I gave payment, but the Inspector who came with me never saw the place where the pigs were to be kept. I found them out on demand. Meat and vegetables were kept in these houses ready for the next day's market. In one house, a quarter of beef ready for the market hung above the bed of a man suffering from Small-pox, in a room where twenty other people slept.
I found public dairies were situated in the lower floors of these houses, with eight or ten cows in them. The cows had never been left out of the place since they were first brought into it and had grown so large that they could not get out of the door until pulled down. The stench was overpowering and sickening everywhere. The people were always very good-natured, let me see all over the houses, answered my questions, and never gave any trouble.
They said they could not keep the places cleaner; if they had water, they could not use it, and they complained bitterly of its scarcity. The scarcity was dreadful. There were wells all over the place, but being situated in such houses and in side streets, the water in most was contaminated with sewage. The hydrants were far apart and, when running, were besieged by water coolies with their buckets.
Thousands who were too poor to buy water from these coolies sent their children long distances to the hill streams to collect it, as the father of the family was away all day at work. A gallon of water was sold to a family for a day's use for cleaning, washing, drinking, and cooking. The water in the wells, if not absolutely stinking, was used for washing clothes, vegetables, and cooking, but not for drinking, as it had a bad taste. Luckily, the people rarely drank cold water but always boiled it and in the form of tea. Among the poor, what is called "stick tea" (that is, "pickings from the tea leaves when being cleaned and sorted") was only used.
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