The New York herald., 1873-12-21
Reform still Wanted In tho streets.

RcIorm Stili Wantcu IN sho StrceSS.
II should, in city like New York, be un-
necessary to urge forever on our city author
tiles their duties in regard to keeping the
thoroughfares in decent condition. In Tam
sidered part of the Indictment against that
corrupt combination. Reform, SO called has
left the evil state of chronic filthiness IN our
streets unremedied A smart shower OF rain
makes our city horrible and paradise only
for bootblacks Let the sun dry up the mud,
and there is a chance that the wind will clean
portions Of the streets by lifting the dust IN
clouds into the air, there to form awhile q de-
licious addition to the atmosphere we breathe.
The dust of course, will be precipitated in q
short time and the round Of mud begins
again. The city in this respect is treated as
though, on the first day of every year, the en-
tire city government were dipped in Lethe
of obliviousness to all the experience OF past
years. There is no foresight displayed.
Clouds of dust are the first indication that the
blustery March month is upon us. The mud
of April finds our City Fathers quarrelling
over means to fight the dust. The hot
weather announces itself to our nostrils from
heaps of decaying vegetable matter, the fetld
remains of dead dogs and horses and the
odorous offal of the rendering establishments.
The authorities think of abating these olfactory
nuisances about the time of the first frost. A
blockade of our streets is the first intimation
that snow is thing that may be expected to
fall in December 1t may not agree with the
notions of our embryonic Clays in the
Common Council to trouble themselves about
the fluctuations of municipal mud while the
world of politics is their kitchen garden; but,
if they attended to all their duties, we should
have clean streets, and our City Fathers would
have less time to throw mud at each other. If
the lordly patrolman, too, was not SO much
wrapped up in serene self-contemplation
he might report derelictions against the
laws of street cleanliness which are supposed
to exist in the shape of city ordinances. The
Board of Health takes occasional spasms Of
that thing which is next to godliness, and for
q hot month or so the welkin rings with
.sreports;" but the next hot season will find
the Board astonished that dead horses, swelter-
ing pools and fostering vegetable garbage
are bad things for the health of the city. The
power seems to reside nowhere for suppress
ing nuisances, if we judge by the persistence
with which they reappear when the first
chance offers; yet, if the laws are examined,
it will be found that the authority is every
where. The plain fact is that from the Alder
men down to the patrolmen our officials are
above their business.
From present appearances the first serious
fall of snow will find the officials as impotent
as Pliny the Younger before the showers
of ashes from Vesuvius. Do they ever
wander as far up town as the works on Fourth
avenue? If an Alderman or Assistant Alder
man musing on ward politics, police cap
tain dreaming of capturing Sharkey, or
patrolman wrapped up in the usual ecstatic
contemplation of himself should walk over
the unprotected precipices on Fourth avenue
to the breaking of his neck, something might
be done to protect the public, as Sydney
Smith believed in the matter Of railroad acci-
dents if bishop were once killed. AT present
but all the cross streets in that portion of the
city, abound in traps, wherein every dsa-
greeabls fate besets the wayfarer, from the
common one of immersion to the knees in
mud up to the actual loss of life. Why these
things remain unattended to is puzzllng.
Somebody is to blame but the authorities
go upon the theory that it is nobody's business
to hold anybody accountable This is a
theory from which we emphatically dis
sent. The belated citizen can walk off
almost any of the piers on either side of the
city without a single barrier to interpose be-
tween him and his body furnishing snug
fee for the coroner or food for the fishes. We
cannot think that the coroners form con-
spiracy to keep the piers unprotected; yet
among all mankind the benefit inures only to
them. Why has Worth street been left for
years hideousness? When our sidewalks are
slippery the smooth iron cellar plates will
break legs by the dozen, and the papers will
exclaim against the danger to limb. Why not
preserve the legs unbroken by seeing to the
cellar plates? We should like to see these
matters taken systematically in hand by the
authorities" Efficient ordinances can be
made providing against every abuse we have
mentioned, and with the present machinery Of
government they could be adequately enforced.
Do not be above your duties, o city magnates
time may come when model Alderman
viii be appreciated and when the present un-
improved type Of lobbying, caucusing and
mud-finging City Father will be as pariah.
This, possibly, is looking too far ahead but
we advise the authorities to work up to the
ideal as diligently as possible and to give us
clean city to begin with.
THE BRITISH VIEW OF THE RIGHT OF SEARCH
undergoes modification according to circum-
l..