Daily Los Angeles herald., 1883-12-09
A GREAT PUBLIC NECESSITY.
A Lost Pavement and How to Find
1.-THE Face of tho Street to be
Cleansed and Newly Covered
Business too Heavy for the Pres
ent Pavement.


A careful observer of our city streets
must have taken notice that when heavy
rains fall, while travel is active on any
thoroughtares, when the rain Is over
the pressure Of heavy teams has crushed
down the gravel and forced the fine
black earth up through the gravel, Gov.
ering tss streets with black mud that
soon becomes odorous and pes.ilential.
This was remarkably illustrated yester.
day. when the sunshine reused up un-
pleasant odors. Some of the merchants
tried to correct the matter by shoveling
this black mud from the immediate
front OF their places Of business into the
middle Of the street. While this re.
heved the CUTTERS it did not remove the
stencil and danger. but only changed Its
location few feet.
As long as the present gravel is used
for paving, and is but eight inches thick.
this trouble will arise. The gravel Is
good, and makes a lovely roadbed, and
where II Is not used during heavy rain
it remains clear and firm. But on our
main. travelled highways, which are used
while the rains are falling, the crust Of
eight inches of gravel becomes soft.
yields under the pressure Of our heavy
drays, and sinks down into the softer
mud beneath, which rises through the
gravel and becomes vile odorous cover
ing all over those streets. This upper
crust must be hauled away, and leave
the plain reddish-yellow gravel. and the
place Of the mud supplied by fresh
light gravel, to prevent reducing the
level OF the streets.
II the City Council do not feel like
incurring the expense Of taking away this
black. rich compound, the owners Of the
sandy land along the river and below
tho city would be glad to take 1t away
as fertilizer for their lands, which lack
the mold, silica, clay and solid and
liquid manure which is in this street
mud. On their land II Is invaluable to
mix with the sand and become deodor.
ized and fertilizing. On our streets II is
the source Of fever, Group and diph-
liberia.
1t is time to look this matter in the
face. and take some responsibility in
protecting the public health. Our skies
are fair, our climate unexcelled. and our
gravel for streets is OF the very best. but
depth Of eight inches cannot stand the
pressure Of the tremendous throng and
pressure OF commerce and pleasure that
brushes the earth and gravel stones to
powder, or sinks the samejints the soft
mud bed of earth beneath.
To remedy this we must pave our bus.
iness streets as soon as possible, or take
away the mud from the surface of the
gravel and put freah clean gravel in its
place.
In the Eastern cities the cobble stone
pavements sink down in wet weather,
the mud comes up between the boulders,
and has to be hauled away, and when
this process flattens the street, the cob
bles are taken up and fresh earth put
beneath. This work 10 constant and
expensive. and we have no desire to iini-
tate its folly. 1t keeps an army Of paw
iers in New York to do this kind of
work.
In the States Of Indiana and Illinois,
where gravel pavement il used, It is
made eighteen inches In thickness, and
II we continue to use such pavement
here it must he eighteen inches thick,
and as the surface becomes carried away
by cleaning the street, fresh gravel must
be applied. In the residence part Of the
city, where travel is light, q depth of
eight inches Of gravel is we'll enough,
but in our great thoroughfares, where
the tread Of commerce Is heavy, our
present gravel pavement is totally una.
bic to bear up beneath the load that 10
thrown upon IL. Witha wet winter and
. heavy business, our gravel In the thor
oughfares will be q subterranean guam
tity. As matter of preservation Of the
public health, the mud should be re-
moved at once, and its place supplied
by the best gravel that can be obtained.
But with the tremendous increase of
business of the city, 1t is evident that .
gravel pavement, no matter how good,
will fail in short time. Our present
pavement lmust be considered ~ only .
temporary affair, but while We use IL, it
should be used wisely. and not allowed
to be source of discomfort and disease.