The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-09-15
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER Is, 1855.
me PnhIie HeaIIh-

The cholera threatens us. Whether it
will leap across the Atlantic and lay waste
the country, as it did in 1882, in ls49, in
1854, ia yet matter for speculation and ar.
gument. But to infer that because it may
NOT do 30 we should relax in the least our
preparations to protect ourselves against
its horrors by every sanitary means would
be worse than folly. A general command
ing an exposed position, in the front-of a
powerful enemy, does not wait to fortify
until attack is certain, or until his camp is
surprised by galloping squsdrons OF
hostile cavalry. So, we should not delay to
protect ourselves sgainst . pestilence until
it is already in our midst Especially is
this true when every ~precAution which is
necessary as a preventive against cholera
is most beneHcial and wholesome whether
cholera m or not. Medical opinion
we believe, comedies with common sensein
prescribing the most simple and obvious
sanitary regulations as the only ones which
have proved eficscious in staying the
march of the monarch of diseases. Quar-
antines, it is argued, are impotent. All
that we are asked to do is to take care that,
municipality and corporeally, we are
clean, and that we exercise q lit
tie more than ordinary prudence in
the matter of eating and drinking.
The strict enforcement of these rules
would do much good even in times of the
greatest health, and in view of the fact that
the cholera may break out among Us at any
moment they become absolutely essential
Let the work be commenced Immediate
II. Let our city officers see to it that the
reform in the sanitary condition of the
| city be radical and Immediate Lot-~~
Health OAicer and ~n Street Commission
or bestir themselves. Let our streets be
kept clear of garbage and filth. Let every
nuisance which sffects the public cleanli-
ness and the public health be vigorously
suppressed. Let cur market grounds be
kept scrupulouslY clean. Let our Sc yer
age system be at stoncs examined, and all
cess-pools, the results of imperfect drain
g removed. Let there be no delay in
doing the work, for every day is full of
danger.
We published yesterday morning a COM
munication from 8 respected citizen in
respect to the cleanliness, or rather
the alleged want of cleanliness, OF
our city. This is a matter which needs
investigation, for in the alleged state Of
affairs there is not only dereliotion of duty
on the part of our officials, but the gravest
peril to the lives Of cur citizens. We
therefore throw open our columns to all
rP0usibie PereOns-0n-this- subject. We
hope that our citizens will furnish US with
the facts in regard to the sanitary condi.
ton of the city, and that our medical mer
men may expose, for the benefit of ouI
readers the numerous causes of pestilence
in the shape of nuisances, that exist among
US. Cleveland is naturally a healthy city
Its elevated position, its pure SIR. its ven.
tilation by the breezes of Lake Erie, are
all the best preventivcs of pestilence, and
it needs only a little care, on the part OF
public officers and private citizens, to in
sure US an immunity from the eholers, even
should it visit America.
But there is a class of cur citi.
zans-fortunately a very small class
TO whom cleanliness is an impossi-
bility. Some few poor we have among
Us, huddled in tenement houses, living IN
%derground, or in shsnties little better
pig styes, who cannot, or at any rate
will not take care of their bodily
cleanliness. For these let ali public and
private benevolence do what it may. Lei
itdo it, fnot disinteredly, then from mo
tives of the purest selishness. For it is in
such purlieus as "Irishtown" andCanal street
that the cholera finds its stronghold, whence
it may make incursions at will upon the
n~eighboring country. While such exist
among Ut, none are safe. Let US do fOr
these what We can. In Cleveland, where
the very poor are so few in number, we
ought to dOmuch. But whatever is done,
H'twere well 'tWere done quickly"