The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-04-30

Excerpts from Daily Consular Re-
ports: The cleaning of the streets n
roads of metropolitan London is done
under the direction of the councils Of
the several cities and boroughs COM
prising Greater London.
In the city Of LOnd0n proper. that
section bounded by the walls OF an
cient London, the method or cleaning
is very thorough. Throughout the day.
boy scavengers are employed to Keep
the streets clean; they are proVldeu
with small scoops n hand orusnes,
by means of which the refuse n lit
ter is constantly collected and depos-
tied in refuse boxes placed at convent
ent intervals on either side or the
street, These boxes are emptied perl
odically. the contents being taken
away in refuse wagons which are mt
ted with four sectional metal tops so
constructed that when a section is full
it can be closed.
At night the streets are thoroughly
cleaned with water applied by means
of hose attached to fire hydrants.
Drains into sewers serve as outlets for
the foul water. SQueegees or n
pushed scrapers are employed to Gom-
plete the work. =,
In wet weather, men are employed
in the daytime to clear the mud ana
surplus water with s~queegees, each
gang of cleaners working In STAIR
step formation, the front cleaner tax
ing the middle of the street and driV-
inc the mud and water before him
until the end of the section is reached
when the accumulation is turned into
the drains.
This method is. also adopted in case
of slight snowfalls, but if the fall is
heavy, common unrefined yellow salt
is thrown over the surface to hasten
the melting. In case of exceptionally
heavy falls. the snow is Temporarily
banked along the roadside. with a
space between the banks and the curb
and with openings every few yards tC
enable the melted water to run freely
into the drains. Salt is used; but II
the temperature is too low to allow
melting, the surplus snow is removed
il wagons.
The methods just described are, Of
course. suited especially to smooth
surfaced streets, such as asphalt, and
are necessarily modified to suit the
streets with rough surfaces. The
streets in the city are chiefly of as
phaIt and wood block, but there Is
much greater variation in the kinds
of streets in the other boroughs of
metropolitan London. The methods
employed in the boroughs, therefore,
depend upon the nature OIL lHS PAVE
ments, whether asphalt, wood block,
stone block (sets) or macadam. The
two frst-named surfaces are natural
lY the most easily cleaned; in the case
of asphalt, the usual method is the use
of water, as already described.
In those streets where the trattic is
heaviest, horse drawn rotary brooms
(set at an angle so as to sweep the
refuse toward the outer edge of the
street, and h~orse-drawn scrapers are
most commonly usedS but in the more
residential streets in the suburbs hand
brooms are generally used, the refuse
being swept into heaps on either side
Of the street and afterward picked up
with long handled shovels, dumped
into wagons and hauled ava to re-
fuse depots.
Snow in the suburbs, if slight, is
swept into heaps in the cutters and
left to melt; but if heavy 1t is shovel
ed into wagons and conveyed to low
lying unused ground. In several of the
borough districts, additional gangs OF
men are employed to collect loose
paper and litter, which they do by
means of pronged sticks, n which
they carry away in bags slung over
their shoulders.
In the city proper, and in the I'M
mediately adjoining boroughs, the
streets are sprinkled in dry weather,
In the suburban districts this watering
usually covers the entire width of the
road. If of macadam or stone blocks;