New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-08-03
STUNER STREET CLEANING.

Few people who travel through the streets
of NcwYork during the hot summer days can
have failed to realize the vast difference be-
tween their traditional state and the condition
in which one finds them now. In former sum
mers to stay in this city through hot spell
meant 10 he assaulted on every side by bad
smells and sights of fostering and dccaying
filth This was the affection not merely Of the
tenement regions, but of the whole town. A
few streets were kept clean. but the city as n
whole was so dirty as to pollute the general
atmosphere. and nobody was exempt from the
unpleasant consequences.
With the present administration great
change has come. The Street Cleaning De
partmcnt made friends by It's promptness and
efficiency in handling snow and making the
streets comfortable for traffic. but II deserves
vastly more credit for making residence rs
pleasant and healthy in the sums ms it Is pos
siblc 10 make il in the season when the hot
sun tends TO convert the only air space of the
poor into breeding place Of disease. The win
ter task requires money and ability TO meet
emergencies in large way with speed The
summer task is a more difficult one. II calls
for the patient and faithful performance day
after day of the most dsagreeable labor in
volved in street cleaning Shoveng snow is
n pleasant occupation compared with clearing
cutters and picking out from every corner
small Accommodations Of dirt which the first hot
sunshine would set fermenting. Moreover.
when the snow is removed, the streets are clear
till the next storm comes. while the summers
work Is never done.
When Colonel Warng undertook to uniform
and drill his force he was met with not I'M
had hAa
clIstomed TO gangs of careless. worthless. I'M
disciplined fellows loafng about its streets.
pretending to clean them, that to think of
them as scraping up mud with any personal
neatness or with pride in their work was lit
tie too much. But Colonel Warng went on.
He put his men in dress suited to their occupa-
ton, dress which set premium Oh neatness
by making sovenliness obvious OF course
there were objections. Cleanliness and disci
pine were the last things the Tammany men
who had given character to the force wanted
But order was enforced and faithful perform
ance of duty exacted until the better men
learned to rejoice in the new dignity 1t gave
their occupation, and the worthless men
weeded out The result is that no body Of men
who serve the city are more generally thought
well OF than the whte-unformed street-clean-
ers Their work is humble and 1t is hard, but
It Is useful in degree NewYorkers did not
realize until they saw it well done. The police
man keeps order the fireman saves life and
property in IN emergency: the street-cleaner
makes all the difference between n civilized
city and a haunt Of barbarians. Cleanliness il
work Of high civilization and road to health.
The great advance which has been made here
In street cleaning. with the education OF the
population to know what clean streets really
are Is doing as much as any agency TO make 1t
impossible that Ncw-York shall ever again be
the town Of barbarous untidness. disorder
and mlsgovcrnmcnt that II once was. 1t Is
making n city where it Is possible even for the
humble to live In comfort all the year. and the