Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-24

wv the city council and the board
of health are working them
selves into great stew about sus-
picious meat, they are overlooking as
prolific source of disease as any
tainted meat that finds it's way into
this city.
This is the city dump in the river
bottom near Sixteenth street and
Santa Fe avenue, where the citys gar
bage is now being deposited, pending
the completion of arrangements be-
tween the board of public works AMI
Charles Alexander.
The board has contract with Alex
ander to incinerate the garbage until
the new superstructure for the Decarie
fncinerator can be erected, but Alex
ander is taking his time about comply
ing with his part of the contract,
which should have begun the first of
this month, and the board is disposing
of the garbage the best it can.
The garbage, when deposited on the
dumping grounds by the collecting
wagons, is left to rot and breed dis
case Tor week or more when chloride
of lime Is thrown on it and after it is
sufficiently dry the refuse is burned.
Humans Feast on offal
That is, what is left of the refuse is
burned. But while the garbage is
awaiting its dressing of chloride of lime
hungry human beings are feasting on
the filthy stuff pregnant with germs
of tuberculosis, typhoid fever and
other diseases.
Not only do these wretched beings
eat the offal that comes from garbage
cans, but from the refuse heaps they
gather rags from which they make the
garments wherewith they and their
children are clothed.
Southern California, where prosperity
and oprlence are seen on every hand
such grinding poverty can exist that
drives human beings to eat with relish
filth that the very dogs sniff disdain-
fully. These sights are common ones
and can be seen every day at the citys
dumping grounds.
A visit to these dumping grounds
might open wide some pocketbooks
that are closed to charity simply be-
cause their owners do not know and
therefore do not believe. While the
grounds are located in the river bottom,
well away from ordinary traffic it is
not difficult to locate them. Take
Mateo street car to the end of the line
mad there sniff the air. Then follow
your nose, or rather force your nose in
the right direction. for any self re-
specting rose would quickly run away
if 1t could.
Natives Sniff Feast
The odor is similar to that which
hangs over Chicago. Kansas City and
Omaha on a hot July evening when
the packing houses have mad rush
orders. It differs from the sickening
smell of the stockyards only in pun
gency, and the weak stomach begins to
feel very rebellious when within a
few blocks of the place.
TQnf thara ic T1n ieI,,
among the negroes, Mexicans, Italians
and cross-breeds of these people who
live in the neighborhood. This odor
to them simply means that they need
take no thought of the morrow, for
they know where their next days din
ner will come from.
Some of those who frequent the city's
garbage dump have not yet been re-
duced to the point of losing all sense
of shame. When the camera was
pointed at several women who had con-
gregated under an improvsed shelter
from the sun they quickly ran away.
The shelter was made by throwing
rotting rags over a clump of bushes,
and thus protected from the fierce
rays of the sun three women, two with
babes in arms, yesterday afternoon
were engaged in sorting over the treas
ures they had collected from the refuse
heap.
One woman had collected box full
of apples that had evidently been con-
6emned at some fruit stand. The
apples were covered with slime and
filth, but she nonchalantly wiped ore
off on her ragged calico wrapper and
ate it while the babe contentedly took
its dinner from her breast.
Z Another laid her child down on a
pile of wet rubbish and gathered up
pail of cigar .stumps that had been
thrown into a cuspidor.
large pile of pea pods that had been
raked up from a garbage heap were
being sorted by the third woman.
!. These pea pods We're mystery until
she explained I'm broken English that
pea pods make very good soup. You
don't have to wash the pods. either, ac-
cordlng to her recipe, even if they do
come from a tubercuosis-t typhoid
laden garbarge pile. You have to put
the pods into water to make the soup.
anyhow and they are sufficiently
washed then.
Search for Treasure
Fruit that has been condemned by
the inspectors at some Of the fruit
stands or earelessly thrown into, the
kitchen garbage pail and vegetables,
or the refuse of vegetables, are among
the greatest treasures these people of
the abyss find in the garbage heap
From the rubbish piles they secure
battered cooking utensils, pottery and
rags for which they have use, but these
things do not sustain life while those
things which they can eat do.
Little negro children, scarcely able to
toddle visit the garbage collection ev-
cry day. eat full meal and then begin
their search for treasures. With old
gunny sacks over their shoulders and
long sticks, probably a mop or broom
handle these youthful muck rakers
collect all sorts of junk that has been
cast off by some more prosperous fam
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