The Slaughterhouse Stench South Seattle Blamed for Scarlet Fever

The outbreak of scarlet fever has called attention to the need of better sanitary precautions, and some residents of the southern part of the city ascribe the prevalence of disease to the throwing of offal from slaughterhouses on the tide flats. The following communication has come to the Post-Intelligencer from that quarter:

"To the Editor: The spread of scarlet fever in the city of Seattle is causing widespread alarm among the heads of families. The board of health orders necessary to close all the schools in order to stay the progress of the dread disease. For every effect there must be a cause, and, in common with thousands of others, I should like to be informed if the board of health has investigated the presence of scarlet fever. It is the opinion of those who live in the vicinity of or travel along Grant street that the dumping on the mud flats of the refuse of the slaughterhouses and stockyards in that part of the city has much, if not all, to do with creating and fostering scarlet fever and other diseases. One has but to pass through the neighborhood of these offal dens when the tide is out to realize from the awful stench which prevails that malaria and other disease-breeding factories are in our midst. It is not surprising scarlet fever is raging. The only wonder is that 'yellow Jack,' cholera and the black plague have not yet decided to locate their angel of death in so favorable a spot.

"The presence of the stockyards is a menace to the health of the citizens of Seattle, and every means and steps should be taken to cause their immediate removal. It would be cheaper for the authorities to purchase and burn the rookeries than have the city placed in quarantine. But if corporate bodies are compelled to obey sanitary rules and regulations in common with individuals there should be no cause for such an expenditure by the city.

"The undersigned must emphatically protest against the stockyards and slaughterhouses now located on Grant street being permitted to remain, and we desire to call the attention of the board of health and city authorities to these breeders and promoters of death-dealing diseases. We also request that immediate steps be taken to remove them to some other part not so thickly inhabited. Very respectfully, Alfred J. Clode, F. De Conilpied, Joseph Daoust, E. W. Small, A. Feoxe, G. L. Burdic, O. W. Small, James B. Paul, K. H. Stafford, Mrs. G. Wheeler, P. F. Brinning, Charles Neumann, Frank Higgins, D. L. Plett, Eugene Amsler, J. M. Maring, G. V. Cotton, A. W. Jamison."