San Francisco Call, 26 July 1896
WAGING WAR ON VAGRANTS.
Fresno Officers Attempt to Drive Them From the City. FRESNO, Cal., July 25.— Constable Shaw and deputies are taking steps to rid the city of numerous rough characters, who come with the annual influx of laborers during the fruit season. The Supervisors have allowed laborers to sleep in the courthouse park, and here undesirable characters also make their rendezvous. When a Valley road grading contractor came to town last night looking for thirty laborers at $1 80 a day he could only get two men who would go out with him. There have been numerous complaints of beggars insulting women in the absence of their husbands at residences of the city. Constable Shaw took a decisive step today. He picked a dozen of the worst looking vagrants and locked them up in jail on charges of vagrancy. The officer says he will continue this until they leave the city.