The Price of Neglect: Seattle’s Summer Stench

In the matter of the public streets, there is something more than a mere aesthetic consideration involved in keeping these in order. We notice that some desirable improvements have been made upon a few of the streets within a few weeks past, as upon Madison street between Fourth and Sixth, Marion from Third to Fourth, and on Spring from Front to First, but the most dilapidated streets are still as much obstructed with sewerage as ever. The simple truth is, that puddles of stagnant drainage standing along the margin of many of our principal streets and evaporating in the sun are nothing more or less than poison generators, which are responsible for a great deal of the sore-throat and fevers that prevail here so extensively after every heavy rain. If the surface gutters were kept carefully cleared, the gradient of our streets is such that the heavy rains would of themselves keep the streets thoroughly cleansed. The difficulty is that the channels become clogged and the free flowage prevented, in consequence of which pools of corruption are formed that exhale miasmas throughout the greater part of the year. Where the lives of so many children and the general health of all are so directly involved, a negligence of this matter is inexcusable. Either this matter of drainage must be attended to, or else citizens will find it to their advantage to scatter out into the fresh suburbs.