Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-01-09

iOA> AMI ~ OT Ell uEAOM-
MENDATIONS. FOR IT'S M
PROvEMENT- HABITS OF IN
INHABITANTS AND METHODS
OF OFFICIALS THAT ARE HARD
FOR RESIDENTS OF AMERICAN
CITIES TO COMPREHEND.
Washington, January S.-The War
Department, division of customs and
insular affairs, made public to-day a
very full synopsis of the late Col.
George A. Warnings report of his visit
to Havana under the special instrue-
tons of the War Department, given
him early last autumn, to thoroughly
inspect the sanitary condition of the
city and to make such recommends
tons for the future improvement of the
town as might be suggested by said in
spection.
Col. Warning says he found the street
cleaning department without adequate
organization or funds, and the markets
offensive and dangerously filthy for
the distribution of human food, with
the exception of two, the Tacon and
Colon markets. He also found the
machinery used for sweeping the
streets ineffective; the garbage being
thrown into the streets in entire dis
regard for ordinances requiring 1T 10
be set out in proper receptacles. The
work of the contractor was all done in
the latter part of the night and abso-
lutely in the dark. Any obscure side
walk was used for the purpose of de-
location and no attempt seemed 10
have been made to cover or remove the
rubbish.
Foul pools were found in the streets
into which rubbish and filth had been
deposited, which the contractor was
not required to clean. This filth was
turned over to the buzzards. Some of
the streets in the compact part of the
city are paved with large stone blocks,
others with Belgian blocks, and the re-
are filed with dirty holes which in
turn are filled up with house garbage.
There is practically no sewerage. In
many cases households connect their
private vaults with loose bricks or
stone drains just under the pave
ment along the frontage. These allow
int q
ground close to the surface, enabling
the householder to get out of the hir-
ing of night scavengers to bail out
and carry away accumulation.
Slaughtering pens, while specifically
clean, are brutality disgusting while the
work is going on. Blood and offal are
washed by copious flooding from the
water into an adjoining creek and har
fbor reeking with putrid filth. There is
no systematic disposal of garbage and
sweepings. 1t is deposited on the sur
face in and near the town, where the
buzzards feast upon it to their full sat
isfaction. Dead dogs, cats and chick
ems are left in the streets until the buzz
yards pick them to the skeletons. And
all this is done under an intense sun.
Bad as these conditions are, they are
not comparable with the disgusting
conditions of the domestic life. There
are fewer than, 10000 houses in the
city. Sixteen thousand are of one
story two hundred are of three stories,
and very few are of four stories and
none higher. At least twelve out of
every thirteen of the inhabitants live
in oRe-story houses the total popula-
ton being over 100000. The. average
population of the houses is over ten.
In all the compactly built parts of
the city the entire lot is coyered with
the house, there being one or two
courts included in TIE building. In
the better class of houses the entrance
hall is quite commonly the standing
room of the carriage. 1t opens into
parlor at its side and into the reception
room at its rear. Beyond this is
court, then the dining room, then
smaller court, the kitchen, stable and
privy vault practicai+ al in one.
Sleeping rooms are in the rear of the
parlor and at the side of the court
dining room. The conspicuous feature
of every house is the privy vault, and
sometimes a second vault for kitchen
wastes.
These vaults occupy a space practi-
cally under and almost in the kitchen.
1t is rare indeed that these vaults have
q ventilating pipe so that they belch
forth nauseating orders throughout the
house and peryade the streets. Lest
the conditions above set forth should
fail to do their appointed work of de-
struction. the broad marshes at the
southerly edge Of the harbor are at
hand to furnish their nuOta of malaria