The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-04-29
SNOW IN ST. PETERSBURG.
Householders Are Required by Law
to Clean Both Sidewalks
and Streets.

A St. Petersburg correspondent
writes about the methods employed
there III removing snow from the
city streets, says the New York Com
mercial Advertiser.
This winter is altogether an ex-
eeptionally fine one for ST. Peters
burg-steady, even, moderate frost,
without the frequent unhealthy
thaws, with their accompaniment of
dirty slush, cold drizzle and piercing
wet winds, which have earned our
capital a reputation for a special To-
cal climate fendishly ingenious in
breeding rheumatism, pneumonia,
chronic catarrh in every variety that
flesh is heir to. Such a winter is re-
ally enjoyable. Only at the sight of
SO much snow in the yards and
parks, in drifts, in banks, of tons of
it lying on the roofs of houses and
the small roofs over every porch and
areaway, I can't help thinking:
What would the street cleaning de-
partment of New York say to it?'
Remember, the cost to the city of
every snowstorm and the fuss that
is made about it, the disturbance in
city and railroad traffic, in tele-
graphic communication, the noun
tains of snow along the sidewalks,
with just the narrow crossings kept
free, and what not! Here, with snow
all the time, and ten times as much
of it-nothing of the kind. No ac-
cumulations anywhere, and on the
streets just as much as is needed for
good sleighing, and no more.
"And yet you do not at every turn
run against a white-robed angel
with his broom and little push-cart-
and no army of snowshovelers at two
dollars per day. I wondered how it
was done, and how much the city
spent on it, and inquired particularly
of them that knew.
"They all but laughed in my face:
The city? What has the city to do
with it?' Each house, each building
ii. e., the owners) looks after it's own
piece of street. Simple, is it not?
But requires some explanation for
foreigners. Our houses are not built
after the Anglo-Saxon idea of each
family having house to itself, in
long, monotonous rows; each house
with a sstoop' and three front win
dows, and rooms disposed after the
uniform plan which must delight the
housebreaker's heart. Our houses,
like those of all other European con-
tinental cities, with frontage on
the street of Is, 20, 25 windows, are
built around large inner yard
sometimes more than one-varying
in size and shape-and are divided
up into a great many apartments,
renting at prices from several thou
sand to a few hundred roubles a
year. Every house is taken care Of
by one or more porters, and these
keep the yards clear of snow, and
also the streets before their respec-
tive buildings to the middle of the
thoroughfare. The street car track,
if there is one, is looked after by
the company.
"Of course, good care is taken to
leave enough snow for good sleigh
ing. Inside the yards the porters
sweep the snow from the roofs and
the ground into heaps, and it is cart
ed away, as well as that from the
| streets, somewhere out of town into
the open field at so copecs (25 cents)
a CARLOAD at the owners expense.
In such winter as the present one,
when three to five carloads are
taken away every other day, it makes
no inconsiderable item But none of
it goes on the city budget, except for
parks and bonlevards and city prop
erty, and there is never any fuss,
any disturbance or any obstruction,
only so much as will melt away nat
urally under the spring sun, helped
along by the porters' brooms. To the
yards of many of the finer houses
and of public buildings or buildings
belonging to companies there are
melting furnaces, where the snow is
rapidly converted into water and car
ried away by pipes which connect
with the system of city sewers"