Ten Days in August by Kate McMurray

Author:Kate McMurray [McMurray, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2016-01-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

At the request of Commissioner of Public Works Collis and a written memo from Mr. Roosevelt, Andrew accompanied a team to the corner of Canal and Ludlow Streets. He’d protested the whole way, his work regarding the Bryan speech unable to wait, but the powers that be had ordered him to oversee the men who carried out the plan.

The air was pungent, smelling of sweat and dead animals, and the streets were littered with the corpses of dead dogs, great piles of horse excrement, and what might have been blood in one of the gutters. A few curious onlookers had wandered over to see what those assembled were about to do. Their presence reminded Andrew of something Hank had said the day before about the conditions in the tenements. Andrew had read How the Other Half Lives, and he knew full well what condition the residents of these old, crumbling buildings had to endure, but seeing this street on such a night was something else entirely.

That they were a week into one of the worst heat waves in Andrew’s memory and no one had thought to do this sooner alarmed Andrew. He knew full well how many people—how many children—in this small district had expired since the heat wave began because many of those coroner’s reports passed over his desk.

Commissioner Collis stood on the corner and explained his plan to everyone as a team of a dozen workers unfurled great hoses. They were going to flush out the Lower East Side.

“The water,” Collis said, “will cool the asphalt and also wash away the accumulated detritus on the streets. By twelve o’clock tonight we shall have thoroughly washed every street in this section between Houston and Division Streets. Let each gang take a street. Hitch on to every fireplug and don’t spare the water. It’s a terrible night, and many lives may depend on the way you work. Flood the streets and cool the air. Now go ahead.”

A glance down the streets where Andrew stood showed there were already perhaps a hundred children outside. As the teams started their hoses, a few came to cautiously splash around in the cool water. Then more joined as their parents looked on. Andrew had been skeptical of this plan, but as he heard the laughter of children, he couldn’t help but think this was a smart course of action. Already, the air around them felt cooler. Andrew was tempted to jump into those streams of water himself, but he refrained.

A woman in a tattered dress holding a small child to her bosom walked up to Andrew and said, “I cannot thank you enough for what you are doing.”

Andrew watched as more children jumped into the streams of water, many squealing with joy and laughter as they played together. He turned toward the woman. “Do you believe this helps?”

“Oh, yes, sir. Can you not feel how much cooler it has become since they turned the water on? And look at the children at play! It is like a vacation for them.

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