The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-08-17

Tue LATE EXCESSIVE HEAT AND IT'S FATAL |
EyFEcTs-THE DIRT AND TRASH OF THE
CTY.-The week ending August IA, 1853, will !
long be remembered as the hottest and most
fatal from its excessive heat in the history Of
this metropolis. Upwards of two hundred
deaths in one little week from sun stroke, and
the effects of the sun. is fearful mortality,
even among six hundred thousand people, But
variety Of causes combined in this terrible
havoc, for in addition TO the extraordinary
power of the sun for six consecutive days,
the hardest ply steal labor, under the intensest
concentration of the solar beams, unwholesome
| food, unacclimated constitutions. and those
| predispOsed by disease, excuses in eating
and drinking, and last, though not least. the
dirt and trash of the city, all contribute to
swell the catalogue of deaths thrown into the
general charge against the intolerable ierceness
of the sun
Had the poor hard laboring but unacclimat-
ed SONS of Erin, who make up so largely the list
of the dead, knocked Off work and remained
idle whenever the thermometer stood beyond
eighty-nine degrees, perhaps the most Of them
would still have been alive. But alas!
| poor men, they had their families to support,
and their daily labor was their daily
bread. To be sure, their employers
might have absolved them from work for
two or three hours in the hottest Of the day,
and there is not an employer, perhaps, in this
city but would have done so had he known
what otherwise would have been the result.
Still we trust that some general understanding
! will hereafter prevent such results from con-
tinued labor in the blaze of the sun. when his
heat is insupportable even to the lounger in the
shade. And as the important question Of hu-
man life is directly concerned, we should say
that if there can be no general suspension of
exhausting outdoor labor among the employers
or the employ ed, while the killing heat Of from
ninety to above hundred is raging, there
| should be some legislative enactment passed to
meet the emergency. And, again, the widows
and orphans left destitute from the extraordi-
nary fatality of last weeks awful heat, should
not altogether be lost sight of by the humane
| and the charitable. Let not the contributions
for the sufferers by the yellow fever at New
! Orleans fall short but let it also be remem-
bered that the laborer here in New York, volun-
tarily risking and losing his life for dollar and
. quarter per day, may have left a widow and
children without sixpence for their immediate
| necessities.
| And from this time henceforth. we do sim
cerely trust and pray that our city fathers. or
stepfathers. as the case may be. and their sub
ordinates, will provide in season against two
such dreadful spells Of burning boiling. blister
ing and killing weather as we have had this
summer, by timely removal Of the toughest
Of the dirt and trash of the city. How has it
been? We have suffered through June and July.
and into the middle of August, in almost every
quarter OF the city, here and there and every
where from immense heaps Of miscellaneous
garbage. fostering and fermenting in the sun,
from sunken water lots from streets hideous in
their ilthiness, from well-filled cutters black
with their inky compound of villainous SMELLS,
from docks and market purieus reeking with
their accumulated animal and vegetable mat
ter; and we have had the night air rendered
horribly disgusting by the efiuva of CHASTITY
ooking carts passing through the streets. laden
with the pestilence Of overdowing cesspools.
Indeed but for the superabundant rains of this
season washing away large amount of our
universal filth in spite of our stepfathers there
would have been fine harvest in readiness ere
this for the cholera, or the yellow fever. or the
plague, or any other pestlence which runs riot
upon corrupting garbage and malaria.
The worst that could have been apprehended
from the direct heat of the sun is past but
there is yet broad margin for improvement in
our weekly bills of mortality, attributable to
corporation filth and the foul air it generates
We may he blest with heavy cleansing rains
for aday or for several days; but while the
people are taxed for it, the corporation autho-
rites should not depend altogether upon Provi-
dence to clean the streets. &c. Prodigous
quantities Of infammatory rubbish may be re-
moved at the expense of the city treasury with
out destroying the reputation of New York as
the filthiest city in the United States. We are
still accessible to any passing epidemic, and
with any visitation Of that sort, what would be
our weekly report, while now it rises to NOR
tality of six hundred from general and ordinary
causes.
For the sake of our fellow-ctizens for the |
sake of their poor children. sickening and dying
by thousands; for the sake Of the strangers
daily pouring in upon us from every side !;
for the sake of appearances. even if the claims
of hospitality and humanity are set aside, we
beseech, we implore. we beg and pray all con-
cerned to lend helping hand to the cleansing
of the city.
THE NTCARAGUAN MINISTER PLENIPoTENTIARY
TO THE UNITED STATEs.-The Nicaraguan gov
eminent would appear to entertain very diff
ferent estimate Of the characters and deserts OF
its Minister to Washington. Senior Don Jose de