The Lafayette gazette., 1903-03-28
Clean the Streets.
The Gazette:

. the Editor or lie SaZette:
Will you kindly allow space in your
valuable paper I" make few remarks en-
the above question.
l see by the New Orleans press that
among the over twhelming crowds of visitors
from the north there are great many capi-
talists and tourists looking for South rn
homes. Some want farming lands and
others want to settle with their families in
some of our cities or towns. One small
group in company of Col. Willis Wood, J.
X. Crow, w. S. Bloomfield and ID. J. Dean,
of Kansas City, recently visited the Crescent
City, and Mr.. Dean says in an interview:
New Orleans is wonderfully interest
ing city, but the streets should b. improved.
''It is r,y first visit to the city, and the
first thing that attracted my attention upon
leaving the station was the condition OF the
streets. New Orleans is destined tn he one
of the greatest cities in the United States in
Il few years, but of tine first requisites
for great an1 prosperous city is clean
streets, and the sooner they get to work on
them the better. They actually repul-
Sive to stranger who has been accustomed
to good pavemen's and clean streets. and
hope they will be improved. l have just
come from the City of Mexico, which is
one of the clearest and pref lest cities in TIE
world, and there is a striking similarity
between the capital and New Orleans in
many respects. but the streets is not one OF
them.'
Another distinguished traveller and home
seeker, when writing home to his friends,
says: 81 left New Orleans for Texas on
the S. F. X. X. 1 can't say that was very
favorably impressed with the country until
1 got near New Iberia, where the train
stops only a few moments, and the town
being some distance from the station l can't
say much about it. The next stoppi ng place
was Lafayette where we stopped twenty
minutes for luncheon The country be-
tween New Iberia and Lafayette is perfectly
Gelightful. think it is of the fihest
farming countries l ever Lafayette
has the incest station grounds the road
between New Orleans and Texas AT the
left yon go in, there is a lovely garden
of three or four acres, where you
growing (n"w in February all kinds of
beautiful shubbery, flowers, and vegetables.
While waiting for the train l walked a
rod or two up the street crossing. 1 looked
up and down the street and the railroad
track. l must say that was very much
surprised and disappointed to see such dirty,
filthy streets. The bitches each side of
the street were filed with stagnant water
from SIX to eight inches deep, ol empty
beer kegs, broken bottles, meat and fruit
cans, waste paper and the sweeping from
the stores and shops. 1 looked up the rail-
road track short distance, and what
I supposed to be their regular dumping
ground for the garbage out of their back
yards. If what l saw fair s1milc of
the rest of the town, 1 could not be hired
to settle there with my family-'
The streets index 10 tn: progress
of a town, arc a~e the first things that
stranger looks AZ. l cannot understand
why our Council shcul.i allow our streets to
get in such a horrl and filthy state, eSpeci-
ally around the station when many
strangers are travelling through in search
of Southern homes.
We have laws to prohibit the ps OPP f:om
throwing any kind of rubbish in the sire It.
II we have not, we ought IT, hav:. Why
don't the Council that the la ", ar.
forced. There fCu: of them living
in town. There is excuse for any town
t hat has good drainage this has for
having stagnant water standing in the
bitches breeding cnntagion for two three
is good drainage from the railroad down
to the Par kerSon ditch and if the d,tcilcs are
properly cleaned out and kept clean the
water would never stand in tn I'm.
CLERICUS.
hprl-fpOl best fr,e nv fak kinp her