The herald., 1894-10-03
THs USES OF PUBLIC STREETS.


rssrect to the travel on her public
streets. Daring tho day time her travel
is divided between her three thorough
fares. Spring street catching about 45
per cent Of it. Main street about 80 and
Broadway about 20. But after O'Clock
at night Spring street gets at least 80
per cent Of the travel, with about 20 per
cent on Main street. south of Second,
and less than 10 per cent on Broadway.
1t is, therefore, evident that the main
artery OF the city should be kept open
for travel and diyested of distractions
IS far as possible.
Among these are the portable kitchens
and tsmale wagons that are scattered
along from Temple street to Sixth. after
dark. Two years ago there were only
four or five of these; now thers are
more than a dozen, and a man cannot
walk along Spring street, from O'Clock
to midnight, without having his nostrils
crested with the uRsavory odor of fry
ing onions in oleomargarine or some
other hali-rancid fat. If these wagons
pay any revenue to the city in ths shape
of license, and ii it be necessary for the
good of the poor that they be licensed to
furnish cheap food, let them be moved
into the cross streeta at their intersec-
tion with Spring, but take them of
Spring street, for every inoh of space on
that street 10 needed for the urgent
wants Of Q great and rapidly growing
city.
The next nuisance that calls Tor an
abatement at the hands of the city eoun-
Gil is the baby carriage nuisance. Spring
street on Saturday night carries nearly
40 per cent of the entire population of
Los Angeles, the shops being brilliantly
lighted and the windows decorated in
the most gala fashion for the delectstion
of intending purchasers. At such
times, when it 10 difficult to thread
ones way along the sidewalk for the
vast crowds of psople. about every ten
yards here's baby carriage. and SONG
times two or three of them abreast.
They have NO more business on side
walk at suoh q period than bicycle,
and those vehicles were driven to the
middle of the street more than twenty
years ago. An ordinance is needed to
prevent the trundling OF baby carriages
on Spring street, between Sixth and
Temple. after on ordinary days and
after p. m. on Saturdays. As it is,
every time a nurse girl gets an order to
take baby cut for an airing, she makes
Q straight chute for Spring street, to see
what ia displayed in the shop windows;
and from year to year until it has be-
come an intolerable nuisance. The
nurses have all day long ia which to
take children out for an airing, and
they should not be trundled on the
streets at hours when they should be at
home and in bed.
Another nuisance which should be
stopped is the distribution OF dodgers"
as they are called. A man saves up his
money and buys lot ON which he erscts
a pretty little cottage and lays off neat
little lawn. He comes home from his
work at night to find his grass plot COW
cred with ten or q dozen OF these "dodg-
ers," informing him that the Brown Bear
shoe store ir selling out below cost and
furnishing trotter caaes at dollar a
pair from motives of she purest philsn-
thropy; or that the Flying Dragon Tea
company are selling tea at 40 cents a
pound and giving away Dresden china
mush bowl with every pound they sell.
This ia nuisance which San Francisco
has recently suppressed by ordinance,
and the same should be done here.
The streets belong to she people, and
to the pedestrian class at that. Suits
innumerablo have been brought in
courts to recover damages occasioned by
being run over by carriages, and al
though the defendants have pleaded
that there was carslessness on the part
OF the person injured. yet the courts
have invariably held that the streets
belong to the foot passenger over any
other class and that it is the duty of
the drivers OF any and all vehicles to
hold up within easy distance OF the
crosswalks. Another nuisance is the
hitohing of horses on Spring street, re-
gsrdless of their being vicious or not.
A lady living in the northwest end of
the city had cape torn from her shoul-
ders the other day by mare hitched to
q ring while the owner OF the vehicle
was inside a store. There should be
law prohibiting the hitching OF horses
at any point between Temple and Sixth
Streets on Spring, for longer period
than 80 minutes. If man comes in
from the country and is going to be de-
tanned at any place longer than half an
hour. let him drive 10 a livery stable
and have his horse properly cared for.
We make these suggestions in the inter
est OF the people, and hope the city
fathers will give them due and proper
consideration
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THE SLAVERY OF PARTISANSHIP.