The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-12-02
DEATH In THESE DRAINS
Third District Citizens En-
ter a Protest Against
Bad Sewers.


touched q big subject before President
at the meeting Of the Street and Water
Board this morning. Commissioner
Eddie Dugan was not present.
When the privilege of the floor was ex-
tended to DR.. Quimby he stepped inside
the rail and informed the Honorable
Commissioners that he wished to speak
upon matter that involved not only the
destruction OF property, but of human
life. He declared that the residents of
Second and Fourth streets were no
longer willing TO submit to the present
sewerage system which had been
strangled twelve or fifteen years ago by
the Pennsylvania Railroad.
WHERE THE BLAME RESTS.
After drawing graphic picture of
death and desOlation, resulting from the
overflow OF sewage into the cellars of in
habitants of that section as a result of
the blocking up the Second and Fourth
street sewers when said railroad filled
up the Harsimus Cove, he declared that
140 acres of the city occupied by thous-
ands of families were drained by sewers
that terminated in the rotten box sewers
which the railroad company had prom
ised at the time of the blocking should be
removed after six months, but which
were 1elo u tot anu peCOIno cnOKeu. ne
declared that as well might one attempt
to draw off the Pacific Ocean through the
bung hole of d barrel
The delegation which DR.. Quimby
headed were DR.. I. c. O'Callahan, John
Rugge, Thomas McCabe, Thomas Nc
Cauley, M. Scanlon, Philip Frietag,
Thomas Reynolds, James Hampson, Will
liam Rose and John Hirsch.
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH.
DIR. I. G. O'Callahan, of Erie and Sec
ond street, followed DR.. Quimby He said
that he had been living at his present
place of abode for the past nineteen
years. Before the sewers in that neigh
borhood had become blocked up his cellar
was always clean and dry. Since then
dirty water and rank filth
His family were obliged to
walk upon planks in the basement He
had lost three children from that de-
stroyer of young life-diptheria-an was
obliged to keep his only remaining son
BILE for fear he too would succumb to
the dreadful malady. He attributed the
death of his three children to the condit-
ion of his cellar, brought about by the
choked sewer He was obliged to put in
a new furnace almost every year because
they were eaten up by rust. He had ap-
piled to the Board of Health, and was re-
1cII0Q w Ul6 kuL SCO ctlkA w 9USl DOdLQs
Thomas McCabe, of No. 347 Fourth
street, said the condition of his cellar was
becoming worse and worse every day.
Sometimes the floors were knee-deep with
water. He had the same trouble after
every shower and every high tide He
had lost his wife, he believed, from the
terrible condition of his premises, and his
daughter was now lying at the point of
death from the same cause. He was
obliged to take his carpet from his
dlnning room floor when submerged
under fourteen inches of water.
Mr.. Scanlon, of No. 344 Fourth street,
was about to speak when Commissioner
Van Keuren remarked that there were
but s., ,000 appropriated by the Board of
Finance for the reconstruction of sewers
next year.
Mr.. Scanlan related his experience of
stepping down in the basement of his
home one night in the dark and finding
himself foundering in water up to his
knees. He wanted to know if it was the
high tides that increased his tax valua-
tion $500.
''If we don't get relief here" he ex-
claimed, "well resort to other means"
A JOINT CONFERENCE.
Mr.. Van Keuren remarked that no city
in the country was SO cursed by mean
sewerage as Jersey City. But the Board
hadn't the money to remedy the evils
suggested that joint conference be held
next Saturday morning between the FL
nance Board, the Street and Water
Board and the delegation. The sugges-
tion will be carried out.
Dr. Quimby again took the floor He
said he desired to castigate the Board
which granted the railroad the privilege
years ago.
1t should have prayed the courts for an
injunction restraining them rather than
grant them such privilege. The railroad
had no right to dam up the sewers and
thus double damn the people of this city.
''If," said he the people of this city
tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad,
which has always strangled justice and
has strangled our system of sewerage.
The blocked sewers should overflow their
tracks and let the railroad company
take care of the contents. / prophe-
sled at the time, before the Board
that granted the privilege to the railroad
company, that it would never remove
those box sewers. Its representatives
claimed that it would do so rs soon as the
dirt filling of Harsimus Cove was hard
enough to permit it. The railroad COM
pany does not want the sewers to reach
its water front.
day l felt that / was throwing money
away. | have twenty tenants moving
and threatening to move, and further
threatening to sue me for damages for
ill-health and other misfortunes resulting
from the overflow of sewerage into the
cellars.
THE WORD WITH THE BARK ON 1T.
'sThe railroad company should be in
dicted for manslaughter. In no other
country, England, France, Germany, or
even despotic Russia, would corpora
ton be allowed to strangle the sewerage
system of a city in such manner as the
Company has this. The
company should be made to construct
these sewers to an outlet in the Hudson
A certain Pennsylvania Railway official.
/ can't mention his name. for his position
wouldn't be worth cent if his name was
mentioned in this connection, told me
that the company was anticipating the
building by the people of a pumping
station to carry off this overflow. That's
what they're waiting for. will show
law at the meeting next Saturday morn
ing which will compel the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company to build these sewers. p
The doctor alluded incidentally to the
absence of Commissioner Dugan, and
intimated that the commissioners
absence was due to his knowledge that
this matter was to come up before the
Board this morning.
Mr.. Van Keuren explained that Com
missioner Dugan had been trying to
secure a conference with the Railway
officials for some time in reference to the
same matter in order TO do something in
the way of relieving the condition of the
area traversed by these same sewers.
Mr.. Dugan had been summoned by tele-