Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-07-22
A Step Forward

A Step Forward
\ friend 81 the STANDARD, VIII"
lately visited Tacoma. !, impressed
with III" excellent working Of the or
d.nancc passed 10y the Council "i that
city prohibiting tn" unclcan habit OF
splitting upon the SIDEWALKS. All these
thorrughiarc> within the, corporate
limits vi Tacoma are protected from
tn, nuisance by the regulation in quc>-
ton. bat aS matter oi course there will
lac violations ri the law to greater or
less extent upon the border streets,
where arrests cannot bc readily made
No law can stop hea-tly man from
plying his filthy practices, If he can do
50 unseen by the eye of Justice.
Within the Immediate business por-
tions Of the city, the sidewalks are
>crupulou>ly free from the defilement
ui cXpcctoration, and as spruccly
neat housewife would say, they are
Sweet and clean.
The ordinance extends not only to
the sidewalks, but to the floors OF bust
ness places, all offices and public con-
N,yances. Five dollars is the fine i'm
posed for each violation, and the COM
plant Of an eyewitness to the ofiense
empowers a policeman to arrest the
offending party. When the anti-cx-
pectOrating law first went into opera
alton i'll Portland: cuspidors were pro-
vided for the convenience of those
who were wont to congregate upon
and around street corners, and force
OF boys was employed to cleanse these
articles and keep them in place; but
the unsightly adjuncts were soon dis.
pensed with, and the public was cour-
teously asked to deposit all expector-
ated matter across the curbstone.
The police had some lively times in
making their first few arrests upon
the streets and in the railway cars, but
the law gradually asserted its suprem-
acy as we'll as its utility, and it its now
generally respected and observed.
This leads us to remark that, of all the
cities of our sovereign State, it would
seem that its capital city, our fair
Olympia, should at once enact an
anti-expectorating ordinance. Such
an ordinance need not be so far-reach-
ing as in larger cities possessing an
army of police officers always on beat
duty; but by combining its effective
scope within reasonable limits, say
territory comprising the immediate
business centers, its ultimate success
could be safely predicated.
That will indeed be a happy day for
Olympia when lady pedestrian, hav-
ing accidentally dropped her handker.
chief, can recover the dainty bit of
lace without its being ruined by to-
bacco juice; or when a man having
dropped sack of fruit can pick up
the scattered contents with the assur.
ance that they are as clean as if they
had been dropped upon the floor of his
own veranda. We are living in an
age of transition and the time is surely
coming when the sidewalks of every
large city must be as absolutely free
from all manner of deflement as the
door steps and veranda floors of we'll
ordered residence. This is coming to
pass because there is a sanitary de-
mand for it. If man who chews to-
bacco cannot shift his helm while
walking upon the sidewalk of Clearly
city and do his splitting in the gutter
or upon the street, then he is wholly
unfit to be the inhabitant of an en-
lightened country, and much less to
promenade the elegantly kept high
ways of a beautiful city.