The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1882-01-14
A SHAME AND A NUISANCE.

clate our reasons ana the motives aCtuatlns
us. We have had within the present week
only couple of days rain, and light at
that, but the results are such as ought not
to follow southwestern rainy season" in
a well cared for and properly attended to
city. From one end of the town to
the other it is n perfect slush. Pools OF
thoroughfarcs and on Main street
the street car track though raised a couple
of feet few weeks ago from terminus 10
terminus, is completely hidden. The cross
ings, on some of which afeint of improve
ment was made a short time since, are lit
terally covered up, and one must wade in
from three to four inches of mud to get
from one side of Main or Elm, and other
streets to the opposite side. Added to
these inconvenience is a still greater one
and this is the fact that passing vehicles
on any portion of the street spatter
the water and the slush over pedestrians,
female as well as male, at distance OF
from ten to twenty feet. We have known
men and women to walk for four or six
blocks to get over Main street within the
past tive days, with any degree Of comfort
or cleanliness. Ii is fact, as we learn il,
that continued complaints were urged
against the Main street car line before the
City Council until finally the company
were compelled to raise their track, the city
agreeing then to so grade the street through
out its extent that the rains would not
in future affect travel. The Car Company
did its work, and apparently did it
well, butt hasncver met with the assistance
promised from the city and to-day it would
actually require stretch OF the imagination
to realize that any labor had been expended
upon the Main street car track for the past
for us to admit as we know their effect upon
the outside world. The impression will 90
abroad that Dallas is totally unfit to live in,
but il is not our fault. In the inter
terests of our people, most of whom
are our patrons, we cannot do otherwise
than continue to call attention to the ncccs-
sity for improvements and fix the blame
and negligence where it properly belongs.
There has been, as everybody can see,
"many things left undone that ought to
have been done" and if strangers receive Il
bad impression of Dallas from this fact, we
think those who have her prosperity
and fame at heart, the ones, indeed, who
have been selected to take full charge OF
her affairs, moral financial and physical,
ought TO begin to correct abuses and
inaugurae improvements that are
calculated to keep the visitor within
our midst when hc comes among
US. The Street and Sanitary Com
mittecs of the present { " Council have
had jobs before them Of thruwost impor-
lance, measures that called for immediate
attention. and meant to the citizen, of this
city health and comfort and dollars and
cents. How have these trusts been dis
charged? The condition of the town for tive
or three days past is the answer. We have
right to have such matters attended toand
have repeatedly directed the attention
of the proper authorities to what
should have been done, and Will,
these have failed to heed, ",
are gratiliod that we can announce a
healthier public sentiment on the subject
than existed u few months ago, We ar,
constantly in receipt OF communication,
and personal applications urging II, to agi
tate even more pointcdly this subject o.
street improvement and we have RETAINED
from hope that something would be done
but as yet we have waited without recon-
pcnse. We now venture the prediction that
street Improvement such indeed as Ia,
growing Importance and population and
wealth of the city demand, could carry
Dallas by an overwhelming majority, and
We trust some one will he shrewd enough
to see it. A number of Mayors of other
cities, doing in the. premises what they
saw was necessary, were opposed at the
time by reason of the costlincss of their
N''N'f WV wv NN"NhN WV iilbNl TtsntiltU
and famous Mayors the cities referred To
have ever had, Even Boss Shepherd, in
his famous career In Washington City, had
the goodwill and plaudts of the citi
2cns then, rs well as now, 81 far n,
the matter of identifying, improving OF
rendering more attractive the capital wa.
concerned, and rs only VIGOROUSLY con
dcmncd for his own personal misappropria
ton of the moneys for the work and the
numerous jobs he carried on in connection
with the same. After such things have
once been done, whether the people like il
or not, they would not part with the con.
vcnienccs they bring for double the cost
Who in Dallas now would be willing to dc
without gas and watcr.works? II is ahou,
time such reflections were fsrcing them
selves into certain quarters il there exist,
any desire amer while to receive, Il ma,
he practically too, the familiar but ALWAYS
attractive plaudit, "wcltdonc good and
faithful servant