals, gave themselves up at the 3d district station this morning. They were locked up for examination.

This is the finale of this disgraceful affair. It is only another exposition of the fact that we have among us, in plentiful numbers, the most dangerous class that can infest any community—the law-defying loafers who make the fights, and disturb the public peace, who, in their own barbarous lingo, are “always on hand for a muss,” and among whom half the crimes that startle the community in the columns of the press from day to day, are originated. And yet such is their power at the polls and at the primary elections, that our public functionaries seem afraid to touch their offences in any other than in the most tender and gingerly manner. Some day decent folks will take the matter into their own hands and put down, with a strong will, this rum-swilling, rampant set of roughs and rowdies.

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