The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-14
How 70 Make the City clean.

| How to Make the City clean.
A city to be healthy must be clean. Some
| facts, presented in a communication in the
MORNING News a few days ago by DR.. Le-
| Hardy. show that this is not q clean CITY.
| To the sense of sight it is clean, hut to the
sense OF smell it is not. There are hundreds
of bad-smeling, disease-breeding closets in
different parts of the city, many of
which are totally neglected, except
when there is fever scare. The closets of
many of the servants quarters Of the best
residences have no connection with the
sewers, and, if reports are TO be credited,
they are not always in good sanitary condi-
ton. VIII the city ever be clean as long as
the closets remain' There are closets
that ought to be condemned as
nuisances at once They ought TO
have been condemned long ago and re-
moved. No man has a right to have a
closet on his premises that annoys his neigh
bors and threatens them with sickness. If
be doesn't put itin good condition, or remove
it altogether, the city ought TO do it for
him, and hold his property responsible for
the expense thus incurred. The city ought
to put man in charge OF such matters who
has the judgment and courage to do what
ought to be done without fear or favor.
1t is believed that Savannah can be made
fever proof, and her citizens are in favor of
making her so. They will stand the ex-
pense. All that it is necessary to do is to
convince them that the thing that it is pro-
posed TO do is the thing that ought to be
DONE
1t is absolutely necessary to get rid Of the
closets. As long as they remain the efforts
to make the city clean will be about as
effective as an attempt to cure carbuncle
on the neck by placing piece Of court
plaster on the patients heel TIE closets
must be removed, and all the houses must
be connected with the sewers by a uniform
system of house drainage. The system of
house drainage at present. in use is about as
bad as it can be. 1t isquite safe to say that
two-thirds of all the cases of the severer
types of fevers which now occur are di-
rectly traceable to bad drainage and bad
plumbing. Ask any of the physicians for
their opinions on this point, and if they have
been at all observing, they will not hesitate
to condemn the sanitary condition of a very
large percentage of the houses into which
their professional duties call them.
Health is Of far more Importance than
anything else. The expense of securing
health is matter of only secondary con-
sideration. The city must be protected
against preventable diseases, whatever the
cost may be. When this is done satisfacto-
rily, the city will advance in wealth and
population much more rapidly than ever
before.
There should be no unnecessary delay in
beginning the work of providing the city
with house-drainage system. 1t is an i'm
mense work, and cannot be prosecuted
throughout the whole year. A plan should
be adopted, therefore, as soon as possible,
and preparations made, 50 that as soon as
frost comes everything will be in readiness
for beginning operations.
Care should be taken not to make a mis-
take The adoption of bad system of
drainage would be simply to throw away
money. If it is not thought best to employ
a sanitary engineer of established reputa-
ton in the first instance, the engineers bu-
reau Of the city government should be pro-
vided with such assistance that the head of
it would have time to devote to the drain
ege problem. After his plans are perfected,
they should be- submitted to an expert for
approval When plan has been agreed
upon, then the execution of it should be
pushed with all possible vigor.
The house drainage question is the lead
ing one. The city has been remarkably
healthy during the present season. In the
matter of health, it will compare with the
healthiest cities in the country. The aim is
to keep it healthy, and to make it impossi-
BILE for it ever to be afflicted as jacksonville
now is.