Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-09
THE TOPICAL TALKER.
Crowded Cable Cars--Allegheuy's Plain
Needs-Iutermirteut Fever Called Ty.
phoid-some Points About Fevers.

Crowded Cable Cars--Aliegheuy's Piair
Needs-IutermItteut Fever Called Ty.
phoid-Some Points About Fevers.
| ONE thing about the Fifth avenue cable cars
which strikes the occasional passenger
more forcibly perhaps than the indurated reg
ular is that there are not half enough of them
| to carry the crowds that go out to Oakland and
| the East End between $50 p. N. and 7P.M. II
! is safe to say that one-third of the men and no,
few of the women who make for the suburbs
during that period by the Fifth avenue line
have to stand.
The Duquesne Company's line ought to re.
duce this pressure upon the cable road, and q
journey by street car to Oakland or East Lib
erty may some day become pleasure instead
of punishment
TIE condition of many Of the Allegheny
streets is dangerous to health. Federal
street needs paving badly, and latterly the
roadway has become as fragrant as the Chicago
| river or fall masters yard. A stranger who
passed through Allegheny the other day re-
marked the rich odor of decayed vegetation
which Federal street gave up. He made some
derogatory remark about Allegheny. and re-
minded him that the city recently celebrated its
hftieth anniversary.
From the smell Of Its Streets" he replied, 81
should say that Allegheny had been Kept too
long-gone bad. as it were."
The experiment in illumination by electric
towers of tremendous height has not proven a
success in Allegheny. During the storm of
Thursday night the Councilmen of Allegheny
might have obtained a good idea of how de-
ficient the lights will always be in thick
weather. Even on clear summer nights the
tower lights are far too high and too few in
number to illuminate the city adequately, but
in foggy or rainy weather the cross Streets a
block or SO from the light masts, become black
caverns, and even streets like Federal, upon
which many lights directly cast the glimmering
ehulgence, are treacherously dim.
A little shaking up, some new brooms and
few active, honest men to WELD them, are what
Allegheny needs.
HE general impression is that typhoid fever
is unusually prevalent this summer. I
asked physician of large hospital and general
practice as to this. Said he: ~ do not think
there is more typhoid fever than usual at this
season; in fact the hospitals would seem to
have fewer cases this month than in August
last year. Not all that is called typhoid fever
Is properly described. For example, we hear
every now and then that typhoid fever is epi-
demic, or nearly SO, on the southside. II you
take some peoples word for it-some doctors
word, too-there is a great deal of typhoid on
the southern bank of the Monongahela. have
been called to consult in several such cases of
alleged typhoid, and have found them to be
really intermittent fever. which is a different
thing by long shot. The truth is that great
deal Of malarial fever is dignihed with the name
Of typhoid to the unnecessary alarm of com
munities.
HERE'S another little observation upon ty-
phoid fever that physician gives me.
II have observed" said he, that typhoid
fever attacks foreigners more frequently than
natives here. This summer have been par
ticularly impressed with this phenomenon. In
the hospitals nearly all the typhoid patients
are persons who have not been settled here
long. The class to which the bulk of the Ital-
ian and Hungarian immigrants belong is es-
pecially subject to typhoid fever. 1t seems to
be the disease Of acclimatization with them.
They come here, go to work, and at the end of
years residence very often are taken down
with typhoid fever. The microbe of ty-
phoid evidently finds an easier Judgement in
the unacclimated laborer than the native. In
my practice this summer 1 have hardly en-
countered one native typhoid fever subject,
while the unacclimated patients with the same
disease have been too plentiful by far"