The record-union., 1898-03-11
A MUNICIPAL PLAGUE SPOT.
THE ROTTEN DUMPS SOUTH OF
r STREET.
Justice Davis Declares the Place a
Nuisance-Will It be
Abated?

City Justices Court yesterday OF Gre
ating and maintaining a nuisance, and
will come up for sentence to-day.
Gilman owns the lot bounded by
Fourteenth and Fifteenth, L and V
streets, which has long been used as a
city dump. Gilman has a contract
with the Board of City Trustees by
which he agrees to let the lot for the
purpose of a city dumping ground, but
in the contract is stipulation that
he shall keep the garbage covered over
by earth or sand.
For several weeks past complaints
have been received by the City Board
of Health that the stencil arising from
the dumps is unbearable and SAM
tary Inspector Herr investigated the
complaints, with the result that Gill
man was arrested at his instance and
charged as above stated
The case was called yesterday morn
ing. and Inspector Herr told of the hor-
rors of the dumps. He testified that
potatoes, cabbage. swill, t:ead chick
ems. dead rats and all the refuse mat
ter of the city lay fostering in the sun.
sending out its malignant odors and
fever breeding germs. The garbage,
he said, lay five or six feet deep, and
for space of thirty or forty feet no
effort had been made to cover it up.
Mr.. Heirs statement was corrobor-
ated and emphasized by a half-dozen
citizens who reside in the vicinity of
the dumps, all of whom testified that
the OdorS were sickening in the eX-
IRENE. Several ladies testified that
they We're obliged to keep the doors
and windows of their houses closed to
keep out the nauseous odors and one
stated that her children We're sick all
of the time, suffering from sore threats.
caused by germs created by the filth
of the dump.
Every one of the witnesses testified
that there had been little or no effort
on the part of the dump-tenders to
cover up the refuse matter. and all
We're unit in stating that the vile
odors could be detected five or six
blocks away.
For the defense J. K Gilman testi-
fed that he owned the lot and kept it
for the dumps, having a contract with
the city. 1t was kept in as good con-
dition as any one could keep it in He
had instructed his man to keep plenty
of dirt with which to cover the gar
bage No one had ever made any
complaint to him about it, He thought
it was in first-class condition. People
come in the night and dump dead ami
mails there and he could not help it,
A. Grubbs knew the dumps. The
garbage was sometimes covered up
it sometimes smelled bad Being the
Y Won lA
day, and perhaps he did not notice the
odor as other people would He
hauled out refuse matter to that place
by order of the Sanitary Inspector.
w. j. Grubbs thought the garbage
was kept pretty well covered up. all
except the face of it, Sometimes it
smells pretty bad. He went there once
or twice a week to dump garbage
E. Philbrick had lived in the neigh
borhood for about six weeks. He lev
els off the garbage and covers it up for
Gilman. He covers it over with dirt
that comes in the dump carts The
smell did not bother him until the fire
broke out, but now it is pretty bad
There are all kinds of rubbish and filth
brought there. When he first went
there he noticed the stencil. but he
could not smell well, anyhow
z. NJ. Leitch always thought the
place was kept in good order, and no.
ticed nothing till the fire broke out He
owned property opposite to it.
H Ryman had hauled dirt for Gill
man, who told him to keep the gar
bage covered. He smelled nothing
bad until the fire broke out. The dead
animals are never put on top of the
garbage. He hauled three or four
loads of dirt last Friday, and one load
the week before, and twenty loads a
month before that
The court said that the dump was
unquestionably nuisance, and he was
surprised that the city would permit a
dump to be maintained within it's linn
its. He did not think a city lot is a
proper place for a dump, and Won
dered that the city was KIT afflicted
with cholera. Dead animals are de-
posted there. and he was surprised
that it had been allowed to exist so
long. Witnesses had testified to a hor-
rible state of affairs. The lot is a
nuisance, ought to be abated, and
measures should be taken to prevent
its being used for city dump any
more. He would find the defendant
guilty.
Gilman will receive sentence to-day.