Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-02-25

ANSAN NAAAAA a.
part forms the northern boundary
Bayou Gayoso has no current, except
alter heavy rains. When the Missis.
slppi is up, the water backs up VOL
river and so up the bayou, which re.
ceives nearly all the filth of the city
From the watersheds ON either side
surface water pours into it all the
year round. In the summer season
the bayou is comparatively dry; it is
hlled with stagnant water and Sinking
mud. Its banks are foul and filthy in
the extreme, and the earcasseso of dead
animals can be found there fostering
in the sun. 1t was along the course
of this bayou that the yellow fever
plague was most fatalin 1873 and 1873.
The question has been agitated for
several years whether the bayou ought
not to be filled up or arched over and
made a main sewer for the city to be
tapped at several points by outlets
into the Mississippi river west, but the
matter was never acted upon practi-
cally by the authorities. The bayou
is now in the same filthy condition
in which it has been for years, and
as it was during the epidemic of last
summer. The streets and alleys of the
city are muddy and filthy. Many
years ago NicOlson pavement was put
down on Main, Second, Shelby, Beal.
Madison, Poplar and other streets.
This pavement is now rotten and the
streets are full of holes, most danger.
GUS to life and limb as well as to the
public health. After rains the rays of
the sun cause an offensive exhalation
to arise from the rotten wood. 1t is in
so bad a condition at present that it is
with difficulty that wagons, drays or
other vehicles can pass along our
principal thoroughfares. The west
side of Main street from the Memphis
and Louisville railroad depot north to
the Mississippi and Tennessee railroad
depot south, a distance of about a mile
and a half, has been paved with stone
but not in a very substantial manner.
The steamboat landing in front of the
center of the city, for a distance of
nearly five squares, is well paved with
stone, and affords every facility to
commerce. This landing is kept com
paratively clean, it sloping considera-
bly,, and the periodical rains washing
it. The unpaved streets, principally
occupied by private residences, are,
during the winter season, almost i'm
passable for vehicles. Nothing is more
common than to see drays and wagons
stalled in the deep mud, and they
have to be unloaded ere the
mules can pull out. The alleys of
the city, both paved and unpaved,
are as filthy as they possibly can be.
They are made the recepticles Of slops,
ashes, trash of all kinds, and hundreds
Of ~nuisances exist there. Indeed, the
sanitary conditions of the city may be
put down as extremely bad. Under
the old city government, which ceased
to exist, owing to a repeal of the city
charter, which took place a few days
since, a small effort was made to en-
force sanitary regulations by cOmpell-
ing residents to clean out sinks, back
yards, alleys, etc, and to abate nui-
sances, but this effort amounted to
nothing. Since the yellow fever cpl
demic it may.with truth be said that
nothing of any practical benefit in a
sanitary sense has been accomplished,
or in fact attempted, by the authori-
ties, the hopolessly bankrupt condi-
ton of the city financially being given
as an excuse for the condition of af-
fairs. The board Of health was unable
to do anything in a sanitary way, the
budget appropriation made in 1878,
before the epidemic, being hardly SUI
icient to pay the members Of the
board of health their salaries and the
sanitary surgeons their wages. This
was the condition of the city from a
sanitary point of view up to the time
the charter was abolished and the old
city government, under Mayor Flip
pin, legislated out Of power. The sew
city government, under a board Of
police and fire commissioners and a
board Of public works, con-
sisting of five supervisors, has
not as yet been practically or fully
organized for the Taxing District, as
Memphis is called in the new law.
We are also to have a board of health.
to consist of the chief of police, a
health officer and one physician, who
shall be a practitioner Of five years
standing and ex-oficio president Of
the board. The new government is
given all the powers necessary to Gre
ate and enforce all measures Of a sani-
tary character, to abate and prevent
all nuisances, etc.-in fact, the new
local government has been given en-
tire control over the streets and other
public property of the Taxing District.
The new local government is empow-
cred by act of the legislature to levy
an annual tax of fifty cents on the
500 for the repair and paving of
streets and bridges and construction
Of sewers and drains, and sanitary
purposes, and an annual tax on all
privileges exercised within the terri
t0rlal llWlts Of the extinct corpora
ton, and not enumerated heretofore
in this section, and taxed by ad valo.
rem assessment equal to one-half of
the tax imposed thereon for State pur-
poses, said privilege tax TO be applied
to the paving of streets and construe-
ton Of sewers or draining of said ter
ritory." The annual taxable prop
erty, real and personal, including
merchants capital, and al others
who are assessed for ad yalorem taxes
on capital invested, bank stocks and
other stocks are subject TO tax within
the territorial limits Of the extinct cor
poration Of Memphis. The above
taEGg will be leg;ed and collected for
1873. At present there il no money
ia the treasury for sanitary p%urposes