El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-01-13

TWAS REEkIN6 With FILTH.
What Col. Marlng Saw In Havana
Synopsis OF His Report Made
Public.
A Washington dispatch says: The
war department, division of insular af-
fairs, made public today synopsis OF
the late Col. George A. Warnings re-
port of his visit to Havana under the
special instructions of the war depart
ment given him early last autumn to
thoroughly inspect the sanitary
condition of the city and to
make such recommendations
for the future improvements
as might be suggested by said inspec-
ton. Col. Warning says he found the
street cleaning without adequate or
ganization or funds and the markets
offensive and dangerously filthy for
the distribution of human food. he
also found the machinery used for
sweeping the streets ineffective, the
garbage being thrown into the streets
in entire disregard of the ordinance
requiring it to be set out in proper re-
ceptscles. The work of the contractor
was all done in the latter part of the
night and absolutely in the dark.
Foul pools we're found in the streets
into which rubbish and filth had been
not required to clean. This filth was
turned over to the buzzards. There 10
practically no sewerage. In many
cases households connect their private
vaults with loose brick or stone drains
Just under the pavement along their
frontage. These allow the liquid filth
to leak out into the ground close to the
surface, enabling the householder to
get out of much hiring of night scav-
engers to bail out and carry away ac-
cumulations.
clean, is brutality dis
gushing while the work is going on.
Blood and offal are washed by copious
floodings from the water supply into'an
adjoining creek and.the harbOr 1s rock
ing with putrid filth. There is no sys-
tematic disposal of garbage and sweep
inRs. It is deposited Ga the surface In
and near the town where the buzzards
feast upon it to their full satisfaction.
Dead dogs, cats and chickens are left
in the streets until the buzzards
all this is done under an intense
sun.
Bad as these conditions are they are
not comparable with the disgusting
of the domestic life. There
are fewer than 10000 houses in the
city. Sixteen thousand are sof one
story, 300 are of three stories and q
very few are Of four stories and none
higher. At least twelve out of every
thirteen of the inhabitants live IN one
story houses, the total population be-
ing over 100000. The average popula-
ton of the houses Ia over ten.
The c0nanicuOla feature of every
house is the private vault and some
times q second vault for kitchen wastes.
These vaults occupy space practical
ly under and almost in the kitchen. It
is rare indeed that these vaults have q
pipe, so that they belch
forth nauseating odors throughout the
house, which pervade the streets.
Lest the conditions above set
forth should fail to do their
marshes at the southerly end of
the harbor are at hand to furnish their
quota of malaria. Into these marshes
flow q number of water courses which
bear upon their surface the off-scour-
ings of q poor quarter of the town. the
effuvia of the slaughter pens and of
other foul establishments. while q large
portion of the fat is used as q dumping
ground for garbage. The city is q
veritable plague spot. It's own people,
largely immune though they are to
ysHH i in Havan. "n Without mas in
for 1853 years,
fall constant victims to the pernicious
ma'arial and depressing influences to
which they are always subjected. It
needs only the immigration OF fresh
which the enterprise, of an
American population is sure to bring
in, to create q sacrifice such as has not
yet been known. Commerce, says Col.
Waring, will carry the terrible scourge
Of yellow fever to our shores, until we
rise again in a war of humanity and at
all costs wipe out an enemy with which
no military valOr can cope.
In conclusion, Col Waring suggests
Improvements as absolutely
to make Havana q healthy
city which he estimates will cost &c.
300, 900. It has been estimated, conti-
nues Col Waring, that single epidemics
Introduced into the United States from
Havana have cost in the Mississippi
valley alone 800, O0O, 900 in loss to in
dustries and to commerce aside from
1879 to Is Oil, in addition to the enor-
nous cost of the sickness of those who
recovered.
Col. Waring further states. that In
his Judgment the complete execution
Of the work he has mapped out would
eradicate yellow fever from
Havana for all time, would relieve it
from the malaria which is now 80 fatal,
and would reduce It's normal death
rate from lite present high figure mot
far from fifty per thousand) to about
twenty per thousand. He says if these
are to be made there
must be no delay and no halfway meas
nres. All that is indicated must be
done before June 1, 1899. If it is not
all done, there is every reason to fear
that yellow fever will be rife in Hava-
ma next season, because of the large
number of unprotected persons who
would go there trusting to the efficien-