Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1901 — CONCEALED WEAPONS. [ARTICLE]

CONCEALED WEAPONS.

Effort to Check Gan Carrying la tha South. There is a growth of feeling in many regions of the south large enough almost to be called a sentiment, against the habit of carrying concealed weapons. To it has rightly been attributed the -large number of homicides that marke the civilization of the south. In South Carolina last winter a law was passed prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons and prohibiting the sale of weapons under a size that cannot be conveniently concealed in the clothing. Effort Is to be made to enforce this law. In Memphis a judge of the criminal court has announced his purpose of sending those convicted of carrying concealed weapons to the workhouse for sixty days in addition to imposing a fine of SSO. The judge already has set out In his good work by passing this sentence on a negro. It were more encouraging had a white man been the offender, but the judge declared that ho would treat white and black alike, and that there should be no discrimination on account of social position, color or anything else. The newspapers are giving support to the judge’s action. It may be in time that public sentiment will become so enlightened as to relegate this barbaric practice to oblivion. It is something that is needed In northern communities as well as southern. In our own town murder after murder has occurred and in each case the man who committed the murder had "his revolver.” —Indianapolis News.