The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-12
BANIsHMENT OF THE HORSE.
Would Lessen Taxes, Disease and
Death Rate in Cities.
From the Philadelphia Times.

From the Philadelphia Times.
A horseless city! Have you ever thought
of such a place? Even if you have il is
doubtful if you have given the subject an
hours serious consideration. Yet it is rot
unlikely that we of Philadelphia at least,
will dwell in such a city in the almost i'm
mediate future. The equine race seems
doomed to civic Punishment. This may
seem a wild statement, but the wldness
disappears in the light of a few years ex-
perience. It seems but yesterday when all
the street cars of the city were drawn by
horses. Now the car horse is almost
thing of the pasta remembrance. He
couldn't compete with electricity. That
wonderful fluid is harnessed to a car for
half the cost of horsehesh, and does the
work of the equine not only more rapidly
and Clearly, but far more cheaply. That
fact ended the career of the car horse,
and now he is only used in Wayback and
on a few lines in New York, which is To-
toriously slow in adopting new ideas and
inventions. Electricity is to be used 10 do
the freight and pleasure traffic of cities
and it will do il so cheaply and rapidly that
the coal cart, the delivery wagon, the milk
wagon the furniture wagon and all other
kinds Of vehicles will be impelled by 1t in
stead of drawn by horses. The time an
which this win happen is probably much
nearer than you think.
Talking yesterday upon this subject with
a man thoroughly conversant with it, he
said to the narrator that it will not be
very long before all the big department
stores wall be running electric delivery
wagons Assume that each of their horses
cost SIS month for keeping. Ihat Is SlS0
a wear The battery for such vehicle
I,Gf OF tha InNATf est
estimate five years, at a cost of $50
wear. Ten dollars a year is amply suffi-
cient for all the possible repairs. 1t costs
one-third of a cent mile for electric
mower for such vehicle. Twenty-Five
miles a day is about the average work Oh
a delivery wagon. AT eight cents a day
for electricity the cost of running such a
vehicle a wear of 800 days is less than $50
Rut call il that. Add to 1.-THE $50 and it
makes but $50. which is just half what
it costs to keep a horse, and this esti-
mate does not take into consideration at
all the animals cost price.
The Punishment of horses from a city
would greatly lessen the tax and disease
and death rate. More than so per cent.
Of the cost Of street cleaning is due to the
use Of horses In other words, if there
were no equine quadrupeds in this city, 1t
could be cleaned and kept clean for half
the money now expended for that pur-
pose. This means the sdNlnS VI money,
hundreds of thousands of dollars year
10 the taxpayer. The solid excrement of
horses is a prolific breeder of diseases. 1t
is almost as fine a breeding place as jel-
lies are when left exposed 10 the action
of dust and the atmosphere. 1t dries and
becomes trampled and ground into fine
dust. which not only disigures and ruins
the bottoms of ladies' skirts but 1t gets
into their eyes. the air passages and the
lungs of all who have to encounter it as
II is blown hither and thither by the wind.
This not pleasant thing to think or talk
about, but it is an evil that has to be
discussed and abated. Many pulmonary
ailments are due to this troublesome dust.
IL breeds flies by the million and these
nests of summer are prolific dissemina-
tors of poisonous germs and microbes.
with the Punishment of the horse will
come the abatement to a large extent of
the fly nuisance, and every housekeeper
will be glad of that