The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-03-23
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAskIN, Director.
Washington, d. G.
THE STRANGELY HEALTHY
ROWERY.

ish,ng statement is made by an in
spector of the sanitary division of the
New York health department that the
Bowery, with all it's lack Of purity and
cleanliness. Is the healthiest spot in
America. During the late influenza
epidemic, the Bowery was practically
Immune from the disease. and the
same holds true in regard TO all other
Affections affecting the rest of New
York, he says. People living along
the Bowery never seem to get i'll.
Why? No one appears to know. It
seems as if the mysterious element
which kept the Bowery safe from
plague in early days when the nearby
town was stricken with smallpox, is
operating still
Is it possible that there is some
ihealth-producing quality, still undis-
1 covered. which haunts the Bowery-
| more powerful than sanitation itself,
i or rather the lack of it? This is the
problem that New York is bordering
now, wishing that Sir Oliver Lodge
were still here to help it.
The inspector who is responsible for
this new interest in the Bowery, and
who is now afraid that the street NAV
be converted into a national health re-
sort, is known as Jeff Davis, king of
the hoboeS. Those acquainted with
MI Daviss past have been inclined to
suspect him of undue Partially toward
a street which must have seen a good
deal of his early youth, but there are
the health records to prove the au-
tnenticity of his statements They
show that the Bowerys health is IS
per cent to the good
While the Bowery has struck a
slight vein of prosperity recently. il
stlli attracts the poorest classes of the
CITY. 1t is the one street within miles
or New York where you can find nu-
merous lodging houses advertising
shelter at thirty cents per night:
where whole dinners may be procured
for twenty-five and thirty cents and
where clothing is peddled at prices
| ranging below fifty cents Naturally.
clothing at this price-is not famous for
Its wear or warmth, so that the citi-
zens of the Bowery are fll-clad and in
sufficiently so. The men who patron
I overcoats. and their shoes generally
leak But they are healthy.
Cleanliness is also a possession
which is held in no great respect by
the citizens of the Bowery So far as
they are concerned, they would lust
as soon it didn't exist, and especially
that it was not SO rigidly enforced by
the health department Recently Mr.
Davis had to send fifty men to public
baths, and one of them caught a bad
ter in denouncing what he termed
| such crazy practices in the dead O.
winter"
when it comes to buying soap"
says Inspector Davis, the citizens of
the Bowery much prefer eats-coffee
and stef or beans-so that sometimes
soap is sidetracked. Perhaps all their
necks are not clean (but for that mat
| ter, whose is in New York p, and their
faces not polished up, or their bodies
scrubbed as thoroly as one might wish,
| still the dirtiest ones I have come
across are the healthiest"
! In spite of this discovery, the health
department refuses to argue, as might
| be expected. that filth is conducive
| to health. Instead, it is putting forth
laborlous efforts to make the Bowery
| clean up. Inspector Davis, when not
| inspecting lodging houses for signs of
dirt, spends his time addressing large
| audiences of the men who patroniZe
| them, explaining the necessity of san
itary precautions and asking for their
| cooperation. The men are usually
willing enough to help. but the lodg-
ing house keepers are not quite SO gra-
cious.
1T was a Chinese joint that gave
the first heed to our campaign for
sanitation" says Inspector Davis.
Gee, what a dump it wasi But the
proprietor took my advice, and in
weeks time all the old beds, sheets
and dirty blankets were thrown out,
and in their stead new hunks, new
| bedding and clean everything putin.
The floors that were dirty now look
white, and the spiderwebs (the Chi
nese proprietor called them 'whisk-
| ers') are gone.
AT one lodging house the pro-
prietor appears to have cornered the
insect market. He has been given or,
ders to get rid of his surplus stock.
His point was: II the men don't
kick. why should the health depart
ment?' But, says I, These men go TO
all parts OF the city and we do not
want tfTem to take with them excess
! baggage"
| I Not all of the citizens of the Bow
/ cry are very poor, according to In
spector Davis. Many of them are en-
ployed in factories, warehouses, ship
yards, and a large number of the
younger men in offices, where they
make fairly good salaries. They stock
to the Bowery because living there is
| cheap, and then, they say they are
afraid to move to other parts of the
city which seem so unhealthy" In
spector Davis knows of hundreds of
SUCH men who are making at least
( forty dollars a week, living on ten
and putting the other thirty a week
away in the bank.
But to the casual explorer, walking
down the Bowery in search of its pc
GUITAR healthful charm, there is GER
tainly little to recommend 1t. At
present, weeks after the great blizzard
of the winter, the street, under the
arch of the Third avenue elevated. is
still covered with a thick, irregular
carpet of grimy ice. broken in places
by large ponds of black water, so that
crossing the Bowery on foot is almost
as impossible as crossing the Hudson
or any other great river
The numerous. small stores which
huddle against each other on each side
of the street, are all in need of paint.
I -
Above them are the dusty. silent win
dows of the lodg ngs of the healthy,
with fire escapes at frequent intervals.
apparently not so much for use in case
of fire as for supporting lines Of wildly
Tapping, drying clothes.
-
Much of the business on the BoweEy
is transacted out of doors. hardware.