Is This Based On Exact Facts

Editor Argus:

Some time ago I noticed in the columns of your paper that the president of the board of health was urging the people to "clean up their back yards" and "that it was many years since he had seen the alleys and back yards in such a filthy condition."

This may be true. But I would like to take him into the back yard of the Homeopathic hospital, or have him view the same from the corner of Washington and Fourteenth streets. There is an old saying that is very applicable in this case- "Those who live in glass houses etc." I would advise that our president walk down on Fourteenth street occasionally and see that back yard as we do.

Now, Mr. Editor, it is not only the sight that hurts us, there are several other things more serious. There is not a day that passes but what there is barrel after barrel of waste paper brought out to be burned; the biggest part of which is caught by the March winds and hurled into our back yards. Still we are told to "clean up for health's sake."

Now, it seems to me that if there is no ordinance against such a thing, it is about time our city fathers were getting around to make one. The dirty clothes are sent away to the laundry, the swill from the kitchen is put into barrels and hauled away to the pigs. But the old bandages and wads of cotton, and all the human filth that comes from the operating table is thrown out on the brow of the hill for the cats and dogs to carry portions of it all! over the neighborhood.

Now, this may be all right and healthy for the patients away up in the hospital on top of the hill, but I fail to see the healthfulness of it for the people who live under the hill.

Now, if this is the way they do in large cities, and if these are the "sanitary conditions" that we hear so much about in this University city, I believe I would prefer to live in the backwoods.

Now another thing, are we allowed to burn rubbish, etc, at all hours of the day, or is there an ordinance against it? It matters not how hard the wind is blowing or what the hour of the day is, they will have a big bonfire.

Now, Mr. Editor, if these are the conditions of the hospital dump now, what will it be when the warm weather comes?