American Progress in Habana 



99 



the city had been cleaned from top to 

 bottom at least once under the super- 

 vision of American officers. Picture 

 No. i shows the cleaning squad in front 

 of a house which was about to be at- 

 tacked. The squad washed the floors 

 with electrozone (made by the elec- 

 trolysis of sea water) and the walls with 

 a solution of bichloride of mercury. 

 As many as 16,000 houses were cleaned 

 in this way in a single month. When 

 the squad left a house it was as clean 

 and spotless as " Spotless Town." All 

 this cleansing was done by hired Cubans 

 under the personal direction of an Amer- 

 ican officer. The Cuban of high or low 

 degree had to have his house purified, 

 and his remonstrances availed nothing. 

 It ma> - at first sight seem to have been 

 an arbitrary course of proceedings, to 

 enter a man's house thus and wash it 

 while he and his family looked on, but 



the health and safety of the whole 

 people demanded that a complete cleans- 

 ing of the city be made. The sights 

 that met the cleaning squad may be im- 

 agined but not described. Accumula- 

 tions of years and decades of filth were 

 heaped in cellars and courts and closets. 

 The cleaning of the houses, however, 

 was not a circumstance to the work of 

 opening and cleaning the sewers. These 

 had not been touched since they were 

 built, long ago. Years of refuse had 

 choked many of them, so that the system 

 had become a continual source of danger 

 to the city. Without hesitation, how- 

 ever, they were attacked by the ener- 

 getic squads and every foot of sewer 

 thoroughly cleansed and repaired. So 

 scientifically was the work done that, 

 though the men were working deep 

 down in the ground all day long, not a 

 single man of the squads was taken sick. 



No. 2. Hospital Militar, Habana 



