The New York herald., 1870-01-28
A SCAVEKGER'S LOGIC.
Those Sixty Miles Of Filth-Harris Stirs Up
Lon-The Latter Roars vulgarly-Says
Harris Falsifes and Every Dog Has
Right to Wag His Own Tail"

The Board Of Health has an of1cial known as
SANITARY Superintendent" who has the health OF
millions IN his keeping. The Street Cleaning Asso.
citation has an Official known a. superintendent.
whose duty 1t is to oversee the Augean JOB collect
ing filthy deposits from the streets and their removal
beyond the city limits The former Official Ia Dr.
Elisha Harris; the latter Joseph Pickard ''In the
course Of human events'' 1t came TO Eisha's know
ledge that Josephs gang Of street scavengers grossly
neglected TO remove unhealthy deposits, dened pub
lie sentiment and endangered public health Eli
sha made report to mis- Board on last Wednesday
week declaring that there were sixty miles OF New
York streets reekng with lth, dangerous to health
and offensive to the eye. This raised the ire OF the
superintendent Joseph who retanated in this caustIc
strain in communication read At the session Of the
Board on Wednesday last and placed on die a. a
curiosity In lterature:-
STREET CLEANING ASSOCIATION
rs CHAMBERS STREET,
NEW YORK, Jan. 28, 1870.
GEORGE B. LINCOLN, President Metropolitan Board
OF HEALTH
Your sanitary superintendent, Dr. Harris, In re-
nouncsment 'that the streets Of New YORK are III
dangerously filthy condition." and In consequence
OF which the pubic health Is endangered.
Az the announcement IL positive and unqualified
no other meaning can be derived from his words
than that the streets generally and collectively
authority from which the statement comes / most
emphaticay deny the truth or It, and 1t as unjust
as 1t is false. unhesitatingly assert that there
never was 30 much work done on the streets In any
previous winter as there has been this and that they
were we're, never IN more cleanly condition
at this season OF tho year than they now are and
have been during the present winter. True, there
may be found fithy streets in sections Of the
city now, as there always can; Tor az soon AZ we
finished cleaning such streets the accumulation
OF nlcn recommences immediately. Tney require
daily instead Of weekly cleanlngs, 81 a. present AZ
lar as Jour Superlntendens remarks apply TO these
streets they are true, but no further.
In his report he suggests the question. ''Who is
sponsDle Tor the ithy condition Of such streets sn
l aver that on himself more than on any other per-
son rests the responsibility. One OF your ordinances
prohlDlts the throwing OF ashes &c. into the streets
II instead OF issuing his Illuminating ana alarming
reports ne would direct hts efforts to the enforce
ment Of ihls ordinance she nltny condition Of the
the preventive and there would be less necessity for
the case proposed.
pended for cleaning sixty miles OF streets, cost
OF fourteen dollars per MILE What wonderfully
eficacious remedy this would bel The approprla-
ti0n, according TO his estimate, would secure lust
one such cleaning ~ he suggests, and there would
be an end to his effort 1t would accomplish q little
good practically applied Il u true but the KIND
last summer had better be left undone. Turning
over the dust the street and leaving 1t there SO
much labor wasted, and only aggravates the nus
II distributed IL should be scraped into heaps
and carted on At once. Tne work done by Superin-
tendent Dalton was much more efficiently done than
cleaned those dirty places ano removed the stuff
immediately but under Harris not loo loads OF art
were removed BY him during the whole OF mis- last
summers cleaning.
He suggests that our carts should remove the
dlrt when ne scraped IT up but ne mas no right 10
expect this from US. We clean such streets once
week. and remove rhe dirt according the terms OF
our contract and he mas right to on Us the
extra work. Tor which we should have neither paw nor
credit. The subjolned particulars OF our work since
January furnishes most substantial refutatIon or
me Doctors assertion that the city Is dangerously
hlthy You will see BY the enclosed map tnat nine
tenths OF the whole paved surface OF the city was
cleaned ana the dlrt removed last week. Some OF
the drtier streets We cleaned twice and every pre-.
vl0us week since the snow has disappeared we nave
done corresponding amount OF WORK. Last week
garbage and dirt and since the LIST day OF January
we have removed loo, ,0O0 loads. We have employed
an average daily force OF 400 carts and 900 men, yet
the public are en TO infer from such msrepresenta
uons - your superintendent pr0mulgates IN his re-
port that we are dong no work at all.
have In vain endeavored 70 obtain from him
COPY OF the list OF streets referred in his report
AND aS being annexed thereto and, after q
Iruiuess attenpt by him " nnd the same, he
salo the secretary had IT, and when this latter gent
WAS called upon he SAID the superintendent mad
never sent It, and to mo II ID very evident that no
such document exists and that the report was got
ten up oy him In seH-audation and to cover up his
own shortcomings and as own expense. Perhaps
ne has Q right to 90 50 under The Old adage thar
every dog mas right to wag his own tail.n
0u'' '''' Ios2DSa otssDSiaPfS FfSkARp super,n.ndeen.
The matter came before that Board, as already
stated, when Josephs letter was read, ana the
Board unanimously Rcted upon DR.. Harris'
suggestions J0seph's letter was fled away
smong the archives Of the once The