The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1874-03-28

and grubblng hoe have tackled the
Hlumps OH the street running from the
mayors office 10 the graveynrd"-yes,
to the graveyard oh, the doleful
sound!
The want Of funds seems to be q
plausible excuse, but the necessity of
the case demands efforts that are ut
ter strangers 10 the word failure, An
epidemic here this summer would nip
the growth of this young and promis'
Ing city Ike killing frost To reason
In dollars aud cents, property would
depreciate enormously Ia value, aud
then no one would doubt that the dan
ger ought 10 have been avcrted, even
II II had cost 1.-THE of our taxable
property, II would take years to re-
cover from the consequences OF such
calamity, ifperfeGt recovery were pos
siple; and "sadder than owl songs on
the midnight blastn would be "that
portentous phrase, Il told you 80. "
1t Is only those, perhaps, who have
been in city during It's visitation by
an epidemic, that cau form correct
idea Of the horror and suffering, AT
such times thousands of dollars have
to be raised, In order to provide for the
helpless, and the city had to foot most
Of the blls--at a time, too, when
II is least able to do 80, This is
n direct loss, In addition TO the eonse-
quential damages; and in almost every
such case the amount of money thus
expended would have been more than
sufficient to avert the danger Money
Is lost, property is deprecated; but all
this is rs nothing to the lives irrevoca-
bly, lost by criminal neglect.
Should this work be neglected now,
and an epidemic make its appearance
in some sister city, there would be hot
haste here In hot weather to clean and
purify our streets, In the excitement
much money would be wasted, and
much Of the work would lie badly
done. Fresh earth, filled with garb-
age and vegetable matter, would he
turned up and exposed to the hot rays
of the sun. Such places, fostering in
the heat, and reeking with noisome
etlluvia, would soon thoroughly vitiate
the atmosphere, and our too long-neg-
lected city would offer shining mark |
to the dreaded disease. Then, alas
that "street leading from the mayors |
Office to the graveyard" might be more
used than any other in the city. This
is no fancy picture; the writer of this
article has been an eyewitness in an
other city of what he has described.
BY all means the draining and re-
pairing of the streets should be done
before the hot weather begins. If the
ground is disturbed then, we shall be
in danger anyhow of having good
deal of local sickness among us. ut
is encouraging-a little-to see the no-
tce to the citizens of Dallas "Clean
up clean upw Ii looks like business;
and we hope the citizens will comply
in full with the requirements of the
health officer. But, o We city fathers,
we would say to you that it is easier to
bring up children in the wayi in which
they should go when the fathers go
that way little oftener themselves.
Let the sanitary laws be rigidly enforc-
ed, and begin with the streets. Act at
once. Delays are very dangerous;
and those are awful words - those
words, 1900 late ~ Take care, then,
that the remaining citizens of n plague
stricken and blighted city shall not
justly charge you with the cause of
their mourning and their ruin. 515t49
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