New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-11-22
THE STREETS or NEW-YORK.

| tiOnment some sharp and well-deselYcu crltl-
cisms were made upon the operations of the
| Street Cleaning Bureau At Tuesdays meet
ing of the Board of Health the subject came
up again, and the Sanitary Superintendent re-
ported the filthy condition of the streets to he
a positive danger to the public health. :" do
"n0t remember" said he, "tO have seen
"the streets so dirty at this season OF
/" the year since my connection with the
Health Department, and unless the weather
" should moderate so as to permit the
"scows Of the Street Cleaning Bureau to reach
"the lawful dumping ground, the dirt and
garbage now lying in the streets Will furnish
the first stratum of those mounds which ac-
"cumuate through the Winter, and are exposed
"when the sun melts them in the Spring"
The state of the tenement quarters is perfectly
disgusting, and the lower part of Washington
ST., for about a mile, is almost impossible.
The Board finally adopted a resolution re-
ouesting the Mayor to call n meeting of con-
ference between the Boards of Health and
Police aud the Corporation Counsel, to devise
q remedy.
The conference will no doubt be held; we
should like to believe that something will
come of it, The streets of New-YOlk have
always been reproach to solf-gOyernment,
and the prospect that they will be much bet
ter in our time is not brilliant 1t is true
that in one respect there has been some I'M
proyement since the days of the Ring con-
tractors. Then, the whole system of street
management was an organized scheme OF rob
berry now, if the streets are not cleaned they
are at least honestly kept dirty. The sweeper
is still extensively used as power in
politics, but he is not often employed
as the agent of municipal Dur
glary. II is no longer the custom to break
open the Treasury with n broom and carry
away the plumber in a dirt cart. This how
ever. is very little to say for a reformed city
government. The fact remains, that IN one OF
the first and most important duties Of munich
pal administration-the most important of all,
perhaps, after the prevention of violence to
person and property-our authorities show an
ignorance and inefliciency that are al
most hopeless They have not made the
first step toward the solution OF this
great and ever-present difficulty. They
are as far from understanding their task
to-day as they were hundred years ago. In
this advanced age, million inhabitants who
pride themselves upon their ingenuity and in
telligence, and value the comforts and decen-
cies of life, are still 50 barbarous that they
dispose of their domestic refuse as Mr. Lin
coin used to say the Patagonians ate oysters;
they threw the shells out of the window till
the heap grew higher than the house, and
then they moved.
The particular trouble of the Street Clean
ing Bureau, just now, seems to be that the
waters of the Bay are too rough for their
scows, and since those craft dare not venture
ont the streets must stay foul. But rough
water is not an uncommon phenomenon out
side Sandy Hook, and during several months
of the year it is the rule rather than the ex-
ccption. Last Winter the police complained
that there was snow and the streets could
not he cleaned till it melted. 1t did not melt
at all till Winter was over, and when the
Spring cime there was so much dirt that for
A long time the Bureau was quite unable to
cope with it, But snow, too, IS a common
freak of nature in this latitude. Is ii
not disgrace to American enterprise
that the entire operations of a great
government bureau, the one upon whose
efficiency and regularity we chiefly rely
for our health and daily comfort, should de-
pend upon the course of the Winter winds and
the rise and fall of the thermometer! The
police tell us that they can only sweep the
streets in fair weather, and can only remove
the sweepings in Il dead calm. But, IN point
Of fact. the city has never been clean in any
weather, and the transportation of garbage
has never been anything else than Il success
sion of laundering and unsystematlc expert |
ments
No street IN Ncw-YOrk is ever really swept
and the garbage from the kitchens is never
really removed. The sweeping machine tray
erses the principal avenues ut night, gathering
UP part of the outside layer of dirt, where the
way is clear. A gang of lazy and decrepit scay-
engers follow the machine after Il while to do
some foolishness with brOoms. They collect
into heaps a part of what has been thrown up
in ridges; and finally, after the heaps have
been partly scattered by the winds and pass
ing vehicles the dirt-cart gathers a part of
what remains. When the butcher, and grocer,
and baker, and drayman remove the carts
which they have left in the streets over
night, vast accumuations of unmOcsted
dirt and rubbish are disclosed beneath
them, where the machine could not
sweep, and the broom-brigade would
not None of the apparatus does its work
thoroughly. The machine the broom and
the shovel are managed with equal careless
ness. and the men, being under no effective
supervision, give for their pay only the faint
est pretence of labor. Thus under the most
favorable circumstances, no street is ever more
than half cleaned. The removal of ashes and
other domestic refuse is managed in about the
same loose way. a great deal of it is always
A -, lao no no tb,,