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84
common with others, has to receive all from the higher grounds,
and cannot ventilate itself; but they could ventilate St. James's.
This would be a vast and most comprehensive scheme, and fearfully
expensive, but the only rational one.
Following the previous remarks, the subject of public conveniences
follows. Admitting it is not a pleasant one, it must be looked
in the face, and the St. James's Vestry have never evaded or
"shirked" it. As the opinion of one individual who has felt it his
duty to assist in solving a difficulty, the more public such places are,
and the more they are out of doors, so to speak, the better.
Although privacy and convenience at home are a great comfort,
they are not of necessity paramount. Thousands of men—and,
with all due respect, women—are so much occupied out of doors,
public accommodation would be a positive blessing, and, as sanitary
officers know, would work much benefit. Much suffering, disease,
and death, would be avoided by putting on a bold front, and discarding
the idea of delicacy (a very proper one) by substituting
"necessity" in its stead. No apology is needed for approaching
such a subject; such institutions would soon become matters of
course, and be the rule instead of the exception.
The "accidents" to the glass of the prominent lamps are, or
have been, very discouraging; the old patterns, if such a term can
be used in connexion with the largest amount of metal and the
smallest amount of glass, seem to escape; but anything new becomes
a target: this is a problem at present unsolved. Heat cannot do it,
and the use of the word "target" appears to be uncharitable to
somebody, but it cannot be withdrawn; in other words, they are
injured purposely, without any gratification to those who do it, and
it should be on record that it is not from any trade rivalry, or anything
connected with the same. The idea that wanton mischief
can be done with impunity, is, in my opinion, at the bottom of the
annoyance and waste. It is almost invariably on the line of busy
thoroughfares that the greatest amount of injury is found—and
perhaps the weapon used is a whip, the effect of which is easily
seen but difficult of detection.