STREET-CLEANING IN LARGE CITIES. 753 



is necessary, and police justices must promptly punish offenders 

 against the cleanliness of the streets, and severely, too, in case 

 they are repeated. With proper action and co-operation of police 

 officers and police justices, the great and most important obstacle 

 to clean streets in New York can be removed. 



When this is accomplished, the following will be necessary to 

 entirely secure the desired object : 



1. The laws and sanitary ordinances should be amplified and 

 extended, if necessary, to cover minutely all subjects incidental 

 and necessary to clean streets. Such laws and ordinances should 

 be so broad, plain, and explicit that every citizen would know his 

 duty in the premises, that every police officer would be certain 

 when it was proper to make an arrest for violations, and that no 

 police justice could fail to punish upon proper evidence. 



2. The ash and garbage receptacles, in which the refuse of 

 buildings and the sweepings from the sidewalk should be care- 

 fully placed, should be well made of galvanized iron, of style and 

 size prescribed by ordinance, and they should be portable, abso- 

 lutely tight, with covers, and the covers should not be removed 

 except when necessary. These receptacles should be placed for 

 removal in the areas within the stoop lines, or in some other con- 

 venient place, but never on the sidewalks ; and rag-pickers and 

 scavengers should not be allowed to disturb their contents. The 

 ashes and garbage should be removed daily at a fixed and regu- 

 lar hour from every building, in absolutely tight carts, of size 

 and style prescribed by ordinance, with covers so arranged that 

 no part of the contents can escape. Carts for the transportation 

 of street or cellar dirt, manure or other refuse, should also be of 

 uniform size and style, tight and covered, and specially con- 

 structed and adapted to their respective purposes. 



Public cremation of garbage, or its utilization by some of the 

 known methods, should be introduced in New York without 

 delay. Proper buildings for this purpose should be constructed 

 upon the water front, conveniently located in different parts of 

 the city. In many cities in this country the different processes 

 are used for this purpose with satisfactory results. It is several 

 years since the New York Board of Health demonstrated that 

 refuse animal matter could be safely and inoffensively utilized 

 within the city limits, and the metropolis should not be last to 

 avail itself of improved methods for disposing of its garbage. 

 When arrangements are made for the public cremation or utiliza- 

 tion of garbage, the ashes and garbage should be placed in sepa- 

 rate receptacles, and should be removed separately, the ashes be- 

 ing disposed of for filling sunken lots, redeeming marshy ground, 

 and making new land in the city and vicinity. For a long period 

 in the future, street dirt, and ashes free from garbage, will be 



