408 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



SEWAGE AT THE SEA-SIDE. 

 Messrt. Editors : 



A LETTER in the " Christian Advocate " 

 for March 22d denies the charges 

 made in my article in the " Monthly " for 

 March, as to the unhygienic condition of 

 Ocean Grove during the crowded periods of 

 past seasons. An editorial in the same 

 number of the " Advocate " and another 

 two weeks later call attention to this let- 

 ter, and challenge '' The Popular Science 

 Monthly " " either to prove or retract " 

 these charges. The editor, who says that 

 he is " without personal knowledge " of the 

 conditions of the place, assumes that Ocean 

 Grove has been slandered from anti-religious 

 motives, and avers " that the determining 

 reason which animated the singling out of 

 Ocean Grove for special mention as a sinner 

 above all others in sanitary matters was, 

 . . . because it was, as the writer phrases 

 it, a religious resort." 



Now, the writer indignantly disclaims the 

 charge that the question of religion pre- 

 sented itself to her mind. It would, in- 

 deed, be a strange association of ideas that 

 could make her attack on bad sewage an 

 assault upon religion. Moreover, it is evi- 

 dent that this editor was not only " without 

 personal knowledge " of the place he cham- 

 pions, but that he was also without personal 

 knowledge of the article which he criticises. 

 Otherwise he presumably would not apply 

 the masculine gender to a writer giving a 

 name purely feminine, nor complain of the 

 "singling out of Ocean Grove," when it was 

 one of six places mentioned, and only twelve 

 lines were given to it. That I was not alone 

 in my criticism is naively acknowledged by 

 the editor in characterizing it as " one of 

 various unwarranted attacks," and in his 

 saying that " Ocean Grove has not been ex- 

 cepted from the unfavorable comments " 

 that have been made on various sea-side 

 resorts, and that " the intimations have 

 continued and become rumors detrimental 

 to the character of the place as a health 

 resort." 



The letter above referred to is from the 

 Rev. E. H. Stokes, President of the Ocean 

 Grove Camp - Meeting Association. Mr. 

 Stokes says: "All our large hotels, and 

 many of our larger cottages, eighty in num- 

 ber, have sewer connections . . . The 

 sewer runs up into the camp-ground occu- 

 pied by tents, and takes off all the depos- 

 its, both of privy and cesspool from there. 

 The grounds on which the tents are located 

 are thoroughly raked over every morning, 



and the air is pure." From the writer's 

 personal observation extending over a pe- 

 riod of three summers, she denies that the 

 sanitation of Ocean Grove was then even 

 tolerably good. Her account, written in 

 August, 1882, on the spot, and sent to the 

 " Monthly " in September, did not overesti- 

 mate the crowding, nor the effects of the 

 imperfect means which existed for remov- 

 ing fecal accumulations. This was matter 

 of common repute ; everybody could smell 

 the vile odors, and many physicians de- 

 nounced the unsanitary condition of the 

 place. Both the State and the National 

 Boards of Health took notice of these things 

 in their reports for 1882. The former states 

 that in Ocean Grove "the system of water- 

 closet disposal is varied, and depends too 

 much upon the will of each family. The 

 town should ultimately adopt cither a pub- 

 lic system of weekly dry removal, or con- 

 nect all closets, both in-doors and out, with 

 a sewer system." It is further advised be- 

 cause Ocean Grove is " so much of a camp- 

 ing-place for the summer, that to the parts 

 thus occupied the strict rules of military 

 sanitary police should be applied and exe- 

 cuted by an inspector constantly on duty." 

 "The Sanitarian" for April 5, 1883, pub- 

 lished an abstract of a " Report on the At- 

 lantic Coast Resorts," made by E. W. Bow- 

 ditch, C. E., to the National Board of Health, 

 in which is this statement : " The watering- 

 places on the Atlantic coast of New Jer- 

 sey are all more or less in a transition state ; 

 few have adequate water-supplies, and none 

 are supplied with sewers." Dr. Bowditch 

 thus practically ignored the attempts at sew- 

 erage made by the authorities of Atlantic 

 City and Asbury Park, as well as of Ocean 

 Grove. 



These authorities, and the statement of 

 the writer's own experience, will perhaps 

 refute the "Advocate" editor's assertion 

 that, " without knowledge of any facts, the 

 reckless charges were penned," and the still 

 more vigorous language of the Rev. Mr. 

 Stokes, who arrogates a thorough know ledge 

 of the five other places criticised, when he 

 writes, " I pronounce the whole article 

 false " ! A virtual confession of the truth 

 of the charges is made by the activity dis- 

 played during the winter in remedying the 

 causes of complaint. Faults in construction 

 of the Asbury Park sewers have been 

 remedied, and some eighteen thousand feet 

 of sewer-pipe have been laid in Ocean 

 Grove. Fletcher Lake, which last summer 

 was filled with muck, has been cleaned out 



