Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-05-20
THE GENERAL HEALTH.
The Filthy Condition Of our
Streets and Alleys.
Prompt Sanitary Measures
Loudly Called For.


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Commissions. and wide wasting pestilenco.
Dropsies. asthmas and joint'racking rhenms."
Milton.
Our doctors, with their hands deep in
their pockets, complain Of the public
health, and assert healthier spring was
never known. Be this 80, then the pres
ent is the most proper season to prepare
against the sickly months 10 come, when
the summers sun shall breed malaria
and disease from the filth in street and
alley. The single ounce of prevention
administered in well directed sanitary
measures now, will be vastly more
etfectual in preserving the general
health than pounds of cure at any time
hereafter. But is there any need OF i'm
proving our sanitary condition; is not
the city prepared to pass safely through
the coming SUMMER With a view to
answering these and kindred questions,
we have taken the pains to survey the
condition Of things in single district
lying south of Madison street, and the
following we present as the result:
In the alley running east and west,be'
tween Second street and the bayou, and
between Union and Gsyoso streets, there
is a standing pool of water in the alley
running in the same direction, between
Main and Shelby and Gayoso and Beal
streets, there is another pond Of filthy
water; the same alley, between Union
end Gayoso, is excessively filthy also /;
the alley running north and south, be-
tween Gayoso and Union and Main and
Shelby, is scarcely less filthy the alley
running east and west, between Second
nd Desoto and Union and Gayoso,
disgustingly filthy; the alley running in
the same dire ction, between Gayoso and
Beal and Second and Third, is filthy
the alley running north and south, be.
tween Vance and Elliott and Desoto and
fernando, is a perfect quagmire; the al
ley running north and south, between
Second and Desoto and Monroe and
Union, is scarcely in any better condi'
ton for two blocks; the alley running
in the same direction, between Desoto
and the bayou and Monroe and Union,
if anything, is worse, and worse still
the alley running parallel between
Union and Gayoso and Shelby and Gin
ton. And passing from the alleys into
the streets, we find the condition of
things but little changed, as for in
stance: Gayoso, between Main and
Shelby, is filthy and nexious in the ex-
IRENE; as it is also between Shelby and
Clinton~ Beal, between Main and Shell
bv, in front of the ice-house, and also
farther down in the vicinity of the
market, is one mass Of filth; Desoto,
from Elliott to Pontotoc, and between
Linden and Gayoso, is miserably filthy;
ditto Vance, between Mulberry and
Causey ditto Linden, between Desoto
and fernando; Pontotoc, east of De-
soto, is in very bad condition; Lin
den, between the Memphis and Charles
ton Railroad and Turley, is ditto /;
Union, between Desoto and Wellington,
ditto Pontotoc, between Desoto and
Main, ditto; while on Talbot street,
west of Shelby, on Brinkley avenue,
north Of Central Point, and on Causey
street, between Beal and Vance, there
are standing pools of water only
awaiting the summers sun to breed ma
laria for blocks around. To the above
we might also add two ponds of stagnant
! water, enc on the river bluff just north
of Union street, and another on Union
street, south side of the vacant lot west
of Desoto, known as the old circus lot,
neither of which have any drainage what
ever In short, with the exception of a
few localities, the above might be applied
to streets and alleys in the Southern
District along their entire length. We
have only pointed out the more noticea-
BILE localities, of many of which complaint
has been made by citizens residing in
the vicinity, and in doing this we have
sought simply to show what has to be
done either by the city or private indi-
viduals, or by both, cooperating as they
should, in order to place the city in any
thing like proper sanitary condition.
If left in the condition in which the
streets and alleys we have enumerated
are at the present time, we can see no
possible hope Of preserving the general
health, if indeed, we are so fortunate as
to escape the epidemics which have
preyed upon our population and our
business during the past two years. tits
not too late; on the other hand there is
ample time, before the summer sets in,
in which to purge every street and alley
of its filth and corruption, and thereby
remove the cause whose effects are 90
much dreaded and to be dreaded. We
have no desire to create-apy alarm, but
would incite the city, and citizens indi-
vidually, to such measures as will remove
all occasion for alarm. The worst local.
tiles we have pointed out can all be
cleaned at much less expense than that
attending the disinfection of the city and
the maintenance of public dispensaries
during an epidemic.