New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-07-11
yen yopK rs 6HoLERA-eREETrNG.

NpV. YORK no GHOLERA-GREETING
II the cholera comes upon us this year, anu
sweeps through certain of our wards anu
streets, let us be fair and ascribc its ravages TO
the rightful cause. There is convenient way
of Sinking all human responsibility Tor great
disasters by attributng them to mysterious DIS
"pensations of Providence" or manifestations
"of Divine WRATH when the "dispensation" is
a retribution not for general immortality, put
for specific omissions of duty, and the wrath
is the rebellion of nature against the burdens
put upon her by those who are not manly
enough to shoulder the consequences OF their
acts. Thus, we know that certain conditions
of unceanness create, invite, and foster disease,
and vet we look stupidity on these very condl-
tions as we pass through the streets where
they prevail, and think no more OF them until
the plague is upon us, and then we talk and
write of the visitation as one whose coming ana
going are inscrutable, and past finding out.
The report of the mortality OF the last
week. published yesterday, tells this plain
story:
rbe increased mortality was experienced only in those
districts that either oyercrowded or unslean ana
badly drained. or where all those evils co-exist
In the Ninth Ward-clean, airy, well drained
there was one death to 1880 inhabitants; III
the Fifteenth more clean, roOmy, ventilated,
and drained-but one person IN 65OO was
stricken down. But IN the foul, wretched, Ill
drained, and thoroughly unventiated sections
of the First, Fourth, Sixth, and Eleventh
Wards, the verysskeleton jaws of Death must
have ratified in his grim chuckle at the ease
with which one person out of every 1000 was
gathered to his host. And the anticipatiOns or
the merry monarch for the hot season must be
full of CHASTITY jollity as he snuffs of the hor-
rble smells which peryade the tenement-houses,
and sees the doors shut eight, ten, and dozen
men, women, and children into rooms too dark
and foul for the habitation of a dog. Our re-
porters tell in another column, of space OF
100 feet square in East Eleventh-st,
upon which there are ten houses,
occupied by SO families, comprising $3.50 persons
of whom 176 are children under IA years of age
Twenty three of these persons live wholly I'M
dergrOund, while 242 sleep in rooms which have
no ventilation. If the cholera fails to accept
the incense which continually rises to greet it
from the prves and sinks of that densely
crowded spot then it will belle its former repu-
tation for promptness in responding to such
direct and hearty invitation. Another case Is
instanced where two houses contain "a families
with 119 persons, of whom So are less than IA
wears of age. And in another building, in East
Thirteenth-st., 81 families, comprising 1Oi per
sons, live in one front and one rear house, one
bedroom being occupied at night by 10 persons,
only one of whom is less than five years of age
Such herding-pens are offenses not only
against dccency and morality, but against
public health There were 100 extra deaths of
infants last week over those of the week
before, and the cause is found in the horrible
circumstances under which the hot, damp days
found those infants struggling for life. For
every week that these OutTages in tenement
houses are permitted, there will be further
slaughter of the innOcents, and for every one
who thus dies of the cupidity of landlords,
there are additional seeds of pestllence scat
tered through the city to threaten alike the
Just and the unjust, the rich and the poor
The new tenement house law will do much to
prevent ravages of disease in future years, but
this years danger is at hand, and many of our
streets arc in just the condition for receiving
and encouraging it. This Board of Health will
! fight the cholera vigilantly, but it should have
the support and aid of every citizen in the
great work of sanitary reform.