The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-06-13
SANITARY AFFAIRS.
SOMETHING ABOUT HOW THE CITY
is KEPT CLEAN.
The Crematory an Important Factor
in Preserving the Good Health
of the Peop1e-Health Commits
sioner Daily Talks-The Noisome
Catch Basins.

The people may realize in general
way the Importance of good sanitation,
but very few have an idea of the
amount of work it takes to keep caty
of this size in clean condition Wnen
the garbage wagon enters back yaIa
and takes away the accumulated re-
fuse the average person cares very
little what disposition is made OF II as
long as it is taken away. And stlil the
work of carting away and consumalS
the refuse of g, city of $4,000 people Is
an interesting process%as interesting
as it is important. 1t takes the health
officers and a brigade of men and
teams to keep peoples back yards the
way they ought to be kept. and sui
the force is almost Inadequate to meet
the demands of the steadily growing
city.
THE CREMATORY.
A few hundred feet beyond the Warm
springs stands the cremafory. MoSt
of the people know of such an inst1tu-
ton, but few know that it is there
everything conceivable in the nature OF
garbage from an orange peel to dead
horse is converted into smoke and
ashes.
In company with Health Commits
sioner Daily a Herald reporter visited
the crematory yesterday afternoon AT
present it is closed down for repairs
and maSonS, under the supervision OF
health officials, were busy at work
The immense heat required to con-
sumo the refuse in the huge brick oven
| is sufficient to melt almost anything.
| The fire brick of which it was con-
structed some four years ago has burnt
| out in many places and it has been
| my n
material. Four tons of the very finest
fire brick were received few days ago
! from Philadelphia, the department be-
ing una BILE to obtain the proper quality
in the material manufactured here.
/ The works being shut down the pro-
cess of cremating could not be wit
messed, but the health commissioner
explained many interesting things in
connection with the work.
The city at present has ten teams
hauling garbage. This is dumped ON a.
large loft above the oven and a man
stands ready to shovel it into one of
the four large openings and into the
fire. At present-that is, while the
place is closed for repairs-only five
teams are hauling. Some idea of the
amount of refuse could be gained from
the fact that while the crematory had
been closed down only one day the
large loft was almost filled.
DIR. DALBY TALKS.
1--WE have not sufficient men to do
the work the way we would like to- ~
said the health commissioner. Every
few Of the average citizens bother
themselves about the proper sani-
tary condition of a city, and fewer
still know what great advantage Salt
Lake has over many other cities in
such a crematory. AS soon as any
thing becomes obnoxious and endan-
gering to the public health it is taken
out here and burned. It's no easy mat
ter to keep a city of this size in {
clean and healthy condition, especially
when you take into consideration that
we have only ten teams to do it with
The summer season is worse than dur
ing colder weather for bad doors are
created more quickly, and Immediate
attention must be given to such mat
tiers. We consume on the average sew
eral hundred cubic yards of refuse
every month, including dozens OF
horses, cows, calves and other ami.
mails On an average sixty dogs a
month find, their way into the furnace
OF course, all the animals are shot
, first, if they are not already dead
when found.
THE NOISOME CATCH BASINS.
1t is high time the noisome catch
basins were removed, judging from the
, facial expression of the average pedes
trian. Now that summer is upon the
land, and all that exists expands with
| the heat, the flower, with its frag
rance, fills the air, and the catch basir
fills it with something which, while
1t may not be classified as fragrance
: is ten times more powerful than any
altar of roses ever dared be. Typhu:
germs, cholera. bacilli, animalculae of {
hundred contagious diseases roost il
them and the health of the city il
endangered. They should have beer
removed years ago, and would, bu
for the action of the members of thu
; city government, which was shouting
for economy about election time.