However, it
suggested a way out to me. Two could play at that game. There is
a familiar principle of sanitary law, expressed in more than one
ordinance, that no citizen has a right to maintain a nuisance on
his premises because he is lazy or it suits his convenience in other
ways. The city is merely the aggregate of citizens in a corporation,
and must be subject to the same rules. I drew up a complaint in
proper official phrase, charging that the state of Mulberry Bend
was "detrimental to health and dangerous to life," and formally
arraigned the municipality before the Health Board for maintaining
a nuisance upon its premises.
I have still a copy of that complaint, and, as the parting shot
to the worst slum that ever was, and, let us hope, ever will be,
I quote it here in part:--
"The Bend is a mass of wreck, a dumping-ground for all manner of
filth from the surrounding tenements. The Street-cleaning Department
has no jurisdiction over it, and the Park Department, in charge of
which it is, exercises none.
"The numerous old cellars are a source of danger to the children
that swarm over the block.
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