The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-06-05

The COuncllmens resolution, under tho new
CHARTER to clean the streets at the expense OF the
city ought to be led into effect at any cost
at any sacrifice of principle, money, or
consistency-the streets mus. be cleaned if We
desire to escape a pestilenoe.
There are streets in the lower part of the city
which have rot been thoroughly cleaned for two
years and in which tue June san is extracting
pestilential gas from garbage thrown out in 1856
AID even 1866. There are hardly any streets
which have been cleaned during tho past eight
nontha Even Broadway above Union square, Is
as filthy and ragged a street az you might expect
to find in the dirtiest and poorest village ia the
United States: and business streetsAke Chambers
and Warren are choked with mud, filsh and all
manner of dirt Here aud there, even In these
busy streets, there are places where tho pave
ment has given way, and great holes offer horses
fine chaucc of breaking their legs, whilo ut tho
sane time holding out to UNCONSCIOUS pedestrians
good prospect of a mud bath.
But he who would rightly appreciate the state
Of the streets, must journey-not By moonlight,
but at MONDAY through the smaller
below Wall street. The vicinity of
Beaver street is fine sta lion for the study of
the phenomenon; perhaps better i',an any othcr;
for, while dirt in the streets is thing In keeping
with the other objects seen at the Five Points,
and therefore is liable to escape observation,
piles Of mud and caves of slush opposite the
door of a merchant worth million naturally at
tracts some attention. This is the spectacle
which the streets In question afford You cannot
cross them without soiling your boot to tue
ankle; you cannot remain five minutes in them
without holding handkerchief to your. nose
Carts have by constant passage beaten down the
masses of garbage and gradually shovelled them
to one side they border the sidepath, emitting
pleasant steam in the sun, and slowly dis.illiag
death. If you have nerve to sit down and listen,
you may hear the efcrvescence Of the putrid
MACS; if you watch closely, you may sec myriads
Of the most curious shaped magaots, running in
and out, and reminding yoa-if you have had
such cxperience-of the sly little worms which
are seen preying on corpses in hot climates It
is curious and an instructive pastime to look
at one Of these little heaps Of poison and to cal
culate how many mems lungs viii be diseased
by the efiuvia from that one heap. II is really
astonishing to reckon up the exteat of susface
which one cart load of garbage cn poison.
After the spring experience Nc have had, we
take hot summer for granted within the next
thirty days we shall have The thermometer at
ninety degrees in the shade. Under such tenn
pcratwe, physician has calculated chat one dirt
heap, of Q size to half fill dirt cart will emit,
in the course OF the day, poisonous vapor enough
to kill fifty persons; and should the poison take
the form in them Of @ contagious epidemic such
as yellow fever or cholera, the destruction would
emily be limited by the extent of the surface to be
attacked.
We ASSUME, as point too clear for argument,
that what with the state Of the streets, aud what
with the bungliug AID quarrels of the Quarantine
Commissioners, If we do not have pcstilenco
this summer, We shall have to thank fortune for
o very astounding boon.