The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-04-27
CLEAN UP.

to sgain submit few remarks upon the i'm
portsnce and necessity of cleaning the streets,
cutters, by-ways, private plsc's, and the
entire city generally. But before we proceed
further, permit us TO say right here, that we
do not mention the fact that we have new
health officer in sense or spirit of reflection
upon the retiring health officer. 1t affords
US pl, ssure to bear testimony to the ef-
dciency, the zeal and energy OF Dr..
Garter curing the two terms that no filled
the position of health officer OF Dallas. tie
was faithful ~ the trusts reposed in him,
prompt in all his duties, able in their per-
Torrance and earnest in his endeavors for
the sanitary improvement Of the city, doing
all that could be done with the facilities and
the assistance given him by the city authori.
ties. We have taken occasion number of
times to speak upon the necessity Of ceauli-
ness in the city, but never before has that
necessity been more urgent than now.
We do all know what an unusual fall
winter and spring We have had. We do all
know how strange and unusual have been
the meteorological influences and effects,
and we oil know how unhealthy it has been
all over the country, what peculiar and fatal
msladies have been reported throughout not
only this country but Europe and Asia.
For months past idiosyncratic influences
have prevailed upon the elements, and the
winds seem to bear on their bosoms the seeds
OF sickness, contagion and death. These
seeds need but II resting place to germ
mate, take root and bear u
fruitful frightful harvest of pes.
thence and death. In tho filth accumul-
a'ions of cities they make their nurseries; in
the cesspools of rottenness and corruption
they bud and bloom, and as the crop Of dra'
gon teeth sowH by Cadmus brought forth a
horde of armed men, to carry devastation and
destruction and terror into the countries
round about them, SO do they send out
legion OF demons to clutch at the vitals of
strong men, to daily with the cheeks of far
women and TO impress their kisses upon the
lips of innocent childhood. Let tho city be
cleaned up. The warm days of spring
are already upon us, and
the sultry suns Of summer will
soon be here. Looking at the matter from
business standpoint, considering it in the
light of dollars and cents, it will not pay this
city to rem ain in its filth, and the following
from the Philadelphia Press is in.poin,;" ..The
decadence of Philadelphia as the commercial
metropolis of the country and the growth of
New York into its present proportions had
their origin In precisely the same conditions
in this city more than four.scoro years ago
Philadelphia, in 1850, when the first official
Genius of the country was taken, was the
greatest of American cities. Between l760.
and 1900 the city, however, WAS the prey of
its neglect Of sanitary regulations AS well as
of its own enterprise, which introduced
through Its West India trade, the yellow TO-
yer and other tropical epidemics The
plague ragged here in tho years 1893, '07 and
'0S, carrying on, it is estimated, twelve
thoa sand lives, driving our trade TO New
York and other ports, and destroying the
commercial supremacy which had been un.
disturbed from the founding of the city,
To show what the conditions arc in Now
York to which the Press alludes in the above,
we take the following from the New York
Herald of the Goth inst, in an article in
which 1t animadverts upon tho outrageously
filthy condition Of that city: "We have it
on tho authority Of the most eminent physi.
clans of the city, and their opinion Is sus-
tanned by the whole profession, that New
York is now on the verge of II pestilence--
that, in fact, premonitory symptoms OF a
plague have already appeared. The alarm
ing increase in the death rate, TO which we
have called attention as emphatically as
possible, shows that this is not sensations al
or ex ggera,ed view Of tho situation, rs the
political strikers ut Albsny and their sup.
portcrs are endeavoring TO make the people
believe. A pestilence in New York this
summer would mean tho loss OF tens of
thousands of lives and OF hundreds if not
thousands OF millions of dollars. Are the
republican politicians of ALBANY prepared to
take the responsibility of bringing such a
calamity upon the first city Of the continents
Already has the cholera made its appear.
ance in New York city, but n few sporadic
cases ii is true, but epidemics always begin
that way. Governor Roberts was but a few
days ago in consultation with tho lealth
board of Galveston on the subject Of quar-.
an,ine, grave fears exislir 4 that the state may
DO threatened with yellow fever ,hi. summer
through the line Of steamers recently
established between Galveston and Vera
Cruz, and Now Orleans by way OF tho Texas
and New Orleans railroad, and with the
memories Of Memphis, Granada, Mississippi,
md New Orleans but a year
or two ego still fresh in our minds
It Is the part of prudence and commcn sense
to prepare or rather 10 remove all causes for
sicksess or epidemic. Dallas, for the past
few months, has been sorcly afflicted with
malarial fevers in their different forms, and
there DO many households in our midst now