, 1872-08-22
SEATTLE, August 90. 1871

astute and august City Council, after
carefully compounding a medicine with
which to cleanse Seattle from the effects
OF, and prevent the further spread
among us, of all contagious or infectious
disease. are themselves making wry
faces, and refusing to swallow dose of it.
1t Is no use gentlemen, you may strug-
gle as much as you please, the public
are holding it to your lips, and it will
Kali you politically if you don't swallow
1t. and it will just as surely kill you if
you do. In other words, you have en-
acted a Health Ordinance compelling
the people of Seattle, under the heavy
penalty of one hundred dollars to raise
a yellow flag on any building where a
case of contagious or infectious disease
exists sand then when the citizens peti-
ton you to carry out the provisions of
the said Ordinance by placing yellow
flag on the house of John w. Pinnell,
(that brothel of pollutlon) you in order
to escape from task your fear OF inter-
est deters you from undertaking shrink
the responsibility by deciding that in
yoau opinion, John W. Pinnell's $ premises
do not come within the provisions of
City Ordinance No. 80. Ga decision in
which the the puplic, happily do not
concur.) Let US look at some of the
provisions of this Ordinance. 1t says
expressly, ANY contagious or infec-
tious disease" 1t does not define
nor specify what the disease shall be,
SO that it is contagious or infectious. 1t
may be mumps, measles, itch, chicken
pox, whooping cough, syphilis, small
pox, scarlet fever, typhus fever, or any
other contagious or infections disease.
That they all come within the provisions
Of City Ordinance No. 30, no sane per-
son will deny. But, say these grave
and learned Councilmen-thisi is a small
pox Ordinance Then why In tue name
VI SOliillOh oC1loC QOCo IL llOL SiiN SIldll-
pox. No, no, gentlemen ihat will never
do. The people would never infer from
reading the Ordinance that the Council
had ever heard of smallpox, much less
that the Ordinance was made III refer
ence TO it. Just look at it Here is an
Ordinance of nine sections, said by our
learned City Council, to be smallpox
Ordinance, but in which the word small
pox does not once occur. While the
words contagious or infectious dis
ease" occurs no less than six times-
But then our City Council is composed
of very wise and very learned men, and
it would be doing them & eat injustice
to suppose for one moment, that their
"Odlnanee machinery might have got
out of order by being too freely oiled
with lager, and so have ground out ANY
contagious or infectious disease" when
they meant smallpox. Oh, no we will
rather believe they meant just what the
Ordinance says, and that they only go.
frightened because they were petiuoned
to begin the process of puritication by
cleaning out John W. Pinnell's estab-
lishment. Then again, sec. makes it
the duty of the Mayor or Health Officer
to restrain from going upou the street or
from house to house, or in any public
place whatever, any person who has
any such contagious or infectious dis
ease, which section the petitioners urged
them to carry into effect but winch they
have neglected to do-not even giving
reason for neglectlng their duty, no, not
even as shallow a one as in the case of
John Pinnell. Why" said one who
seemed to be- posted, to whom Was pre-
sented the petition for signature, = If
that provision was carried out it would
break up more than half the families OF
Seattle. l replied, then God help
Seattle, if that is the case, then the
sooner this Ordinance Is emf ,rced the
better. Said another john Plnnell
keeps Cloochmen, and respectable men
don't 90 there as much as they used to,
for now they have got another establish
ment of the same kind right here in
their midst, where there are white wom-
en- Think of that wives and mothers.
" Respectable men don't visit Pinnell's
as often as formerly" They have an
other place of resort of like character
more conveniently situated. Respect
able men comment is unnecessary
But we would not for q moment enter
tain the suspicion that any of our City
Council might possibly belong to the
class of respectable men and for that
reason are afraid of too close an investi-
cation, and so gave that part of the pc
tition the go by.
No indeed we will rather suppose
that the importance Of saving the premi-
ses of John w. Pinnell from the cleans
ing they so much need, in order to stop
the spread of so mue b infection, so oc-
cupied their astute minds, that they en-
tirely forgot everything else. NJ.
QUITE A DIFFERENCE.-We mentioned