The Van Buren press., 1894-11-17
eERLlN's BEAUTIFUL STREETS.
They are Asphalted and Kept Clean and
There Arc No Slums.

They are Asphaited and Kept Clean and
There Arc No Slums.
A foreigner coming to berlin will be
impressed almost at Office by the excel:
lent streets, and furthef By the ex-
ceptional manner in which they are
taken care OF. Almost everywhere they
are asphalted, even where they are mar
rowest, and not only in the middle Of
the city, but far out into the suburbs.
This work has been done in the most
substantial manner. This department
of city affairs is intrusted to skillful
officers, who perform their duty ac-
cording to the latest scientific princi-
pies. In the center of the city a large
tract OF street is now being torn up
for new horse car tracks, and it is an
instructive sight to see the fine
scale upon which the work is
done. The foundation is at
least a foot in depth of the hardest
possible mixture of small stones and
cement. tpon tis, by means of mon-
strous rollers and other machinery, is
placed the asphalt, which is not more
than a half-ineh thickness, but
which, on account of the strong sub
work. wears like the everlasting rock.
1t seldom needs repair, it does not run
away in hot weather. and does not rut
even under the heaviest kind of traffic.
This adds materially, of course, to
the beauty Of Berlin and facilitates the
work of cleansing the streets, another
department Of municipal administra-
tion which is attended to in the most
effective manner. Cleansers in uniform
are constantly at work iii all parts Of
the city, who, with brooms and brush.
heap up the refuse beside the curbs,
to be hauled off to the city farms dur
ing the night. At intervals each day
water-carts are driven over the streets,
and boys follow after with squeegees,
which they propel by long handles,
washing every particle of filth away.
The excellent condition of the streets
of Berlin is one of the reasons why the
city has none of those districts which
have come to be called "slums." While
London and Paris, not to mention the
Italian and Spanish cities and some
cases nearer home. suffer in a notable
manner from the congestion of the poor
at certain points, where they live
crowded together under the most un-
healthful surroundings, this is not to
any extent true of Berlin. There are
districts in the east and north where
the poor live together, but in nothing
like the misery and squalor which one
will find elsewhere. The streets, as
already remarked, are asphalted, and
they are clean. They are nearly every
where wide. There are none of those
little dark alleys which exist in other
cities. The houses are well built and
sound. One could pass through these
districts time and again, and did he not
see the children ON the sidewalk and
the women with their heads out of the
windows it might scarcely occur to him
that he was among the poor people.
The fronts of the houses are of very
handsome masonry, harmonious in
architecture, and in no important re-
spect different from the houses in many
wealthier sections of the city.
So much has a good city government
done, and SO much can every good city
government do. 1t can see that the
streets are wide enough; it can we'll
pave those streets; it can always keep
them clean; it can prescribe how q
house within the city limits may and
may not be built; it can decide upon
the chimneys, the precautions as to
fire and the drainage; it can not go into
a mans family naturally and say how
many beds shall be in one room: how
often and to what extent the house
shall be cleaned; what shall be ate and
drank, and how it shall be ate and
drank. There is, of course, consider
able squalor inside of the house in Ber-
lin which the government can not pre-
vent, but it is lesson for every great
city to observe what wonderful things
have been done here in this direction.
-Philadelphia Telegraph.