Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-11-19
MARSEiLLES.
A City That is Accustomed to SufYcrin,
Era1,a PIN . nd

|
| From Plaques and Distempers.
"A city that has suffered from all thu
plaques and distempers that have evel
afflicted humanity and that has at thi.
moment the reputation of being one o.
the uncleanest, the most unsavory and
most insalubrious in the world, merits
more than a passing notice. Favorable
notice it seldom gets of any kind, either
from the foreign press or from the
French OF the. northern provinces, vino
regard the people of Marseilles with a
certain disdain akin to that feeling OF
| superiority which all northern nations
entertain for those of warmer regions.
| Foreign travellers do not shun the city,
but they have little occasion to come
here. unless they are on their way to
Algiers. Tunis or the far East. II is
something Of thoroughfare for the
French themselves, who are going to
the Mediterranean ports Or to their
Oriental colonies. Yet it is a large and
important metropolis, having a popu-
merce, an air of prosperity, and to the
casual observer some parts of it have
even an arr of exquisite neatness. There
city should not be clean, for it is abund-
antly supplied with water from the
River DURANGO, eighty miles distant.
The supply is equal to about four entire
meters (about six cubic feet) per second
It is brought by canal and aqueduct
through mountains and across valleys.
and generously and impartially distri-
butcd throughout the city There are
hot
fed, and a large percentage, temper
arily diverted to serve as u motive
power to numerous oil mills in the ele-
waited suburbs, is returned 70 the regu-
lar channels and afterward used by the
inhabitants for domestic purposes The
water so employed is not supposed to be
contaminated by the labor or product
of the mills. for it generally has
simply to pass over wheel, but
it is a use of it which would not be toll
Grated in other countries Water is seen
everywhere in the streets. The cutters all
run with it, and by means of watering
carts and garden-hose the dust in most
of the streets is kept fairly well laid.
But very little-probably because the
proprietors are too economical-is al
lowed to run either through hotels or
private houses. which are in conse-
Guence everywhere penetrated and per-
with bad odors. more unpleas-
ant than those of the streets, for while |
the latter can be avoided in a measure |
by the pedestrian, those of his hotel |
and clearinghouse are, from the very
of the case, unavoida-
bic
1t was not without reason that the
MAYOR of Marseilles, when goaded to
madness by the jibes and jeers of the
daily press, retorted thss it was not the
city that was unclean, but the people.
The French standard of neatness differs
from that of England and America.
1t is too often that of merely the cup
and the platter. In Marseilles and
elsewhere in the south of France the
theories of cleanliness have not material
y changed since the medieval epoch of
plague and infection. when gas and
sewers. when running water in cities
wen, were unknown, and the public
highways were the common recepi acles
# the garbage, filth and excreta of the
louses placed thereon. The hotels of !
harseilles are poorly supplied with
The foot bath, which tar
lily appears when demanded, supplies
is place. The idea of the bath is so
oreign to the thought of the people of
be region that when more generous
upply of water has been demanded,
q which the whole person might be
the one appealed to has been
;nown to reply in startled tone: