598 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



By crying out against the bad smells, they have finally persuaded the 

 Parisians, and even foreigners, that these bad smells really exist. Be- 

 fore this concerted outcry, Parisians never noticed that it stunk in 

 their city. Now, behold ! they are all up in arms against this pretended 

 infection. Who is to blame ? Those incorrigible gabblers the news- 

 paper men. For a trifle, M. Alphand would be willing to say that it 

 is we who are malicious enough to stink, for the pleasure of giving 

 trouble to the authorities. For the past week it stunk every evening 

 in my quarter, and it stunk strongly. One evening, in particular, it 

 stunk so that I found myself compelled to shut my windows, and then 

 it only stunk the more. On my honor ! yesterday morning I had an 

 article to write ; I am in the habit of entertaining our readers with all 

 the subjects that interest me, and just at the time when they interest 

 me, and, as it stunk in my quarter, I immediately said, with my usual 

 bonhomie, ' Oh, my children, how it stinks in my quarter ! ' No, 

 you can not imagine how it stinks in my quarter. This phrase is my 

 witness that I did not ask myself, before uttering this cry of suffering, 

 whether M. Andrieux had made an arrest the night before, nor even 

 whether M, Andrieux was the prefect of police. I said, it stinks, be- 

 cause it stunk, with the ingenuousness of a man who holds his nose, 

 exclaiming, ' My God ! how it stinks ! " * 



The war of words between the public and the officials is still going 

 on, and is becoming more virulent. At the session of the Conseil Ge- 

 neral of October 26th, M. Raspail is reported to have made " a furious 

 attack on the prefect of police, in reference to the factory at Les Hautes- 

 Bornes, the worst of all the factories surrounding Paris, which had 

 been already closed by M. Leon Renault. In spite of M. Voisin, this 

 factory was reopened, thanks to the influence of M. Leon Say, a friend 

 of M. Pauville, the new owner. The papers drawn against this estab- 

 lishment are flawless. Workmen refuse to labor in summer in its 

 vicinity, and those who do work there are seized Avith vomiting. In 

 place of closing this " pestilential center, it is allowed to grow larger. 

 And this is the history of the other depots and ammonia-factories in 

 the suburbs. 



" These bastilles of infection," says M. Raspail, " must disappear, 

 and they will disappear, I assure you, in spite of all possible protec- 

 tion." t 



This paper is already too long. I have had in its preparation but 

 one object, viz. : to demonstrate that some of the nuisances existing 

 in New York continue to exist, not on account of the ignorance, in- 

 competence, or negligence of officials whose duty it is to abate them, 

 but because there arise in connection with their suppression certain vast 

 problems which are not yet solved anywhere in cities of equal size 

 with this. And these problems do not lie on the surface, but only con- 



* "Lancet," October 16, 1880, p. 639. f "Figaro," October 27, 1880, p. 5. 



