The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-05-03
FRIDAY. MAY 3, 1895.
This paper Is Democratic IN principles
end is Independent in its Uisses o" q" s0eat
questions


1t has for the past three years eeei
going down hill. and since last summe'
the rate of descent has been alarming
Few new houses are building. because
many old ones now stand unrented. Thi'
spring has brought hardly any new set
tiers. Never before on the first of May
were so few households transported
across the river from New York and
Brooklyn as this year. On the contrary
there has been a remarkable exodus
from the Hill, Brooklyn. New York,
Newark, the Oranges and other places
have all taken families away from us
And the people who are going are the
best class of Observation-Disclosures OF
good average means.
What is the cause of it?
1t Is not the appearance of the place.
The city grows more attractive in APP
pearance every year.
It is not any epidemic of ill-health.
There has been no conspicuous outbreak
of disease here.
1t 10 UOL Ia IAN -
The trolley service affords the residents
of all parts of the city very rapid
transit with frequent and fairly comfort
able cars. I
1t is not the exorbitant value Of real
estate. Pleasant houses are cheap both
to buy and to rent in Jersey City.
tt ;c not INV lack of schools. churches.
theatres, supply facilities, good society,
adequate police and fire protection. We
are as well provided in all these respects
as New York itself.
Then what is the matter?
Brooklyn grows. Long Island City
grows. Slater Island grows. Yonkers
and New Rochelle and Mount Vernon
grow. Englewood and Paterson and Pas,
sale, Montclair and the Oranges, Newark
and Elizabeth grow. Unicn Hill and
Weehawken and Hoboken grow. Why
does Jersey. City stand still or even show
q endency to retrograde7
1t is because of our unspeakably filthy,
poisonous, noxious, noisome, loathsome,
abominable and atrocious water supply.
The fame of it has spread all over the
land, and marked out Jersey City as a
place to be Stunned and dreaded by all
civilized people.
The smell of the foul Passaic has as
saulted the noses of tens of thousands
of railway travellers, and its inky, Shiny
appearance has offended their eyes. And
then they have read that the sewer
of towns and cities without number
vomit their denominations into the fetid
stream. They nave come to wonder how
it was possible for a city to exist upon.
its banks and avoid the horrors of small
pox and typhoid. e
Then they lave learned to their as
t~ontshment and disgust that the residents
of jersey City use this horrible fluid for
their daily purposes and spend a quarter
of q million dollars a year to bring it
into their houses reeking with the odors
of Corruption and roily with the pro-
duets Of animal and vegetable decay.
They are told that we battle in 1t our
selves, that we wash our clothes in it,
that we cook our food in it. and that
even the poorer ones among us are COM
PEELED to drink it.
Then they hear that as a matter of
fact the city is never free from typhoid.
At time the newspapers print state
ments that the disease is almost cpl
defnic. Last fall, for instance, it trans
PRED that the hospitals were over
crowded with sufferers from the dread
disease, while every doctor had long
lists Of patients,
Here is the reason why they do not
come to us to live. Would any but
stark staring lunatirs come to a city so
Anconceiyably afflicted? The thing they
cannot realize Is that the entire popula-
tion does not rise en- masse and migrate
to other cities where they can enjoy
the very first necessity OF life in some
approach to decent purity. And our peo-
pie are beginning TO do that very thing.
This Is the situation.
The Board of Finance of this city. at
this very hour. has the remedy in its
hands.
II IS In the power of the five menu
bers OF that body to effectually and i'm
mediately turn the tide. They have be-
fore them q formal offer to the city
Of the best water in the State Of New
Jersey. There is no better in the world.
The company making the bid presents
effectual guarantees that It shall be su-
perabundant in quality, not only now but
for generations to come. 1t offers to
provide this water at an early day and
to deliver It BY gravity, thus wiping out
the enormous expense OF the present
system Of pumping and abelishing tht
nests Of political favorttism which 4
necessItates.
This water is offered by the Jersey
CITY Company at prices approximately
sthe same that all competitors past and
present have established. The figures