Stephen Smith
speaker
1,482 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 23 Jul
Stephen Smith’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
After considerable inquiry in the neighborhood I found a person who was the real agent of the landlord, but no other information could be obtained than that the owner took no interest in the property, and that the agent was under instructions not to reveal the owner's name.
A suggestion to this agent to have the house vacated and put in good condition for tenants was refused with a contemptuous remark as to the absurdity of furnishing such vagrants and immigrants better quarters in which to live.
As there was no health department to which an appeal could be made, the Metropolitan Police Department was visited, and the matter laid before its president, mister Acton.
He directed the Secretary, Mr Hawley, a lawyer, to examine the health laws and ordinances to determine what measures were in the power of the police to enforce.
A search was made, and the result was that neither law nor ordinance under which the police could take action was found or
Mr Acton advised that the tax list be examined to find who paid taxes on the property and thus discover the responsible party to its ownership, and then that appeal be made directly to him to authorize the necessary improvements.
An examination of the tax list revealed that the owner was a wealthy man living in an aristocratic neighborhood, a member of one of the most popular
the popular churches of the city.
The condition of his tenement house was brought to his attention, and its menace to the public health as a fruitful fever nest was explained.
He was very angry at what he declared was an interference with the management of his property, and asserted in the most emphatic manner that as the house yielded him no rent, he would not expend a dollar for the benefit of the miserable creatures who had so wrecked the building.
With the failure of this appeal to the owner, I had exhausted, apparently, every legal and moral means of abating a nuisance dangerous to life and detrimental to health.
In this extremity I visited the office of the Evening Post and explained the matter to Mr William Cullen Bryant, then editor of that newspaper.
He was at once interested in the failure of the power of the city government to remedy such a flagrant evil.
In the absence of laws and ordinances, Mr Bryant proposed to make the case public in all of its details, and for that purpose suggested
suggested that the police should cause the arrest of the delinquent owner, and that he would send a reporter to make notes of the case.
A charge was made against the landlord, and he was required to appear at the Jefferson Market Court.
On entering the court, he was confronted by the reporter, pad and pencil in hand, who pressed him with questions as to his tenement house.
Greatly alarmed at his situation, the owner inquired as to the purpose of the reporter, and was informed that Mr Bryant intended to publish the proceedings of the court in the evening post and to expose his maintenance of a fever nest of the worst description.
He begged that no further proceedings be taken, and promised the court that he would immediately make all necessary improvements.
He promptly added
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