Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-07-20
G0THAM'S DIRTY STREETS
CHOLEIEA's PRESENCE VIRTU-
ALLY INVITED.

iAta E{ieots Ia the Quarters of th0 Poor
too Horrible to Anticipated Prob
ability that LOndOn's iniquitous Traf-
lie Is Carried on to "a Considerable EX-
tent I'm New York.
NEW YORK, July 1S.-Although the
streets are apparently as clean rs they
ever will be under a Republican form of
goYernment-Paris, you know, was much
| cleaner during the empire than it has
been since France became a republic
yet the city is far from being in the con
dltion 1t should be to sustain visitation
OF cholera, The show streets, i. e., the
principal thOrOughfares in the middle OF
the island, are clean enough, and the
premises of the wealthy and wull-to.dO
are in good sanitary condition, as a
rule, but many Of the streets IN which the
poor live are anything but clean, aud the
premises Of the poor are, in many In
stances, in IA condition TO invite pes
thence. To 60 through a street on the
east side Of the city on a hot day is an
ordeal few would care to pass. II the
street itself is comparatively clean,
| the reeeptacles for garbage are
emptied 80 seldom that in front
Of many Of the crowded tenements Is a
mass of foul smelling filth. The tenements
themselves are often so filthy that the air
is pestilential. Even when clean, the
average tenement is apt TO be unhealthy
from bad plumbing. Then there are
~, 600 vaults still in existence I'm the yards
Of houses in the most thickly populated
portions Of the town whose eXhHlati0ns
poison the atmosphere. The Board of
Health Is closing them at the rate of a few
hundred a year, but unless it does its
work more quickly some Of them will
still be in existence wben-tO paraphrase
MaeaUlay's famous sentence-a traveller
from New Zealand, standing on a broken
pier of the Brooklyn bridge, shall sketch
the remains Of what was once New York.
BUT 1T is THE IGNORANCE OF SOME or
THE POOR
which is the most difficult to contend
against. Not only are their habits such
as to invite pestileuce and to unfit them
to encounter it when it comes; but they
resist all attempts of the sanitary officers
to better their condition. When a cOuta-
giOus disease exists among them, in place
of uniting with the health officers to
stamp il out, they put difficulties in their
way. They conceal the patients and take
them to other houses not yet Injected, 80
that the disease is thus spread broadcast.
This has often happened In cases OF small
a.
Queutly reason to believe that history will
repeat itself in regard to cholera, should
it come. A man is hung sometimes in
New York tor killing another. but only a
few months Imprisonment lS the penalty
for spreading cOntagiOn, and in that way
killing perhaps a score OF people. An
Instance is on record OF 3 single small
pOx patient in the Fourth ward giving
the disease TO, believe, q others, a ma
iOrity Of whom died.
The reason for the cOncealment of con
tageous cases is the dread some people
have Of the smallpox hospital. That this
dread arises from an ignorance so brutish
as to be almost inconceivable what fol-
lows shows. II a person of this sort is
asked why he does not wish his friend or
relation to 20 the hospital, ne will talk Of
the ''black bottle.' Further inquiry will
discover that belief is prevalent among
some OF the poor that the hospital physi-
clans poison their patients with the con-
tents of a black bottle filed with some
mysterious and fatal fluid. 1t is not
known how this idea originated, but prob
ably the failure 10 return of patients taken
TO the hospital has something 10 do with
IL. Ii a patient is taken from his
friends to the hospital in the early
stages of disease while yet IN
apparent health aud in his usual strength
his dying in the hospital is attributed to
his doctors aud not to his maiady. What
can be done with such people as theseg
This ''black bottle" belief Is one result OF
indiscriminate immigration. We try to
bar out Cinnamon and admit far more
undesirable citizens than almost any
Asia could furnish. J am not Know
Nothing, but sometimes think that
knowledge Of reading aud writing ought
10 be required of the immigrants who are
peOpling our fast becoming crowded
country. A property ualiiieatIOn Is now
required. That is, paupers are not allow
ed 10 land or are sent back again TO whence
they came.
BUT ENOUGH or A NOT CHEERFUL SUB
JECr.
In spite Of Mrs. Para Stevens, whose
late lamented husband was once the land
lord Of the fremont house in Boston, il is
not often that you find hotel keepers with
"A long pedigree. The Rand Brothers, who
keep the 81. Cloud hotel, at BrOadwa
and FOrty-secOnd street, have a pretty
long one, however. They can 90 back to
a eat-great- grandfather, the son OF an
Englishman, who WAS killed by Indians.
Their grandfather was a soldier In the
Revolutionary war. aud was stationed at
West Point when Benedict Arnold tried
TO betray Il to the British. His brother
was one OF the group Of soldiers who sur
rounded the Il-iuted Andre when he was
hung. A father Of the kands was in the
New Hampshire militia during The war
oi 1872. The Rsnds themselves are good
fellows, and they know low 10 keep q
hotel. One was "a graduate Of Harvard
of the class Of 1853.
Englishmen VIII apparently never learn
anything about America OF American
history. Farrer, in his military Man
ners and Customs" speaks of the Bishop
OF Derry, who WAS killed IN the battle OF
the Buyne, as the last militant clergy man
who feil in action. Whom 10 is hardly
score Of years since the death Of Bishop
Polk. IL seems rather absurd to speak Of
the last lighting bishop being killed near
" 200 years ago.
PERHAPS TIIE ptsCLOsUKEs
Of the Pdti HdH G0eoiie might be dupl-
cutcd here n what "A police Sergeant told
me the other day IL true. 10 seems tnat
policemen are stationed at the common
schools o. prevent elderly 5cOundrels from
worse than insulting the little girls who
attend them. Men who viii do this viii
Dee guilty Of other criIues of similar ma
ure when the opportunity occurs, ana
some of them, probably, have ~ In their
power o. make their own opportunities.
The lfeehiV Sun, containing a rehnsh
OF the Gazetfe'S revelations, sold Ike bot
cakes along the streets yesterday, thing
the weekly issue Of a paper seldom does.
Newsboys carried Il tevery where IN prefer.