THE USE AND ABUSE OF CITY STREETS 



still passing, rapidly through periods of infancy, youth, 

 and adolescence, toward a maturity which foreign 

 cities had reached half a century ago. Their sanitation 

 takes place as they grow. 



That branch of scavenging which has to do with the 

 question of street cleaning is not at first troublesome 

 to the young American city. The streets are origin of 

 merely highways which run from one town to City Streeti 

 another and the houses which are built upon these high- 

 ways are few and far between. House refuse is dis- 

 posed of in our villages in simple, not to say, primitive 

 fashion. The ashes from fires are thrown in heaps 

 somewhere back of the houses and often on the side- 

 walks and roads. Kitchen garbage is generally fed to- 

 chickens or pigs. 



In course of time, as the population increases, the 

 main highway is paralleled and intersected by cross 

 roads; these again are crossed and recrossed to satisfy 

 the growing requirements of the place. Capacious 

 gutters make their appearance on one or both sides of 

 the streets, but, except for an occasional drain to some 

 brook or creek, a final disposition of surface water is 

 not provided for. The distinctive characteristic of the 

 village street is that it is an artery of travel built to 

 afford facilities for men and teams to pass from town 

 to town. 



The first important public sanitary improvement to- 

 be made in the village is a public water-supply. This 

 leads to the use of water-closets, and to accommodate 

 the drainage from these, cesspools are built. The sub- 

 ject of street paving is then considered and some mac- 

 adam is laid down. The streets are sometimes made 

 wet with water from a hose in summer to keep down 



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