KinSource - Tale of the Week

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The St. Paul Daily Globe, February 27, 1885, p. 2

A PLAGUE SPOT.

What Was Found in Swede Hollow by the Chamber of Commerce Committee

A party of gentlemen, consisting of Dr. Hoyt, president of the board of health; L. W. Rundlett, E. J. Hodgson, the committee of the chamber of commerce, and a GLOBE scribe, yesterday afternoon made a tour of inspection through Swede Hollow, and also visited the squatters above the Seventh street bridge on Trout brook. The latter settlement consists of fifty houses, which are chiefly occupied by Poles, to few of whom English is intelligible. The houses are in the main little better than hovels, while the surroundings are absolutely filthy. About the doorways are piles of ashes and decaying vegetable matter, and even worse. Along the stream are situated the outhouses, mere apologies placed on four piles driven into the ground. Even [in] this weather the atmosphere is tainted with an unpleasant odor, and it can readily be imagined what noxious exhalations must arise from the neighborhood when the summer sun beats down upon the place and putrifaction begins. It is true that the spring flood will remove a large portion of the disgusting accumulations which are now to be seen on every hand, but enough remains to make the quarter a source of danger to the public health. Dr. Hoyt, who, from many visits, has become thoroughly familiar with the locality and who acted as pilot, says that the soil is saturated with filth and on being turned over gives forth poisonous vapors. Several of the houses on the neighboring hill were closed last summer on account of the malaria, which was attributable to this hollow. In Swede Hollow proper, above the heavy Seventh street fill across Phalen's creek, much the same condition of affairs was found, but the houses further up the hollow showed a more civilized condition of the occupants as to personal comforts, though not as to general health. In several instances were noticed attempts at decoration in the way of window curtains looped back on both sides, and a few plants in flower pots. Below the fill abject wretchedness and filth reign supreme. All these people use the water from the hillside springs, which is pronounced as unwholesome from being impregnated by hilltop drainage. In most instances the houses are put up by the occupants, and a rental of from $1 to $1.50 per month is paid for the ground. Many of the hovels are overcrowded, in several miserable little sheds there being a dozen, and even fifteen people, it is said. Ninety per cent of the male population are reported out of employment and more or less sickness already exists. The locality is sought by the poorer classes because of its being protected from the wind and therefore warmer than the more open section. Less fuel is required, and a most important consideration is the convenience to wood and coal yards, which are numerous along the railroads running through the hollows. The fact is that something should be done toward cleaning out this hot-bed of disease. Should the cholera make its appearance here this summer it would find a splendid base of operations in Swede Hollow. Whether the dread epidemic appears or not, the region sends forth the germs of typho-malaria by the millions to permeate the surrounding air, and it is inimical to public safety from a hygienic point of view.