The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-12-12
WHO'S WHO AMONG
AMERICAN WOMEN
Mrs. Spiegelberg's Hobby Is Showing
OficiaIs Error Of Their
Garbage Ways.
BY MARY Is. MULLETT.

BY MARY Is. MITLLETT.
Mrs. Flora spIegelberg's hobby is gar
bage. Some people with hobby devote
themselves to making collections. Mrs.
Spiegelberg doesn't. She leaves the street
cleaning department Of New York City
perfectly free to Juggie the hundreds of
thousands OF garbage cans in which the
metropolitan scraps are deposited.
But what she does want 10 do, what
she has been trying hard for several
years to accomplish, is to show the city
officials the expensiveness of the error
of their garbage ways.
She has worked like a Trojan to con-
vince the authorities that instead Of the
street cleaning department costing the
city several millio dollars a year, il
might even be run at Il profit. Incl
dentally. many Gotham noses, aristocratic
and otherwise. would be spared an intro
duction to sundry unwelcome smells. And
that would be so much to the good.
Lives ON Riverside Drive.
Mrs. spiegeIberg lives on Riverside
Drive, that beautiful strip of land half
street. half park, overlooking the Hudson
River north of Seventy-second street. It
is a charming place to Iive-sometimes.
There happens. however, to be a city
ash dump at the dock below the height
on which Mrs. spiegelberg dweIls. On
windy days-and there are plenty of them
along Riverside Drive-the ashes which
are emptied from carts on to the dumps
come billowing up the hill and into the
windows for blocks along the drive.
That's the sort OF thing that makes a
woman want to show men how to do
municipal housekeeping.
One day last winter when a gale was
blowing. the cloud of ashes was so thick
that Mrs. Spiegelberg couldn't see the
trees in the park across the street. An
other day she turned the corner above
her home and almost fell over a phRlanx
OF thirty-five garbage cans-all full-in
front OF an apartment house. That was
the output of only one apartment house.
There are thousands of them in the city.
Mrs Spiegelberg, whose first name is
Flora, and who lives up to that name
by preferring sweet sights and smells.
got busy. She started a campaign for
the reform OF the garbage system. She
went abroad and studied what other
countries are doing. Then she came back
home and told what she had learned.
She put up such good, common-sense
arguments that other people sat up, took
notice and joined the fight. Soon II was
on in good earnest The late Mayor
Gaynor became so interested that he told
the corporation counsel Of New York to
end all existing contracts for handling
the city's waste in 1914
Became Anathema.
1t was found that the company to
which the city had paid a good big sum
to handle the garbage alone had made
about $4,000 profit out of IL last year.
The name of Spiegelberg became ana
thema to that company, and to all the
other companies when they saw their
the contracts vanishing before her on
slaughts.
A beginning was made last summer
when a contract for the disposal of city
waste was to be let. Under the old Gus
tom a big price would have been paid to
some contractor to carry the refuse
away. One firm did in fact offer to do
1t for-oh, a mere trifie of few hun
dred thousand dollars.
And then. suddenly, something extraor-
binary happened Another firm. wiser
in this generation of Spiegelbergs, Of
fered to reverse the usual procedure and
to nay the city for the privilege-the
privilege. of getting the contract-and the
garbage Immediately there was i'm
mense excitement among those citizens
who hadn't heard Of little woman
whose sense Of smell and sense Of econ
omy had been too long offended.
They patted the street cleaning COM
missioner on the back and told him that
the taxpayers would bless him forever
There were no bouquets in particular Tor
Mrs. Flora, but what of that She was
looking after a matter Of more impor-
tant perfumes herself.
wouldn't BE Surprised.
Mrs. Spiegelberg says that New York's
garbage amounts to S0oo.ooo tons a year,
and that these tons OF garbage could be
converted into electricity enough to run
all the subways, and the elevated and
street railways Maybe, in the ears OF
the reluctant city officials, this sounds
too good to be true. Maybe there are
s:rake-offs' and private profit-sharing ar
which make some Of the poll
ticians slow to see this particular error
of their municipal ways. Mrs. Spiegel-
berg wouldn't be surprised.
But the entering wedge has been driven
in. This change of a single contract
from the debit to the credit side Of the
account will be big object lesson. More
and more women are being drawn into
the campaign started by Mrs. Spiegelberg.
Where she was lighting alone Few
years ago she now has hundreds OF
allies But she is not relaxing her own
efforts. Figuratively speaking. she has
got her grin on garbage and she means