THE USE A\D AIM'S!-: Ml (I TV STREETS 



go to meet one another, to talk over the affairs of the 

 day. to !>( entertained, to eat, to drink, to inspect shop 

 windows, to do marketing, to buy and sell merchandise, 

 and i<> perform a thousand offices which the exigencies 

 of city life make profitable, healthful or agreeable. 



How intimate is this life of the streets to the lives 

 of the people is not likely to be fully understood by 

 anyone who has not studied this subject in the great 

 cities. It can best be understood in Europe. 



The city streets connect every household. The city 

 man not only moves through the streets; he carries the 

 dirt of the streets into his home on his boots and cloth- 

 ing; he gets his food and air through the streets. Un- 

 fortunately both food and air are often contaminated. 



It is not pleasant to consider the nature of these 

 contaminating matters. They consist of the pulverized 

 excretions and rejecta of thousands of human beings 

 and animals, the wastes of hundreds of factories and 

 shops, and, in fact, the product of the ceaseless wear 

 and tear of everything perishable in the city. It is a 

 rule of sanitary science that what is once rejected and 

 cast off by the body shall not again be taken into it, 

 but here we have all manner of excretory products 

 taken into our bodies by food and air in plain viola- 

 tion of this law. 



It is well to study thoroughly this question of city 

 dirt. Ground into impalpable powder and raised from 

 the pavements by the wind, it hangs in the 

 atmosphere and can plainly be seen in the 

 air like a haze on a calm day. The quantity held con- 

 stantly in suspension is so great that it affects the city's 

 climate. It discolors our persons and our clothing; it 

 turns marble and even granite yellow and black. 



7 



