A California Outrage

     TO THE EDITOR OF LUCIFER:—In No. 885 attention was called to some unjust arrests. I should like to tell you and your other readers of another one if, as is possible, it has not already come to your notice. It is that of Morrison I. Swift, of Nordhoft [sic], Calif. He is known to most of those who work for social and political regeneration, on both coasts of the continent. I will quote his own account of the arrest.
     “It was ‘Imperialism and Liberty’ that landed me here, two years after birth. Some one happened to get hold of the book about the time of the assassination, and went red, white and blue, and read it to the town, which followed him. Just as if McKinley’s death or shooting had anything to do with the truth of the book, or anything to do with it anyhow. But this roused a mob spirit, which I understand even rather scared some of those who raised it. They baited me on my ranch, and were not going to let me change from my thin overalls, with no vest, to a decently warm suit to ride eighteen miles to the chilly ocean by evening. At length I persuaded the constable to let a fruit-picker go up to the house.”
     I have not heard yet whether Mr. Swift has been released, but rather suppose that he has. The fact that a man could be so arrested and jailed, shows how much protection our institutions give the individual.

S. H. EARLE.     

     Germantown, Phila., 423 Stafford St.