The Opelousas courier., 1895-07-27

AoNASS CHlS OulSO, VI
~ Lock street, Buffalo, N. Y.
coRBIN ON HOUSEHoLDERs'
WOES.
Pays Taxes to Get Things Done and Doe.
Them HimseIf-Fined for a Chtmp.,
| Fire.
Austin Corbin. who lives in the dis.
trlct where the experiments with ash
bags have been conducted, has ad.
dressed this letter to Col. Waring:
Geo. K. Waring, jr., ESQ, Commissioner New
York City, N. Y.
DEAR SIR:-I am in receipt of your
Efat--l A man called at nv house
Wednesday morning, as l understood,
to see me about purchasing some ap.
paratus which the department had de.
cldcd should be used in the handling
Of ashes.
I''1t will give me pleasure to do al
.1ost anything that you ask me to do
III this direction, and if you will kindly
send me a circular, stating what is de.
sired, will take the matter up at once
and endeavor to meet your wishes. l
certainly have no desire to pay a man
to carry away my ashes and garbage if
the public authorities will do it for
me. Heretofore, in order to get any
thing promptly and satisfactorily done,
have been obliged to pay for every
thing that the taxes, assessed against
me, were supposed to provide for.
IF the street is cleaned, l must con-
tribute for that. If my house is
watched and protected from burglars.
l am supposed to put up something for
that. If | want to get rid of my ashes
promptly and comfortably, 1 must pay
a private cartman to do that. The re-
moval of the manur from my stables
must be provided for in accordance
with some rule of some department,
and which requires mi to pay twice as
much for the cost of handling it as l
should if I could handle it to suit my
self. | intend to have everything neat,
sweet and clean around all the prop
critics | have anything to do with. l
am more interested than anybody else
that they should be, and, naturally.
would keep them clean. I am obliged
to clean my sidewalk myself, and that,
/ assume, / should be required to do;
but am obliged to do it with a small
bucket and broom, and, as l have about
two thousand square feet to clean
every day, under any other govern
ment on earth except this one l should
be permitted to use water enough to do
it d%ecently, provided / was willing to
pay for it, which I have always been
willing to do. There are millions Of
gallons of water wasted in the city, for
which the city receives not a cent, but
when l want to use a hose a little while
to clean the sidewalks around my house
on the corner of Thirty-eighth street
and Fifth avenue, | am pulled up and
punished for it. My chimneys are
cleaned thoroughly twice a year. I'm
fortunately, however, a short time ago
one of the fiues accidentally took fire
and threw out a little smoke and flame
at the top of the chimney, and my
house was Immediately deluged not
only with the city fire department., but
with the insurance corps; and after
climbing up and down stairs to and
from the top of the building and max
ing a general muss in the house when
there was no need of their going, for
no damage could come from the burn
ing chimney, | was fined five dollars
because the 1ue accidentally took fire.
"If ] roll my carriage out into the
street and let it stand for five minutes
/ am fined for that, and properly, for
streets are not made for that purpose.
But If ] want to drive through a side
street at night, | must run the risk of
breaking my carriage and my neck in
a stockade of trucks and wagons which
are allowed to stand there free; and if
break my carriage and my neck | am
told there is no remedy for me; that
have no business to have a carriage,
and. II / want to be protected under
the laws, ! should either w o. drive
a truck, and not a carriage.
'A1l these comforts the citizen OF
New York has, besides many more that
/ have not at this moment time to emu
merate. 1t is not, however, in some
respects quite as bad as it is in Paris,
where, if a poor devil is run over by a
hackman, the hackman is discharged
and the man is arrested and punished
for being run over. We may possibly
arrive at that condition of things o
meantime, my dear commissioner,
] am ready to second any effort look
ing toward reform, and whether re-
forms come or not, / am, at any rate,
always very faithfully yours,
"AusrIN CoRBIN."