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21
Public Improvements.
Amongst the improvements that might be made
in this parish, I would strongly recommend one by
which greater facilities for cleanliness could be
oifered to the inhabitants. In the thickly-peopled
streets on each side of Harrow Road live engineers,
stokers, smiths, fitters, and other working-men
engaged in the smoky atmosphere of shops belonging
to the GreatWestern Railway and other works.
These would find immense benefits from public
baths and a laundry contiguous to their dwellings.
Such increased facilities for cleanliness of person
and clothing would not fail to have a most beneficial
influence upon public health, as well as upon the
morality of large numbers of people.
Artizans return home from their labour fatigued
and dirty, have often to retire to bed without the
slightest convenience for obtaining hot water for
personal ablution ; this tells very seriously at
times not only upon the health of the workingmen
themselves but in no way so much as in
favoring the spread of contagious and infectious
diseases amongst all classes. No practical
success can be attained in the "stamping out" of
contagious maladies without securing as a first condition,
cleanliness of person and garments. For
this, who are the poor and industrial population
to look to but the municipal power? To provide
it they are willing to be taxed, and I need not