The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1862-10-31
THE CALIFORNIAN.
Waste of Cities.

Paris throws five millions year into the
sea. And this without metaphor. How, Wand
in what manner? day and night. With what
object? without any object. With what
thought? without thinking of it. For what
return? for nothing. BY means OF what or
gan? by means of its intestine What is It's
intestine? its sewer
Five millions is the most moderate OF the
approximate figures which the estimates of
special science give.
Science, after long experiment, now knows
that the most fertllizing and the most effect
i've Of manure is that of man. The Chinese,
We must say to our shame, knew it before u.s.
No Chinese peasant, Eckeberg tells US, goes
to the city without carrying back, at the two
ends of his bamboo, two buckets full of what
We call filth. Thanks to human fertilization,
the earth in China is still as young as in the
DAYS Of Abraham. Chinese wheat yields
hundred and twenty fold. There is no qua
no comparable in fertility to the detritus of
capital. A great city is the most powerful of
stercoraries. To employ the city to enrich
the plain would be sure success. If our
gold is filth, on the other hand, our filth is
gold.
What is done with this filth, gold? 1t is
swept into the abyss.
We fit out conveys of ships, at great ex-
pense, to gather up at the South pole the
droppings Of petrels and penguins, and the
incslculable element of wealth which We have
under our own hand, We send to the sea- All
the human and animal manure which the
world loses, restored TO the land instead Of
being thrown INTO the water, would suffice to
nourish the world.
These heaps Of garbage at the corners of
the stone blocks, these tumbrils of mire Jolt
ing through the streets at night, these horrid
scavngers' carts, these fetid streams of sub
terranean slime which the pavement hides
from you, do YOU know what all this is? 1t
is the towering meadow, it is the green grass,
It is marjoram and thyme and sage,it is game,
it is cattle, it is the satisfied low of huge OK
en- at evening, it is perfumed hayt is golden
corn, it is bread on your table, it is blood in
!our veins, it is health, it is JOY, it is life
Thus wills that mysterious creation which is
transformation upon earth, and transfgura-
ton in heaven.
Put that into the great crucible your a.
bundance shall spring from it.. The nutri-
ton of the plains makes the nourishment Of
men.
You have the power TO throw away this
wealth, and to think me ridiculous into the
bargain. That will cap the climax of your
ignorance.
Statistics show that France, alone, makes
liquidation of hundred millions every year
into the Atlantic from the mouths of her rv-
ers. Mark this with that hundred millions
You might lay quarter Of the expenses OF
the government. The clererness OF man is
such that he prefers to throw this hundred
millions into the gutter. 1t is the very sub
stance Of the people which is carried away,
here drop by drop, there in floods, by the
wletched vomiting Of our sewers into the
rivers, and the gigantic collection of our liy-
tfs into the ocean. Each hiccough Of our
cloaca costs US thousand francs. From this
two results: the land impoverished and the
water infected. Hunger rising from the fur
row and disease rising from the river.
1t is notorious. for instance, that at this
hour the Thames is poisoning London Vic
tor Hugo.