Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-20
For a $4,000 Loan to the State
Board of Health's Cholera Fund.
SWEATER SHOPS NOW UNDER FIRE.
All Precautions Useless While They Are
Allowed to Go Un.
TwoIMMIGRANTs TURNED BACK IN CHIC

era has been placed at command OF Secre-
tary Lee. The city government is not con-
cerned in the matter at all. The money is
loaned, without guarantee of any kind for
its return by H. G. Frick, on behalf of the
Carnegie Steel Company. Several other
prominent men of the city had offered sums
State board expected of Pittsburg, Mr..
Frick's offer of the whole amount was ac-
cepted because it simplifed matters.
Dr. j. H. McClelland, received tele-
gram from Secretary Lee yesterday morn
ing, saying that inasmuch as no assistance
could be expected from Governor Pattison
toward preparing the State against cholera,
it would be advisable for the cities to get
guarantee fund in readiness. The amount
viously agreed upon. DR.. McClelland in
few moments answered.:
"Pittsburg's $4,000 is at the disposal of
the State Board of Health 1t was easy to
get that amount here"
The First Man Asked Put Up.
An explanation of the remarkable rapidity
with which the money was secured was
given by James B. Scott. On Sunday
evening, DR.. McClelland, chatting under the
inactivity of the Government, and believ-
ing something should be done at once, tele-
phoned to Mr. Scott and arranged for a con-
ference with him yesterday morning to
make provision for securing the fund. On his
way to his Office yesterday Mr.. Scott stopped
in to see Mr.. Frick, who, when the situa-
tion was explained to him, promptly agreed
to loan the money to the State Government
Consequently when Secretary Lees tele-
gram was received soon atterward, the
matter was all arranged
1t is more than likely that two or three
Philadelphia capitalists will advance the
remaining $4,000 required for the States
cholera fund. The board will make use of
it Immediately for the proper inspection
and dislnfection of immigrants at the State
border and the abatement of nusances
throughout the State which do not properly
belong to local government. Medical in
spectors will be placed on trains and a
vigorous warfare against disease breeding
matter everywhere will be commenced A
special meeting of the State Board of
Health will be held tomorrow at Philadel-
phia. DR.. McClelland will attend it if
possible. He received telegram from
Secretary Lee last night congratulating him
on the promptness with which Pittsburg
had ra ised her cholera fund.
A Protest Against Sweaters.
Mayor Gourley had a call yesterday from
one of the leading cigar manufacturers of
the city relative to the application of the
health laws to the sweating" establish
ments in this city. The gentleman declared
that all the cholera precautions the city
could make will effect little good unless the
sweaters who make cigars and clothing in
the small, filthy, unventilated aud disease
breeding quarters of these wretches are
abolished. There are places in both
Pittsburg and Allegheny. he said,
where whole families on eight and
ten persons live, sleep and manu-
facture cigars and clothing in one room, not
large enough for one person to sleep in
properly. The tobacco is kept in
the same room, piled in heaps
on the floor, and is often used
as bed by, some of the inmates
The people themselves are often the most
filthy imaginable in their habits. Many of
the men and women who work in these
diseases. In the manufacture of mold tobles
the workman generally sticks the tips of
the toby in his mouth to bind the wrapper.
1t is claimed that by so doing the germs of
any disease are communicated to the to-
bacco and thence to the person who smokes
the toby. Much disease is thus caused daily,
but few persons ever learn where they con-
tracted it. The use of -four paste, which
becomes sour and rotten in a day or two,
for binding toby tips, is also considered
disease breeding practice in vogue among
the sweaters.
Unpleasant Details to Hear About.
According to the Mayors visitor who has
made an investigation of sweat shops, whole
families who live in these small rooms
work on the tobacco all day, never opening
a window for ventilation. The same applies
to those who make clothing for the tailors
and big clothing houses. Contagious dis
eases among the children or grown peopls
in the sweat shops are frequently communi-
Gated to the unfortunate purchaser of the
clothing or tobacco thus produced.
The Mayor, while cordially condemning
sweaters and sweat shops, said he was not
sure whether there was any law to apply to
overcrowded tenements, but there was
law, he thought, to compel ventilation and
he promised to look into the matter The
Bureau of Health officers say the situation
in the sweat shops is even worse than rep
resented to the Mayor. They say that the
sweat shop people send children out on the
streets early in the morning to gather cigar
stumps and tobacco qulds out of the cutters.
These are used as filling for the mold to-
bies which are consumed by the people of
the city and surrounding neighborhood by
the hundreds of thousands daily.
Three Fold Source of n;saoso
There is three-fold danger to public
health in the tobies thus made First is
danger that the user of the cigar or tobacco
who throws the stump in the gutter NAV
have some disease. There is danger again
of disease being communicated to the
tobacco in the drainage which flows through
the cutters The probability of disease be-
ing attached to the tobacco by contact with
the inmates of the sweat shop, is evident.
The question has interested Mayor Gourley
deeply and it is probable he will ask Chief
Brown to exert his newly acquired powers
as deputy of the State Board of Health to
investigating it and applying State laws
where the city law is lacking.
A committee of colored men representinp
the ash and garbage haulers of the city
called on the Mayor yesterday and COM
planned that George Free, who owns the
obnoxious garbage boat at the Point, had
taken advantage of the cholera scare and
the consequent desire of the people to get
rid of their garbage to raise the prices for
dumping. They said Free had increased
the cost for dumping on his boats to 35
cents for one-horse and Is cents for two
horse loads. As their patrons would nav