canal was opened in 1900. In 1906 the Supreme Court dismissed 
St. Louis’s case against it. 
On down the river it goes, St. Louis doing as it has been 
done by and giving its patrimony of filth to the cities below— 
Memphis ranking fourteenth and New Orleans fifth. Saved, 
so far as good luck rather than good management is concerned, 
by the self-purification of the river—that ancient, overrated sani¬ 
tary doctrine — these cities go calmly on with the pest at their 
gates unchecked. 
Or suppose we take the lake cities, such as we have taken in 
Buffalo. Cleveland pours its sewage into Lake Erie and then 
goes out a few miles farther and brings back water to drink. 
Recently it had to go out even farther, as Chicago has had to do 
in Lake Michigan. 
As a general proposition it may be laid down that the Far 
Western rivers are not quite so badly polluted as the Eastern. 
Yet in the larger cities this is not true and typhoid rages in spite 
of the newness of the country. Thus Los Angeles ranked 
eleventh on the bad list, San Francisco eighteenth and Denver 
tenth—the latter city having to-day learned the need of filtration. 
THE TYPHOID-RIDDEN SOUTH 
The South is especially scourged with typhoid. Memphis, 
New Orleans, Washington, and Baltimore all rank high in the 
list. Charleston has the exceptionally high rate, according to a 
census report covering five years, 84 in every 100,000; Atlanta 
has 69, and Mobile 68. The palm goes to Lynchburg, Va., with 
99 and Petersburg is next with 92. Wheeling, W. Va., has a rate 
of 82. Other American cities with more than double the normal 
typhoid death rate are Jacksonville, Raleigh, Richmond, San An¬ 
tonio, Savannah, and Wilmington. 
PERILS THAT LURK IN ICE 
But the peril of drinking-water is not the only cause of this 
great filth disease. There are other almost as great factors. 
Take the matter of ice, for instance. On February 4, 1908, 
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