The morning call., 1893-07-07

a thorough search of the places. The news
papers called the attention of the health
80 the condition of the Chinese
laundries, and the Board of Health
ordered a thorough cleaning up OF the
places. the drains, cesspools and sewer con-
nections to be repaired, and also made GER
tain rules which it said must be obeyed in
futurs or the laundries would be declared
a nuisance and the proprietors prose
cuted.
The Chinese bought lime and disinfec-
tantS and cleaned up and kept their places
clean for week Or two and then they
dropped back into the old way Of doing
things, and in less than month their
places were as filthy as before. No cess
pools were made or repaired, no sewer
connections we're made or repaired, in fact
nothing was done other than to give the
places a surface cleaning and to sprinkle a
little lime about.
Nnw. after lapse of almost two years,
the Health Department has again come TO
the conclusion that the laundries in San
Francisco need looking after. and another
order has been issued to ''clean up"
A CALL reporter visited large number
of laundres yesterday run by Chinese,
negroes and white people. some Of them
small
Without exception, whether the laun-
dries were big or little. all were found in a
filthy condition.
Only those laundries were visited which
are situated in the populous districts, in
centers of residence neghborhoods and
Immediately surrounded by scores of
houses filled with families. These are the
plague spots whence the dread typhus,
cholera and other scourges may take their
start
Be it said that the Chinese places were
found quite as clean, or more properly
speaking, no more filthy than the laun-
dries conducted by white people and
negroes. This is saying but little in favor
of the Chinese. for one and all of the
places visited would be condemned on
sight and without investigation into the
depth and extent Of the filth by health
inspector who knew bis business, and one
and all OF the places are a menace. not
alone to the people who work in them and
those who live in the immediate neghbor-
hood, but threaten whole sections of the
city IN which they are located.
In the Western Addition, right in among
the most beautiful Of the homes of the
well-to-do citizens of San Francisco, one
white and seven Chinese laundries were
visited. In every instance the places were
found not only uEcleanly. from a sanitary
\ standpoint, but absolutely filthy. In the
Chinese laundries there are generally
three rooms Iu one room all the clothes
gathered up are dumped in one pile and
lie there for two OF three days until the
laundrymen reach them in the regular
course of the weeks washing. Clothes
from private hospitals; from families
where members are i'll with contagious or
Infectious diseases; garments so soiled
that white laundry would refuse to wash
them, are taken and dumped into pile
with the wearing apparel OF healthy pee
pie and the mass OF pollution lies there for
two, three and even five days at time.
Then the clothes are washed indiscrimi-
nately. The sheets taken from the bed of
patient who has died from O contagious
disease, the garments of the man or woman
suffering from some loathsome disorder,
are dumped in to the tubs with the clothes
from families who are firm believers in
the adage that 'clean illness is next to godl-
ness" and al! are washed together. The
washing process is not only speedy one,
but no effort is made to get the clothes
thoroughly clean. So long as they look
clean is all the laundrymen care for, and
in many cases they do not take the tr ouble
to even have them look clean.
After being soused around in lukewarm
soapsuds. the soap itself being of the
cheapest quality and made from the fat of
animals which have died of disease, the
clothes are hung up on the roofs of the
houses to dry. The water in which thew
bring into life the germs Of the disease that
were clinging to the garments. and as the
clothing dries the wind whips it about
and scatterS the germs broadcast It is no