Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-09-15
MEMPHIS.
What She Is...What She viii Be---What
She ought to DO---A Picture by
Stranger.

Editors Notwithstanding temporal
rily in your active, vigorous young city,
1 have gathered a few facts and sundry
items, while strOlling up and down your
streets, and thinking that they will nOt
prove uninteresting, 1 have jOtted them
down and have concluded to send them
for insertion in your valuable columns
tor the benefit of t whom it may con-
Germ" To commence, the census officers
report YOU to hav in the bluff City"
about forty thousand inhabitants. If this
be true, which 1 suppose TO be a fact, ex-
cept that for ''fortyn read fifty" as there
must have been at least ten thousand alb
seutees whent the censu was taken, then
Memphis does more business b any
city Of the same size in the United States.
The South has received a new impulse,
and as cotton always was king" so
king" cotton always will be, and as the
actual wealth will double every five
years under the new inspiration of free
labor, for from that unmemorial time
whereof the memory of man runneth
not to the contrary" lace a6or has been
financially, a most miserable invest
ment; it follows as might the day." that
each decenial enumeration will
show that "mother' Memphis
has given birth to an infant city,
Of the same length. breadth and thickness
rs herself, a prodigy OF valor of which,
il will be conceded, most mothers, even
these who love their lords none the less,
are incapable.
Then, if this be true. with a city increas-
ing 10 size ten Thousand per year
what are some of the plain duties
Of your city fathers2 First of all,
| provide some adequate system of water
works, a system which will provide water,
not only in. abundance, but in sufficient
quantity TO wash the filth from your
r-a,H n-A n11a-G. Cor wrfAInnf nx-aaVN-
ton land the writer hereof is a cosmopO-
lite in his hsbits), the streets and alleys
of Memphis are in a worse condition than
any frSt-cIdSS city in the United States,
and certainly Memphis can afford to
belong to any other class. Why, the
odors that assail the olfactories of a
stranger, at least, which arise from the
alleys in and about Main and Jefferson,
outrivsl the "forty stinks of Cologne"
You city people may have become SO ac-
custOmed to these "forty stinks" that you
rather enjoy calling each one by name,
but, for a stranger, may they be dndtheIaG
SIT.
Seriously, my dear APPEAL, your
streets are a disgrace to an en-
ergetic city like this. 1t is we'll
known that standing water, howev-
er closely covered, will in an incredible
short space of time absorb the most nox-
iOus gases; hence your cisterns breed
cOntagion and disease, and ought to be
abolished at once. Then what should you
do? Utilize first of all the great body of
water which ed6ies and whiris as il rushes
by you city. If this is not practicable,
look upsome other method. What would
New York have been without her CrOton,
and Philadelphia her Paramount? Echo
| answers, "What?" Then organize an eff
fcient board of health after the mode of
Chicago, and for energy and public spirit
you could have no better model. District
your city with an officer over each dis
trict, who shall see that every nuisance is
abated under penalty; order every city
physician to report each death attended
by him: carry every case of smallpox to
the psst-house; provide for vaccination;
provide water in abundance, that all may
keep clean; and until ali this is done
thoroughly and effectuslly, your mortal
ity VIII always be as il is nOw-for popu-
lation,~ situation and natural advantages,
greater than almost any city in the United
states.
One more item, Messrs. Editors,
and 1 have done. l read in your
columns of a "chain-gang." How? Do
you attach a ball and chain TO human
beings and parade them on ths street for
public exhibition It must be for exhi-
bition, for a dozen such will not do as
much work as could the man appointed
to oversee them. Is not punishment here,
as elsewhere, TO reform the criminals
Can you do this by lowering his self
respect2 Away with it; reform it alto
gether. You may have made some at
tsmpts at reforming these things, but il
so, the results show but little success.
" The proof of the pudding is in the eat
ing" and this Memphis pudding, in these
respects, don't " eat we'll"
In conclusion, Messrs. Editors, my in
function 10 the City Fathers is, 20 bring
the blind by a way they know, make
darkness light before the people, these
things do unto them and not forsakt
them" Yours truly,
"FACTs AND TTEMs.o