Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1891-09-03
New Series, Vol. 81, No SO

out the front of the building. And when
the front went, the whole building fell,
for there were no interior walls, and only
| light wooden columns Overwhelming
the top floors was the cause of the awful
disaster, and the responsibility falls on
the bureau of inspection, provided to ex-
anime and report ON the safety of build
ingS. The building had not been exam
ined foryears- So far as public knowl-
edge went 1t was safe. But private in
spection on the part of insurance compa-
MES showed it as unsafe. The owner
could place only small amount of in
surance on the structure, and that with
foreign company. The insurance men
are more careful with their money than
the government of this city is of its lives.
There are very likely in the town thous-
ands of overweighted buildings as dan
gerous as the Park Place trap. But it
remains to be seen whether this calami-
ty will force the bureau into their duty.
Experience has not warranted the belief
that it will
***
The unusual and alarming prevalence
of typhoid fever all over the city has led
chemists to make statements concerning
the purity of the Croton water used by
the city, and these in turn, being publish
ed, caused the appointment of a commit
tee to investigate. The report of that
committee shows horrible state of
things. 1t is represented that the tribu-
taries of the Croton river are subjected to
every kind of pollution incident to out
houses, stables, manufacturing plants,
Offal heaps and the continued flow of
sewerage from several large towns and
villages.
New York has perhaps the most cost
ly system of water works in the world.
She hast just spent S27 100000 on an elab-
crate channel to conduct this diluted sew
drage from CrotOn Lake to her people,
and this is but small matter compared
with the cost of the whole vast system.
rhe first query of an outsider on hearing
this is "why?' Why should mighty
city consent to drink filth and poison,
md to be braved by "some dozen paltry
villages?' The answer is plain to New
Workers. Tammany is the cause. That
powerful and corrupt organization stands
between the citizens of New York and
the polluters of the Croton river. 1t is
doubtful if anything will be done. The
Tammany despots do not drink water,
and they have no care for those who do.
.**
a walk through down town park at
O'Clock of a morning during last week
revealed queer things. These parks are
the city's open air bed rooms Every
available inch of space is occupied with
nappers. They are buns of every con
ceivable grade, many of them showing
vague signs of former culture-reminis-
licences of refinement. They sit in long
rows, for they may not lie down. A po-
liceman comes along each few minutes,
and orders are to allow no one to sleep.
He thumps the bowed heads with his
club,o jerks them into fiitting Greatness.
He has not gone to the end of the line
before half the heads have fallen again,
and the eyes closed in heavy stupor. Per
haps ten of the two hundred sleepers one
will see at the City Hall Park have earn
ed their bread the day before. How the
others have lived God only knows. A
crust from an ash barrel, dime begged,
found, or stolen, and big tumbler of
poisonous whisky bought with it. Then
the stupOr and Inconsistencies of the
night. So on day after day The heart
is long time wearing down, for it does
not have to beat sturdily for frames that
do nothing but merely live. The first
cold snap will carry off hundrds into
death into which they have entered
months ago. For they are practically
dead. They have no energy even for
crime.