OCR Text |
Show OUR SANITARY CONDITION. Since the first ideas-of civilization dawned upon man, and he commenced com-menced to form communities for the social and commercial pui poses of life, two questions have been of utmost importance: First, the means at hand whereby to obtain a living; second, how to preserve health. Among the savage the custom -prevails of moving from place to place, so as to escape the accumulations of the disease-breeding offals from his habitation. habit-ation. In civilized communities where residences are of a permanent nature, science and ingenuity are called into use for the purpose of providing mea- mres whereby continued existence in a particular place may be rendered healthful, and the dangerous result of close living and in large numbers can be avoided; and wherever unusual mortality and sickness prevails, the cause thereof may be easily traced to defective drainage sewerage and a general neglect of those precautions by which only the civilized man can maintain good health and prosperity. Sewerage is of ithe utmost importance import-ance to any city, and by looking jsround us here in Provo we find that it has been wholly neglected. No system of any kind is provided; waste from houses, outbuildings and barn yards is left wherevre it chances to fall; the water from washings, from sinks, and in fact all the rinsings from diseased and epidemic victims are thrown indiscriminatingly anywhere, left where the sun may dry them up, and scatter the germs of sickness abroad to make fresh victims. All of our public institutions contain no sewerage. In Jone case, the Woolen Factory, the poisonous dyes, the deposit de-posit from water closets and machinery alike, are dropped into a public stream, passing through the centre of the city. Two or three private houses, and one hotel, lead their pipes thereto, and allow the waste to run with it towards the Lake regardless of the fact that human beings live along that stream, use its water for household purposes, and that what is finally carried to the lake poisons its water and destroys life all along its course. This is simply criminal, and while the law forbids1 the saw-dust from mills to be deposited in our river, it certainly also will for-hinman for-hinman excrement from bping pent on its disease and deathbreeding mission mis-sion through the heart of a thriving and populous little city like Provo, were the facts generally known and understood. What can be done? Can we consistently con-sistently aspire to the dignity of a city and invite capital to start manufactories manu-factories and enterprises, with that consequence increase of population, under our present state of sanitary regulations? Is it likely that intelligent intelli-gent people will selilo where a modern mod-ern house and its convenience cannot be maintained, where our numerous physicians are constantly employed and where one alono writes as many as four hundred prescriptions for the relief of strictly zymotic deseases in one week. It must be clear to every thinking mind, that something must be done, and done at once, and it behoves our City Council and jilso our enterprising Chamber of Commerce to give their attention to this. First of all we must make our city healthful, and then we can ask our friends outside to come and live with us, and add their e nergy and capital to the development of our natural advantages and resources. Of course the cry will be: "It costs something" Well, so do doctors and undertakers, and it iB generally most appreciated to spend. means to live than to fight death. With our present surroundings we must at once set about getting a sewer system,and we are creditably informed that such a system cn be adopted and at a small outlay introduced into our houses and yards and carry off these wastes whore they may be safely deposited and their danger avoided, making our cily, in addition to its natural beautiful location, a city of health. Let all our citizens use their best effort to obtain this most needed improvement im-provement and thereby show their enterprise and inaks Provo a city desirable for residences as well as for industrious undi :takiiis. |