Garbage

kitchen and table refuse. The word is of unknown origin, meaning at first the entrails of fowls. The term has been extended to include all vegetable and animal refuse, such as bones, potato parings, scraps from the table, etc. Ashes are not properly garbage. The pigpen and the chickencoop take care of kitchen waste in farming communities, but in the larger towns the solution of the garbage problem is difficult. The housekeepers of New York City are required to place this refuse in cans. It is collected daily, loaded on scows, and sent off to an establishment where it is sorted and disposed of, the first step being to subject it to hot steam to kill all germs. The plant is calculated to care for 4,000,000 pounds of garbage daily. It has been found that American cities produce about one pound daily per inhabitant; European cities about half as much. Paris, such is the skill and economy of French housekeepers, has scarce any garbage.

The new garbage cans distributed through Central Park in New York are constructed of concrete, and made to appear like a tree stump or section of a tree trunk. The opening into which the rubbish is thrust is on one side near the top. The idea of such garbage cans is the same as that which caused a Frenchman of artistic temperament to have the concrete chimney of a private electric plant on his beautiful estate disguised as a tall tree trunk. Such cans do not mar the natural beauty of a park as do the ordinary galvanized tin garbage cans.--Technical World.