The omissions of the police force in the enforcement of the laws, their acts of commission in evading, attacking and disregarding others, especially those relating to all night saloons, the source of most of the arrests for disorderly conduct, where wantonness is displayed, assignations are arranged, drunkenness aided and brawls engendered, are blamable, not so much upon the patrolmen, as upon their superior officers. The patrolmen do as they are told. They report infractions of the law, or not, according to their instructions. Their eyes are opened or closed, as the "wink is tipped" to them from above. The men are brave in moments of danger, fearless in rescuing the inmates of burning buildings, risking their lives in stopping runaway horses, tender in caring for lost children, or destitute persons, both men and women, and faithful in the performance of their duties as members of the ambulance corps. During the year 1897 one hundred and eighty were injured while on duty, and of this number forty-seven were on service in the first precinct, embracing the business district, the thoroughfares of which are the most crowded and in which the heaviest fires happen, while only seven were injured in the second precinct along the "levee"--the tough precinct. Given proper management, strict discipline and law abiding example, it could be made, and ought to be made, one of the "finest" forces in the world. Thugs and thieves, within the past two years, through the manipulation of the civil service law, have been admitted to its ranks, to its everlasting disgrace and that of the usurped appointing power. The number of arrests in 1897 for those offences from the perpetrators of which the police are charged with receiving protection money, was less than in any of the previous years since 1895, notwithstanding the increase in population, according to the school census, from 1,616,635 in 1896, to 1,851,588 in 1898, an increase in round numbers of 234,000. The following is the number of arrests for the years 1894, 1895, 1896 and 1897 for offences as named, viz.: 1894. 1895. 1896. 1897. Cock fighting ..... 156 69 ..... Decoy to gambling houses ..... ..... ..... ..... Disorderly 49,072 44,450 50,641 45,844 Inmates of assignation houses 53 53 92 14 Inmates of disorderly houses 21 105 205 181 Inmates of gambling houses 879 1,802 2,535 725 Inmates of houses of ill fame 2,516 2,894 5,547 1,531 Inmates of opium dens 943 1,112 528 253 Keeping assignation houses 17 5 15 19 Keeping disorderly houses 39 28 30 139 Keeping gaming houses 238 300 310 155 Keeping houses of ill fame 174 210 241 648