The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-11-23
MENACE To HEALTH
| NEGLECTED DRAINAGE OF LANDS
NEAR CITY THREATENS LIFE.
THE GRAND JURY PROTESTS.
CITY AND COUNTY AUTHORITIES
URGED TO IMMEDIATE ACTION.

General Presentments of the Grand
Jury of the Superior Court Re-
turned and the COunty's system OF
Drainage COndcmned--Conditi N
of Roads and Bridges Said Also TO
the Latter sadly NegIected-Grand
Jury CongratuIates City on De-
crease in Gambling and the Better
Observance of Sunday-Discharged
for the Term.
The general presentments of the
grand jury of the Superior Court were
returned and members of the jury dis
missed for the term, with the thanks of
the court, yesterday afternoon. The
grand jury. in its general presentments.
commends the recent movement for the
Improvement of the morals of the coun-
ty and congratulates the county upon
the success with which this movement
has been attended.
The various matters with which gen.
eral presentments usually deal are
all discussed at length and with the
exception of the drainage of the coun-
ty little has been found for the grand
inquest to criticize. In that regard
there are number of caustic criti-
cisms in the presentments.
Judge Seabrook presided in court
and it was by him that the pre-
sentiments were received and
ordered filed. From 4 until o'clock
the grand jury was busy with the
investigation of criminal charges
against a large number of defendants,
against every one of whom a true bill
Of indictment was returned. To
the surprise of very many, the
Good Government League did not
make its appearance before the grand
jury, and no effort was made by the
representatives of that organization to
secure indictments.
The general presentments were not
read, but were simply ordered filed by
the court. The grand jury recommend
ed that they be printed, but there
seems to be no law to authorize this,
diiO Oh OCCdSlOHS lLC SOuHIy
Commissioners have declined to ap-
prove or pay bills of this character.
The presentments begin:
Work of Law and Order League.
1.-THE work of the grand jury during
the June term has been largely aug
mented by reason of the efforts of the
Law and Order League to bring to
trial all violators of the laws against
gambling and keeping open tipping
houses on Sunday. We feel confident,
from the number of cases brought
to our attention, the gambling evil
has been very much lessened in this
county.
I'VE especially note the general abb
sence of the policy shops and we hope
and trust that there will still be a
rigid search for all such places, as
the policy shops particularly reach out
and take the money from the poorer
classes, swhere only small amounts can
be dealt in, but which in the aggre-
gate make a very large tribute, drawn
from the poor of this city and county
in this most deplorable manner.
"It is spoken of with much congrat-
ulation that the barrooms of the city
have been, as a rule, closed on Sunday
since the Law and Order League COM
menced to wage such a fight upon
LnCIIl, anu Willie II has USeIl III IlldHy
cases difficult to secure satisfactory
evidence, sufficient to punish the guilty,
still it has forced them to close their
barrooms on Sunday and thereby at
tanned as much good as if the parties
were convicted.
THE general work Of the grand jury
was accomplished, as is usually the
case, by the appointment of commit
tees to cover all necessary investiga-
tons, that were so plainly set forth
by your honor in your charge, and
these committees. acting under the
grand jury, have brought in their re-
ports, which we append as part of the
presentments of the grand jury"
The COunty's Drainage.
A particularly interesting and val
liable committee report, which had
been made by the action of the grand
jury a part of its general presentments,
was that of the Committee on Drain
age, of which Maj. r. A. Blandford
was chairman. The report was a long
and exhaustive discussion of the SAN
itary conditions and needs of the coun-
ty, including some proposed measures
to improve conditions and satisfy needs
that now exist. After describing the
typographical peculiarities of the coun-
ty and the location of the several
swamps. drains and watersheds, the
report, in part, is as follows:
I'm July we visited the Musgrove
watershed and found no work had been
done this year in the way of cleaning
out its canals and bitches, except in
Minis canal, which bore evidence of
having had some work done in the
spring, the other canals and bitches
were INSTRUCTED by vegetation and silt
so as to greatly impair their effective
ness. 1t appeared to us that they had
not been cleaned out for two or three
years. This fact having been made
known to Commissioner Lathrop, the
chairman of the Drainage Committee,
he at once put his forces at work there
and had the greater part of them eff
fectively attended to. The gang, how
ever, as we observed on a recent visit,
neglected to clean out the bitches on
the city side of Minis canal. and the
canals and bitches of Lamar swamp;
these still need attention badly.
Bad Drainage West of City.
1.-The Vale Royal. McAlpin and Dun
dee drainage we also found in a de-
plorable condition. The canals and
the last two of three years, and, in
fact, some of them appeared to have
been neglected for much longer
period We are pleased to report that Mr..
Lathrop has since had his forces on
these also, and while the cleaning work
in the Vale Royal system has not been
done as we'll as we could have liked TO
see it, still IL is a great improvement.
The work of cleaning out Dundee can
al except Immediately near the public
roada much aUorea dOna than tI.af