1910 Fires – 100 Special Policemen Appointed By Mayor – Relief From Small Army of Moochers
One Hundred Extra Men Now Guard City Carefully Against Disorder
Missoula awoke yesterday red-eyed from the smoke and cinders, but with determination to prove equal to the emergency which the presence of a couple of thousand visitors had placed upon her shoulders. Most of the visitors are cordially welcome, and all that the city can do for them is done cheerfully. But there has followed in the wake of the fire refugees a small army of moochers and worse. “I have been fighting fire and I want a meal,” was the salutation of this army of grafters, yesterday morning, and the mayor determined to put a stop to the game. There is abundant relief for the deserving, but the city has no place for any of this class of hangers-on.
Last night the situation was improved in this respect. The mayor had appointed 100 special police officers to protect Missoula citizens as well as the honest visitors in the city, and Sheriff Graham had ten deputies on the streets. The regular police force handled the situation admirably all day and every man who showed any signs of a disposition toward disorderliness or who had partaken too freely of liquor, was promptly picked up and put in jail. The streets were remarkably free from disorders all day, but it was to make things doubly certain that the mayor and the sheriff took the action they did. With 100 fearless and law-abiding men on the streets ready to stop the first outbreak of trouble there should be no difficulty in handling the great crowds, which, to give credit due them, have not yet shown the feeling which city officials fear.
The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on August 23, 1910.