The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-11-19
HERE! LOOK OUT.
Health Department About to
Begin a Crusade.
Nay Arrest People Who Litter
Up Alleys.
PENALTY is SEVERE.
The Maximum Fine Provided
for Is $50.
Little Attention Has Been Paid
to the Alleys.
'ENALTY is SEVERE.

In about a week, if the present inten-
tion of the city health department is
carried out, the city of Topeka will be
rolling in wealth; it will have so much
money that it can afford to build a
pest house and buy every councilman
a new chair.
The plan is to enforce the new or
dinance prohibiting the dumping of all
kinds of refuse in the alleys, for the
violation of which the penalty is a
fine of from IS to $50
There are about 1000 houses in To-
peka. There may be a few houses
where the alley is clean. But by ar
resting the occupants of every house.
and imposing a fine of $50, the city
could raise $35O,O00; enough to pay off
all the waterworks bonds which the
city has issued. Or if the city should
be more merciful, and charge the min
imum of SO it would still have over
$4,000 to play with.
| This is an opportunity which the city
treasury watchdogs should not over
look.
Even under the lax provisions of the
old ordinance, which allowed people to
build manure boxes in their alleys,
there was plenty of opportunity to
make arrests, and the doctors of the
city were beginning TO kick. about the
bad sanitary condition of the alleys.
Then came the council with the new
ordinance which is so severe and
sweeping in its terms that a man can't
so much as toss a clinker out of his
base burner into his alley without be-
ing liable to arrest.
Here is what the new law saws:
1T shall be unlawful for any person
to throw or deposit manure, stable re-
fuse, yard ra<ings, ashes, tinware,
glass, crockery, iron, bones or trash or
any other refuse matter of any charac-
ter in any street, avenue, alley or 9TH
er public place in the city of Topeka
ANY person violating any of the pro-
visions of this ordinance shall be daem-
ed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon
conviction thereof shall be fined in any
sum not less than So nor more than $50
for each offense.'
This is the ordinance which the
health officers are going to enforce
They have no alternative. 1t is on the
city law books, and it must be enforced.
Although the law does not require it
it is probable that the sanitary police
men will first serve a written or verbal
notice on everybody who has a manure
box in the alley, or who had a pile of
any kind of refuse on the outside OF
his back fence. This will give people a
chance to get themselves Strengthened
out to comply with the law. Every man
NO4A1P Ills IcIllSG On MS own pro-
perty in the future. Nothing must go
into the alleys
Just to satisfy a burning curiosity to
see what sort of task the sanitary po-
Hcemen are up against, State Journal
reporter made a trip through a number
of alleys in the residence part of the
city few days ago. One block will
do a sample of what was seen all
along the line. On that one block there
were Is houses on both sides of the al
ley. Twelve of the Is houses had ma
nure boxes in the alley; two had ma
nure piles, but no boxes; 16 had more
or less ashes piled in the alley; three
had piles of grass and leaves; and there
was a vast amount of glass, bones, bro
ken crockery and miscellaneous rub
bish scattered from one end of the al
ley to the other. This alley is no worse
than many others, and not nearly as
bad as some.
One of the things which produces a
terrible stencil and disagreeable condi-
tion in some alleys is the practice which
the people have of pouring out table
refuse and dishwater into the alley.
This can't continue under the new or
dinance.
If this new ordinance is we'll enforced
the sanitary policemen who have here
tofore had the biggest snap in the city
pie department. will all die of overwork.
They will have to keep on the jump
from morning to night for the next two
or three years to educate people up to
the new law. And about the time they
a petition from somebody protesting
against the ordinance and Immediate
ly proceed to change 1t to suit new