Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-13
CHOLERA IS A CRIME.
A Prominent Pittsburg Physi-
clan Believes That FILTH
ness Should Be
PUNISHABLE BY THE LAW.
Pestilence Breeding Warehouses
Around the Public Schools
PLAGUE-SP0TS OF A BIG CITY.
The Cultured and Clean Victims of Ignor-
ance and Dirt
PUNISHABLE BY THE LAW.
PLAGUE-SPOTS OF A BIG CITY.
SANITARY IMPROVEMENTS SUGGESTED

extremely averse to being quoted, but feel
that too radical measures cannot be tax en-
to prevent an epidemic of cholera In thi
connection he said Yesterday:
'Too much time is being consumed in
the discussion of methods for the disposi.
tion of filth in our rivers, sewers and streets
and not enough to the. prolific source.
was directed by one of our prominent iron
firms to see an employe injured while at hi
work. found my patient with fracture
leg in a small, ill-ventilated room contain
ing four beds with only room between them
for q man to edge through. II
was occupied by six men at night
and the same number during
the daytime. The room beneath
was of the same size and occur pied as the
one described. The only other apartment,
a kitchen or dining-room for the family,
consisting OF husband, wife, three children
and several dogs and cats, contained bed
stove, table, OLD clothes and quite a variety
of rubbish, and, in the midst of all, tainted
meat and decaying vegetables in abund-
aDce. The beds, floors and the Hungarian
who lived there were unkempt and filthy,
and sickening odor pervaded the premises
everywhere.
Only One of Many Hundreds.
''This is only one of hundreds in our city,
and palace compared with some inhabited
by Italians, Poles, Hungarisns, ETC., many
occupying cellars alone
"Why don't these people take sick? Be-
cause they are acclimated, as it we're They
partly subsist upon bacilli, were born Q nd
rsised among them, and are accorded,
through gracious nature, immunity there
from.
Thousands of children from our best
families are assembling now at our public
schools, passing and repsssing these disease
breeding haunts, and still you wonder why
diphtheria, scarletina, typhoid fever, ETC.,
are always among us. Go with me to that
beautiful Forbes School, in the midst of her
parks and other attractions and attended by
hundreds of children from miles around,
and we find beneath her very,windows open
storehouses for the accumulation of diseased
rags and rubbish. Others are located almost
within her shadow. Go to Fifth avenue,
from Soho to the Jail, and you find many
more.
A District of Dangerous Possibilities.
''Take the district bounded by Grant
street, Seventh street and Bedford avenue,
Washington and Shingiss streets and the
Mcnongahela river. Then take from
Eleventh street to Thirty-third street, and
from Liberty avenue to the Allegheny
river, and past the Point and others of
smaller dimensions Go through the alley
and "a he
vaults and rickety tenement houses, terri
bly, oyercrowded and reeking in squalid
dens. Go among our oyster and fish oe-
pots; visit our market plsce and Diamond
street from Market square to Liberty ave-
nue.; see the immense warerooms there for
the reception of raw hides. Visit our fruit
and commission houses. See our city
studded with slaughter houses and then be
astonished that we have sickness and death?
Visit one of many places, the notorious
Yellow Row on Second avenue where
every class and condition of humanity,
from the whltest to the blackest, are living
in filthy squalor, and commingling in
loathsome revelry and crime, at which the
better and nobler instincts of brute creation
would stand aghast, making night hideous
and shaming day, making Satan sanguine
and defying natures God, spreading broad |
cast unmindful and regardless of conse-
quences, disaffection and disease, pene-
trating and poisoning the abodes of the
rlch, as we'll as the poor, and creating un-
told CONSERVATION, misery and death
The Danger Of City Streets.
Little do the shopping thousands, daily |
upon our streets, realize what danger they |
may unconsciously encounter in their ways |
TO and fro, or that they are to be the |
medium 0f of Al
malady, to the loved ones at home.
Follow me to yonder abode. All the
culture and all the luxuries of wealth are
there The joy and gladness of yesterday
are hushed into gloom. Terror and sadness
are depicted in their stead. A fatal disease
has intruded itself, and q heart-broken,
horror-stricken family are taking q last
farewell Nature has established her i'm
partial rulings-has been offended against
somewhere upon the wayside. The same
tragedy is repeating itself hundreds of times
In every second we live
"You tell me that it always has been,
il now, and always shall be. We reply
with the scientist and sanItarian that it
might have been averted, can be averted,
and with the help of God might not be so,
we proceed against anarchy and treason
ana the ofenses Of law with a stern hand,
put poor nature must suffer and die. Un-
conscious and neglectful of the inevitable,
we move on In our social and business pur-
SUITS while infection and afflictIon are lurk-
ing ana threatening us in every breath we
preatne, and In every drink and morsel
we eat
Perhaps the most striking illustration of
practical and effective sanitation is seen at
our county Jail, where q promiscuous
throng are coming and going all the time.
Go through her spacious corridors. into her
400 cells, visit her hospital wards and culin-
airy apartments, her laundry and bath rooms. |
her store houses, machinery halls and re-
tlnue OF offices, and hooks and corners ey-
erywhere are scrupulously clean. Santa
tion is never finished and never ceases.
Personal clean illness, wholesome substantial
iood, regularity In eating and sleeping have
prevented disease thus far from originating
there, and enabled those sick when COM
mitted to promptly regain health.
Where Bacilii ID Banished,
we find no odor peculiar to such places
and no manifestations of decomposition
and the presence of bacilli and that we are
In the midst of disease, a startling fact that
embraces us everywhere without.
sanitation In private DIV ellings could and
mould De managed in the same manner.
Renovation and sanitation can't be estab-
ished IN our filthy places with water alone
Ind caustics are seldom if ever applied
hence the propagation of bacilli and dissem-
nation OF disease. Let the Board of
Health, through Councils and the Chamber
II Commerce, If need be, establish the rem
dy and purge our city of this death-deal-
ng pestilence while it is vet time Let
very man, woman and child be prompted to
be importance of the occasion and in the i