The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-02-16
DARTS
OF Sharp Criticism
Levelled
AT CITY FATHERS.
Mrs. Chamberlain's Lively
Talk to Unitarian Women.

while the young men VINO have
climbed into the council chamber to
learn how to be congressman, are get
ting their first lesson; you are put
ting up with dirty streets and bad
drainage, and an improper park sys-
TEN and an improper inspection of
food. = + If we would make sure Of
our health and our comfort, we must
consider city, not as a small state,
but as a large mansion, and We need
mayor who will act out this theory.
1t matters not whether he favor pro-
lection or free trade, whether he fought
in the war and always voted the
straight republican ticket.
1T does matter whether he knows
men, and can put the right man in the
right place, whether he can tell a
smooth pavement from a rough one
or leaky pipe from a sound one. 1t
matters most Of all whether he can
keep an eye on every part of an in
tricate routine and see that the whole
runs smoothly"
These strong words We're spoken by
Mrs. E. f. p. Chamberlain at the Wor-
ter League of Unitarian Women at
the South Unitarian Church yes
terday. The subject for the meeting
was Municipal Housekeeping. and
Mrs. Chamberlain read a paper on
Municipal housekeeping at home, y
which, by reason of its bold language
md nrnT11iS inD criticism of the
municipal administration OF Worcester
made deep impression on those pres
ent, and aroused a brisk cross-fire of
discussion.
In the opening paragraphs of her
essay Mrs. Chamberlain criticised the
American people for Two grave defects
first, because OF their total disre-
gard of the details of human happi-
ness, and second, because Of their Gu
rious hatred of the truth.
ITO head our departments we
need men that are honest and capable.
If we bond them and give them good
wages and let them stay in as long as
they behave themselves, we in return
can require them to do what they think
right and to be we'll versed in their sub
jects Our street commissioner will be
an authority on the cleaning and re-
pairing of streets and roads; our sewer
inspector, on the several methods of
sewage; our parks commissioners will
refrain from the elementary blunder of
putting Gagged beasts upon ground that
ought to be used for walks and shrub
berry, Men of this stamp, bred to their
professions and fraught with expert
ence by their tenure of office can alone
give us the best service at the smallest
cost
Now, to look for a moment at those
great modern necessaries, lighting and
transportation, as they are carried or
in Worcester. We pay large gas bills
and the gas burns dim on Sundays. We
ride in noisy, stuffy cars that bound
over the country roads with the skit
| tishness of bronco and the momentum
of an ocean steamer. Now in any city
| light and transportation must be mon
opolies; and a stock company that cor
nerS necessities may be counted to give
as little return for it's earnings as il
can. So long, then, as we tolerate pri-
yate management of light or car lines
we shall pay high and be only hall
served, and we shall have among us
pregnant sources wherefrom our public
men can exc out their incomes. If we
take these monopolies into our own
hands, we shall lessen the causes fol-
extortion and corruption.
80 much for light and transporta-
ton. But what of our food and drink
Last year our present mayor with rare
insight into the functions of city gov
eminent, prodded into a kind of slug
gish wakefulness the gentleman of lei
sure who is hired to watch over weights
and measures. He found that the
bakers were selling bread at three
quarters of a pound for pound loaf. A
man who unearths such wholesale
cheating as this, gets high praise from
US. Abroad he would be blamed for moi
nipping the evil in the bud.
But we also ought to have a thor
ough inspection of beef and bread and
beer by men of special training, and il
a man be found who gives short mea-
sure or impure quality, he should be
sent to prison. ut seems to me that some
| of our meat emporiums, where the
bodies of animals are chartered for, on
Saturday nights, might at least be oper
to inspection; and that the curse OF
rum would vanish if rum were really
! sold. 1t is the business Of the city to
see to this. 1t is done elsewhere-it is
not done here.
and now our sewage and water
works how do they compare with eff
| cheney? For our water works nature has
given us reservoirs upon high ground
and we have well performed the rather
cosy tdoh VI lay llB run plpeb lIlSleu OF
/ leaden. Unlike st. Louis, our beverage
| is not two parts water and one part
mud; nor like Chicago do we COM
| bine our cistern and cesspool.
| But in our drainage where nature has
relied more fully upon us, we have not
acquitted ourselves so creditably. We
| profess to purify our sewage by preci-
| pitation, by mixing lime Herewith, dis
/ migrating the filth and depositing the
| sludge in a series oe tanks.
| This plan itself is very good. We
carry it out by providing half enough
tanks and by not cleaning those out
thoroughly. But when storm comes
and the Milbrook swells, the Black
stone helps us, 10 the harm of our
neighbors, taking the dirt we We're toe
lazy to clean away and bearing it down
to the villages below US. So we cheer
fully let others cope with death and
disease and congratulate ourselves on
our wholesome drainage.
But there is some work nature can