San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-11-22
SHORT STOPS.
What the People are Saying.

our streets, brings forcibly to the
attention of the people the made
quate and faulty public work o.
the past.
The grading and sO-called mac
adam work done, which has
| cost hundreds of thousands of dol
lars, is merely a make-shift, and
| must be all done over again before
we can boast of streets passable in
wet weather, or good in dry
weather.
No perfect system of surface
drainage has been inaugurated so
as to carry off the storm water,
even the natural drainage of the
valley has been impeded and
choked up by improper grades.
The plans now being prepared for
the sewerage system will embrace
a complete plan of surface drain
age.
Blessed with the healthiest eli
mate on the continent; founded on
q deep soil that serves as diSinfec-
tant, our city has escaped in a large
measure the pestilential diseases
that result from lack of proper
sanitary institutions in large and
populous cities.
Our dry atmosphere, and hot
sun has saved us, but let a season
of continued rains set in, with our
$4,000 people living on one spot,
and we will certainly have to en-
large our grave yard facilities.
Even our best improved streets
will become noXious unless clean
sed and the filth carried beyond
harms reach.
Public sewerage is out of the
question without public ownership
of the water supply, and 1T is folly
for our city Legislators to entertain
any other proposition.
There is no doubt that the present
system of street improvement, and
repairing, is both expensive and
miserably poor; no improvement
over the past.
Cities are never finished until
they begin to decay, but all mod
ern cities must begin with good
foundation for their public i'm
provements, otherwise, the peoples
money will be wasted from year to
year by expedients that yield no
permanent benefit.
Every city council meeting is
characterized by small apprO-
priatiOns for street Improvements,
that remind one of the eXpediency
of stufling pillows into broken
windOw-panGs to close out the
blasts of winter. The pillow is
worth more than the pane of glass,
looks bad, soon wears out, and
leaves the occupant without a
headrest when he seeks his bed.
Nothing looks more shiftless
than a dwelling with it's windows
broken and stuffed with rags or
bed clothing; you see such dwell
ings along frontier roads, and the
traveller is impressed with the
cherries picture, and that within,
the surroundings are also cheer
less.
So with city whose streets de-
tract from the costly architecture
of private enterprise by their I'M
clearly and impossible condition,
and whose sanitary provisions rise
but little above the economy of the
savage.
The occupants of the lonely farm
house, removed from the pOssibil-
ity of supplies, and the services
of the glaZier, may be eXcusable
for using the first thing at hand to
stop the norther or beating rain;
but city blessed with an mex
haustable supply of pure water, a
self drained valley; mountains Of
the finest road material a wealthy
population, has no excuse for
being dirty.
Our busy people have felt the
pressure of dull times; they have
been admonished that something
must be done to keep our city pros
porous; to hold its acquired wealth,
to maintain its eminence as a
hnnlthN nlnaSant Mace for q thriy-