108 POLITICAL LIFE -IV 



very center of evil stood what was dignified by the name 

 of the "Health Department. " At the head of this was a 

 certain Boole, who, having gained the title of "city in- 

 spector," had the virtual appointment of a whole army 

 of so-called "health inspectors," "health officers," and 

 the like, charged with the duty of protecting the public 

 from the inroads of disease; and never was there a 

 greater outrage against a city than the existence of this 

 body of men, absolutely unfit both as regarded character 

 and education for the duties they pretended to discharge. 



Against this state of things there had been developed 

 a "citizens' committee," representing the better elements 

 of both parties, its main representatives being Judge 

 Whiting and Mr. Dorman B. Eaton, and the evidence 

 these gentlemen exhibited before the committee on muni- 

 cipal affairs, at Albany, as to the wretched condition of 

 the city health boards was damning. Whole districts in 

 the most crowded wards were in the worst possible sani- 

 tary condition. There was probably at that time nothing 

 to approach it in any city in Christendom save, possibly, 

 Naples. Great blocks of tenement houses were owned by 

 men who kept low drinking bars in them, each of whom, 

 having secured from Boole the position of "health 

 officer," steadily resisted all sanitary improvement or 

 even inspection. Many of these tenement houses were 

 known as "fever nests"; through many of them small- 

 pox frequently raged, and from them it was constantly 

 communicated to other parts of the city. 



Therefore it was that one morning Mr. Laimbeer, the 

 only Republican member from the city, rose, made an 

 impassioned speech on this condition of things, moved a 

 committee to examine and report, and named as its mem- 

 bers Judge Munger, myself, and the Democratic senator 

 from the Buffalo district, Mr. Humphrey. 



As a result, a considerable part of my second winter 

 as senator was devoted to the work of this special com- 

 mittee in the city of New York. We held a sort of court, 

 had with us the sergeant-at-arms, were empowered to send 



