MODERN METHODS OF STREET CLEANING 



And again: 



"I counted two-and-seventy stenches, 

 All well denned, and several stinks." 



In 1881 the old fortifications were abandoned and 

 their place taken by new and handsome streets. Since 

 then the area of the city has more than doubled, and 

 extensive municipal improvements have been made. 

 The city is now sewered and possesses one of the most 

 recent and approved systems of sewage disposal of any 

 similarly situated place in Germany. This system is 

 very simple. The sewage is screened and passed 

 through a sedimentation basin before it is discharged 

 into the Rhine. 



Much of the old part of the city is given up to hand- 

 some shops and cafes. After the custom of Holland, 

 the principal thoroughfare is crowded from house line 

 to house line with promenaders after nightfall. 



The history of the development of the present sys- 

 tem of street cleaning (which is remarkable chiefly as 

 affording an example of good German practice) shows 

 so well the experience of other European cities that a 

 short account of it will be given here. It will be ob- 

 served that the sanitary history of Cologne is being 

 repeated with certain modifications in many cities of 

 the United States to-day. 



At the beginning of the sixteenth century, when 

 Cologne was an independent city and one of the wealth- 

 condition of iest and most prosperous commercial centers 

 in^ve^Earty m Europe, official attention seems first to have 

 Times been directed to the insanitary condition of 



the city. Filth lay in heaps in front of the houses on 

 both sides of the streets. The few open spaces but 

 served to make the air more foul rather than to clean 



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