Los Angeles herald., 1910-10-30
A CITY HOUSE CLEANER

The problem of making our urban
centers of life in America sanitary,
healthful and pleasing to the eye is
problem which is attracting numbers
of our people to its solution. We have
been a busy and what is known as a
practical" people; we have been lay
ing the foundations of a material
wealth such as no nation in the world S
history had hitherto known. Small
wonder then, if our city populations
have had little leisure or surplus en-
ergy to devote to the finer issues OF
living. But now that our factories
have accumulated, our industries been
established, our railroads built we are
turning critics of our environment ana
wondering what we can do to lessen
the ugliness which too often sprang
I'D with our wealth. This newly ac-
ouired sensitiVeness to what is ugly
and hurtful in our surroundings mas
led us to cast about for guides who
can show us just where the fault hes
and how best to remedy it, and 1t has
produced a new profession which may
be called the profession OF mlnlsterlng
to diseased municipalities.
The recruits to this new profession
are not yet numerous, but they are py
no means without honor among Guy
dWallers, and chief among them Is
Caroline Bartlett Crane, who prefers
to call herself minister to municipall-
ties" and who has proved her ell
ciencv in many cities besides kala-
mazoo, where she lives.
Mrs. Crane had no idea that she was
establishing a new profession When sne
first turned her attention to the peller-
ing of urban conditions. She saw the
need for many improvements in kala-
maZoo; she made the citizens see IL
also. Kalamazoo cleaned house and
the fame of that housekeeping spread
Other cities clamOred for Mrs. crane
services and it was not long pelore
she was known in Tennessee and Ken
lucky, New Hampshire and Pennsyl-
vania. North Dakota and Florlda' as
we'll as in Michigan. The state OF
Minnesota has claimed her services Tor
This wear and next year Texas wants
her. l.
The story of Mrs. Cranes career is
told bv Miss Helen Christine Bennett
in the Pictorial Review. The writer
begins with this summary of her SUD-
iect work in municipal housecleanlng'
at is very thorough housekeeping
When Mrs. Crane inspects a state or
city no detail escapes her eye. Streets,
smoke, back yards, tenements, wafer
supply, ash and garbage removal ana
disposal, drainage, bakeries, ice cream
saloons. dairies ! atcher shops ana
markets and slau ghter houses, parks
playgrounds, sChOO.s, jails, prisons IN
sane asylums, hospitals, almshouses-
all these she looks over, criticises or
approves, and if she criticises, sug-
gests the proper RENE dies. And the
Citizens II The stAtCz or cities which
rail- upon her listen, convinced tEef soe
speaks the truth with regard to thelr
shortcomings"
Mrs. Cranes municipal work grew
out of her duties rs a minister In 1855
she came as Miss Caroline Bartlett TO
the First Unitarian church at Kala"
mazoo from a South Dakota charge.
The First church grew so rapidly that
It became necessary to organize anoth-
er congregation. IN 1896 she was mar
ried to DR.. Crane, one of the leading
physicians of Kalamazoo, and soon
afterward began lie work which made
her known.
Surreptitiously she photographed
some of the dirtiest back yards in Kali
amazoo organized a Civic Improve
ment league, gave an exhibition of her
photographs and set Kalamazoo to
housekeeping with a will. Then she
extended her campaign to include
butcher shops, slaughter houses, etc.
The conditions which she found in the
slaughter houses were appalling. Age
old CRIME and grease, mold and putrid
flesh, says the writer, covered the
floors and walls, rats abounded and
the animals which were brought TO the
pens for slaughter were accepted with
out regard to whether they were dis"
eased or well.
In ia, fFNfO