THE PROBLEM OF MUNICIPAL NUISANCES. 591 



This immense body of laborers was put at work before the middle 

 of December. And how much did they accomplish '? 



On Januaiy 5th a correspondent writes : " Beneath our feet such 

 mire as has not been seen since the first week succeeding the origi- 

 nal deluge. . . . Fromthejirst fall of snow, upon the Jfth of December, 

 the regular scavenger service was suspended, and noio, that the snow 

 has melted aioay, great heaps of offal and filth of all sorts lie rotting 

 in the open air.'''' (The italics are mine.) 



In a letter to the "New York Evening Post," dated at Paris, Jan- 

 uary 6th, Edward King writes: " Coming into the city after a brief jour- 

 ney to Spain a day or two since, I almost fancied myself in New York, 

 so familiar seemed the long banks of snow, garnished with dirt and 

 the refuse from kitchens. The municipal authorities have been unable 

 to maintain their reputation for promptness in street-cleaning, in pres- 

 ence of the unaccustomed snowy visitation." 



As late as February 18, 1880, more than two months after the snow- 

 fall, and with mild weather intervening, notwithstanding the efforts of 

 14,000 men and the expenditure of 1100,000, " Le Figaro " has the fol- 

 lowing paragraphs : 



" There still remain, in many of the side streets, disagreeable re- 

 minders of the snow of last December. Thus, to mention only one 

 instance, but one that counts, we call attention to the streets and pas- 

 sages of the districts bordering on the Eighteenth Ward (arrondisse- 

 ment). The streets and narrow alleys lying between the Rue Ordener 

 and the fortifications, and between the long Rue des Poissonniers and 

 the Avenue de Saint Ouen, are in a wretched state. Heaps of filth, 

 composed of earth-mixed snow, vegetable scraps, and refuse of all kinds, 

 stagnate in the puddles formed by the holes in the pavement. 



"The complete repair of this pavement is absolutely necessary. 

 The old women of the quarter quarrel every day about who shall clean 

 in front of the houses, and the streets remain filthy. 



" Between the passages Traeger and des Poissonniers there is an 

 open space of about one thousand square feet" (one hundred square 

 metres). " This space is now a mere slough of filth, where the inhabi- 

 tants, careless of sanitary laws, deposit the most unseemly products of 

 their meals." (Something left to the imagination here.) 



" Let there be a hot sun, and an epidemic will sweep away the ten- 

 ants of these hovels by the hundred. 



" Note to the Commission of Hygiene and Public Health, and to 

 the ashmen. The tenants of this quarter have lost the habit of seeing 

 these men." 



The extraordinary parallelism between such passages and the com- 

 ments of our own newspapers in the spring of 1879 will be noticed by 

 every one. 



Query ? If 14,000 men and $100,000 are unable to clean 2,667 

 acres of street in Pai-is in two months after a snow-fall of twenty inches, 



