The Sunday globe., 1901-07-28
Foreign Residents Permitted to En-
denger Public Health.
PORTER A new BRUNSWICKER
And Owner OF The Property Corner Ninth and {
Streets Endanger Tho Lives Of WashnntOnans
With a Pest-breedlng Nuisance which The
Heah Department Refuses 10 Abate--The
Contrast In treatment OF American Landlords

the worst managed municipality out
side the dominions Of the Car OF Rus
sia, leaving out for the present the
misfeasance, misappropriatlons and
faVoritism prevailing IN the District
government, The Globe this morning
deliberately charges the HealtF De-
partment with criminal negligence
which endangers the lives of the peo-
pie of the city, and we defy the sub
sidized organs--Post, star or lines
to disprove a single iota of the testi-
nony we produce to establish our
charge.
Not only are we on the verge Of an
epidemic through this criminal negn-
gence of the Health Department of our
irresponsible District government, but
we are at the mercy OF foreigners who
own and rent out property in Wash
ington, and who boast that the only
use they have for the city is to get all
they can out Of it,
To specify more clearly and drop
generalities, The Globe draws the at
tention OF the public to the saloon
property, corner Of Ninth and e
streets, owned by a Canadian, or
rather a New Brunswicker named Por'
teG, who only spends a portion Of the
winter in Washington, and whose per
son, family and interests are safe
guarded by the British crown.
This property is a pest-breeder, and
the Board of Health knows it. The
tenant of the building has expended
his own good money trying to abate
the nuisance, having expended over
S40O in the vain effort. The owner OF
the premises refuses to eXpend dol
lar, and the Board of Health allows
this foreign resident to endanger the
lives Of Washingtonians. The nuisance
which has long prevailed is daily grow
ing worse, and during the hot weather
of the past week became unbearable,
so foul was the stencil from leak
ing urinals and sewage, seeptng
through the cellars of not less than
five houses on Il street. This is scarce
ly belieVable, we are aware, ana hence
we visited the premises and saw the
condition of affairs. In the cellars OF
the houses between the Ninth and e
street building and the site for the pro-
posed Merchants Parcel Delivery
building we saw the fluid from six
inches to over two feet in depth, and
right under one of those buildings oc-
cupied by a branch of the Census De-
partment we accidentally stepped in
this seepage, which reached our
ankles! Here it has saturated the earth
to such an extent that further aDsorp-
ton is impossible, and the fluid runs
in pools on the surface, breeding a
deadly miasm, which the occupants
are compelled to inhale, and which, ac-
cording to the state of the thermom-
eter, is more or less unbearable by
reason of the horrible stencil arising
therefrOm.
Has the Health Department been no
uAed? Yes, the Health Department
has been notified, not once or thrice,
but repeatedly, and without other re-
suit than the coldest indifference or
an excuse that Porter is nonresident
and can not be reached. These puerile
excuses have been repeated from time
to time, and the pest-breeding nuisance
still continues.
Now, let the citizens of Washington
observe the difference in treatment ex-
tended a resident an American and a
taxpayer, who employs labor and helps
to feed the mouths of the toilers.,
In some small resident property
near the Jail, barely touched on last
week, the owner thereof, Mr., d. A.
Sandford is prohibited from renting
the houses by the senseless require
nents Of this very Health Department
which permits foreigners to endanger
the clty's health.
The Board of Health demands that
Mr.. Sanford put in tank water closets
in these little houses, and when re-
minded by MIR. Sandford that tank
water closets freeze in the winter en-
failing expensive plumbers bills,
which he has, heretofore, been compel
led to pay, the Health Department
snaps it's fingers and says in substance,
Tank closets or none at all" And
thus the case stands. Mr., Sanford
wishes to put in yard water closets,
and is not permitted to do so. He has
tried the other kind, and as everybody
knows, in houses without furnace or
fire, these closets freeze up in winter,
necessitating big plumbers bills in the
spring; more, in fact, as Mr.. sand
ford's books will show, than he takes
in rent in the whole year from this
property, and hence he has been com
pelle to let the houses stand idle, bring
ing in no revenue. II this is not a
gross and outrageous case of oppres-
sion in Office we have never read,
heard or witnessed one.
Contrast the action of the Health
department in the case of Sandford
and Porter; the former willing and
ready to put in proper closets, the lat
ter permitted to rent his property in
the heart of the city with leaking urin-
ais and broken sewers, the seepage
from which, after flooding the cellars
of five residences, finds its way at last
into the sewer under the Merchants
Parcel Delivery site
Is this Canadian or New Brunswick
er to be permitted to draw a revenue
from a city he refuses to live in, and
under the protectiAu of o Government
he despises, while a loyal, native-born
American resident and property-holder
is prosecuted by the Pooh Bahs dress
ed in a little brief authority, both in
the Building and Health Departments
Has the New BrunsviCker practised
with the District authorities what Can
nucks and English accuse American
politicians and ofiiceholders with? In
other words, does he find it cheaper to
close the mouths of the Washington
District government employees than to
put his closets and urinals in repair,
and thus avoid the dangers now incur
red of an epidemic from this seeping
and stencil disgusting nuisance?
The Census Department is herewith
admonished of the deadly character Of
this nuisance to the end that it may
find other quarters for those Of it's EN-
ployes who are subjected to the influ-
ences of the same, as our experience
as the executive officer Of the Cincin-
natl Board Of Health during the vel
low fever epidemic of 1878 familiar
iznd MS with the fact that no nuisance