The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-06-08
THE NEWS OF H0BOKEN.
THE CITY ST4NDS MUCH IN NEED
OF Il SANITARY INSPECTOR.

Id. 81 - N..L.H
buildings and Drains THAI Are I'm Bad
Condition and Menace the Health of
the P~oor-Houses That Are Insecure
and Overcrowded.
Hoboken's greatest need at about the
present time is a Health Inspector. Few
of the residents in the fashionable quar-
ter know what is going IN among the
poor. The city officials have no way of
finding out whether the laws regarding
the preservation Of health are obeyed, and
rest in happy ignorance of the sitting
condition of the squalid tenements.
The City Physician makes his rounds,
but he cannot do all that needs to- be done.
Ii he is brought in contact with any con-
tagious diseases, he has the sufferers re-
moved and the place fumigated. In the
hot summer families of eight or nine,
and in many cases more, live in two or
three rooms. Their windows have to be
kept closed, in order to keep out the sick
ening odor of d~ecaying matter on the
meadows.
There are several ordinary tenements in
Hoboken that contain nightly between
.O1lC AQAlAllCO Intl my dhd w
children. The streets, too, are i'll a dread
fnl condition in places. The main ones
are kept scrupulously clean, owing to the
efforts OF the Street Commissioner; but the
side ones, such as Court street, the yards
of the houses, and the passages leading
from front to rear houses in the densely
populated district are reeking with filth.
There can be seen decaying vegetable and
animal matter which is not removed, but
is simply buried under a mass of similar
rubbish. What prevents a plague when
the hot summer comes is a mystery but
if q Health Inspector were appointed, and
he were to investigate the complaints OF
clearly people against the dirty ones,
things would be entirely different.
| was in q tenement house a few days
ago, on a rather cool day. The house was
situated in the middle of stagnant ponds,
and the wind was blowing the abomin-
able odorS of the meadow into the city.
The stencil in the house was disgusting.
One of the tenants said that the drains
had been stopped up for three weeks.
The landlord had been Notified, but nc
notice had been taken of the matter.
When asked why she did not apply to the
Council for advice in the matter she said
that on former occasions the Council had
been applied to, but no notice had been
taken of their demand. Thus the health
of about one hundred people was i'm
perilled. Just because the city can't see
its way clear to appointing some mar to
the duty about twenty-five thousand PEG
pie are compelled to live in continual fear
of some dreadful plague, and their gen.
erai health is far from good.
The need of a Building Inspector is also
keenly felt. Several houses are in a no
toriouSly insecure condition and are a
menace to life and limb. On First street
there is a block of houses known as the
give Shamrocks." They are falling to
pieces, but are still in the occupation OF
several families. The residents of the
Fourth ward complain about the matter
and say that the only way for redress is to
start o fire and ''let 'er 60" Fire Chief
ings and will report to the Council what
buildings are unsafe, that they may be
condemned and pulled down.