208
NEW
TIMES,
NEW
CRIMES.
BY GEORGE H. WESTLEY. THE rapid strides of invention and dis covery within recent years have kept our legislators busy making new laws and modifying old ones to meet new conditions. The development of electricity alone has called into being scores of enactments never before necessary, while other lines of ad vancement have been more or less prolific in the same way. It is stated, indeed, that the new laws of the forty-five States average in their aggregate no less than ten thousand pages a year. One of the earliest laws concerning elec tricity was that forbidding the flying of kites in streets where electric wires were strung. This of course was to provide against inter ference with the current. Boys were the cul prits, mostly, some of them quite against their intention, others doubtless in the Ben Franklin spirit of electrical experimentation. Presently, and perhaps of this parentage, a new crime was born, called "wire-tapping," and forthwith an ell had to be added to the code to accommodate the new-comer. ' In different States the wire tapper is re garded differently. Thus Connecticut looks upon him quite leniently and lets him off with a $50 fine, or ninety days' imprison ment. Montana, on the other hand, holds that he is no better than a gas or water thief, and consequently mulcts him anywhere from $100 to $500; while in Georgia he is indeed a bold, bad man, and must pay any sum up to $1,000, spend six months in jail or twelve months at work with the chain-gang. In Nebraska they prohibit not only the purloining of electricity, but also its presen tation—to certain parties. Thus if any tele phone or electric light company gives away its commodity, or lessens the price of it to any city or village official, said company lays itself open to a fine of from $100 to $500, and imprisonment of from thirty days to six
months. The recipient of such a favor comes under the law for a like amount, and loses his office besides. The wherefore of this statute is too plain to require explanation. The bicycle is another prolific source of new legislation. Dozens, nay hundreds, of special laws have been enacted for it. There are laws relating to the larceny of wheels, to riding without gongs or lanterns, to scorch ing, and to wheeling in public squares, parks and gardens. There are bicycle laws for the protection of the propeller and for the peace and preservation of the pedestrian. There are statutes, too, protecting the bicycle rider from his own misguided enthusiasm. Illinois stands out prominently in this latter, that State having passed "An act to prevent long continued and brutal bicycle riding," which makes it a punishable offense for anyone to engage in "a bicycle race of more than twelve consecutive hours' duration, without a rest of six consecutive hours, following each twelve hours' racing." Then the new inventions in this line had to be provided for. Thus the pneumatic tire called for a law prohibiting the throwing of glass, tacks or nails upon the highways— this in Connecticut, where any sort of wilful injury to a bicycle path is punishable by a fine of $50, or three months' imprisonment. And as another example of the many special bicycle laws, we find in Ohio a statute which provides that when the streets are sprinkled a. dry strip shall be left for the use of wheel men. The automobile being a new thing is not yet so thoroughly legislated upon. I remem ber recently reading in some newspaper that a youth while passing along the street saw an automobile standing unguarded by the curb, and being inclined to mischief he turned the lever of the machine so that it started off empty. He was seen doing this
