Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-04-22

higher than for the corresponding period in
1880; that typhus fever has already IN
vaded the city, not only in the fouler
slums, but in such regions as Madison
Square; that cases of cholera have &C.
CURED and that all the indications point
to pestilence as soon as the hot weather
sets in. Resolutions were passed at this
meeting declaring "thst the garbage and
the filth, the necessary accumulations OF
'' traffic and of households in tins great me-
'tropolis, have not been thoroughly re-
GO moved FROM the streets of our city for
number of years." and showing that the
general sanitary condition was most dan
! gerous. The doctors asserted that the at
mosphere is poisoned by exhalations from
the accumulated filth that meat hanging
in the markets is poisoned that the dust
from the streets is full of disease germs
that malaria is created and fostered by the
reeking sewers and cutters; that the chill
dren of the poor, having no other play
grounds than the filthy streets, are exposed
to the greatest danger.
But how is it that such shameful con-
dition Of things is suffered to continue in
the greatest and wealthiest city of the
Union The answer to this question is to be
found in the following resolution, which is
among those passed at the meeting referred
to Resolved, That the methods hereto
i" fore adopted by the Police Department
90 of the city have been notoriously bad,
- and even those methods have been inef-
90 ficiently carried out. Party politics hare
&c been made to enter into aohat should be a
purely sanitary duty performed by q re-
&c sponsibIe officer" This is the explana-
ton of the whole situation, astounding
aud revolving as it must appear. In order
to prevent the loss of certain spoils of Of
flee the Assembly at Albany has refused to
pass a bill putting the whole power of
street cleaning In the hands of the Mayor.
Lest certain thieves and scoundrels should
be. deprived of their plumber, that is to say,
the lives of the whole population of New
York have been deliberately jeopardized.
This is the unvarnished truth, and it must
be acknowledged that the spoils system has
here reached pitch of brutality and cal
lousness to which nothing in the history of
the Tweed Ring furnishes parallel.
1t is even alleged that the refusal of the
Assembly to pass the STRENGTHENING bill is
the result of an understanding with the
representatives of the State at Washing
ton. The most cautious and conservative
journal in New York, the EUening Post,
observes that &c it is in the air that 'cer-
tain persons at Washington are SO far in
accord with ignoble legislators at Albany
@ that close perusal of the reports of the
g consultation of the faculty of New York
g may be as useful at the seat of the ma
81 tionaI as at the State government" The
same Journal hints at the existence of a
" corrupt bargain between placemen and
politicians of opposite parties, whereby
q they hope to divide an infamous profit
" at the expense of the health and estates
''of the people of the city OF New York. "
Other journals are far less reserved, and
do not hesitate 70 assert positively that
such bargain has been contaminated, and
that the Republican machine has
struck hands with Tsmmany tor the pur-
pose of maintaining an inefficient and cor
rupt city government, no matter at what
hazard to the health of the community.
It is further evident that the appeals
and representations of the physicians and
of the press have been ignored, and that
New York is to be suffered to drift into the
horrors of the pestilence rather than that
the villains who control and rob her
should be deprived of any portion of their
stealings. II anarchy is worse than such
government, in what particular can it be
worse? To be ruled by gang of brutal,
w-browed ruffians in whom there isneither
conscience nor humanity; to be ground
between the upper and the neither mill
stones of Republican and Democratic
scoundrelism to be refused even the
poor privilege of breathing pure air to
be doomed by the sheer villainy of rob-
Der rulers to all the horrors of pestilence
to be taxed to death, to know that this
taxation is nall naked robbery, yet to be
impotent to resist it; to bear all this, and
then to be told that they enjoy the bless
ings Of freedom what fate can he more
melancholy than that of the people of New
York!
Better the anarchy OF the Paris Com
mune than so hideouq a travesty of gov.
eminent as this. Better the lawlessuess
of the frontier than the sham order of our
rogue-cursed and pestilence-haunted metro
polls. Nor can the people of even the
most distant States afford to regard the
condition Of New York with indifference.
Let cholera break out there as it broke out
in lS49, and no man can set limit to the
ravages of the disease. It would sweep
over the country like a prairie fire. 1t
Woulu giide from town TO town, from state
to State, carrying desolation with it. New
York is great storm-center, and from its
foul streets may arise at any time an cpl
demic which will kill more than died in the
entire period of the Rebellion. Yet all
these risks are coolly taken by the Albany
legislators and the arch-rogues who control
them. They care nothing for the results
OF their policy. They are determined that
the sanitary condition of the city shall not
be improved if that Improvement involves
the sacrifice of any part of their opportuni-
ties for stealing. To this horrible state is
the first city of the republic reduced, and
all that its people and its press can do is
to protest and to utter impctent threats.
The probability is that it is now too late
for remedial measures, even if the New
York Assembly retreat from its present
position and pass the bill. In the first
weeks of May the physicians anticipate the
outbreak of an epidemic, and judging from
Yesterdays dispatches it may come even