Snow is one of the hardest things in a city to deal with. It cannot be allowed to lie on the ground as in the country, where it packs into hard, white roads. In cities snow is soon cut up into dirty slush, freezes into ruts and blocks the streets. In the crowded business parts, snow must be shovelled into wagons and carried away. Snow plows and scrapers go over avenues and through parks. A heavy snowfall costs a city thousands of dollars. Besides its stopping traffic, if it should melt all at once it would flood basements and sewers. That would force sewage into the streets and houses, and poison the people.

Street cleaning is only a part of city housekeeping. The health department's business is to see that all the people have pure air, pure water, pure food, and are protected from contagious diseases. The people pay taxes to build water works, and then pay for all the water they use. They pay taxes to lay sewer pipes. Gas companies are given the right to lay gas pipes in the streets. They make money from this right, so they have to obey special laws. Owners of houses, stores and factories, get rent from the people who use them, so they are forced by law to keep their property in good, healthful order.

The health office must warn people by public notice if, at any time, water should be boiled. If your plumbing or gas pipes are out of order, a city inspector will come for nothing to test them, and house owners must repair the pipes, or even tear them out and put new ones in, if necessary. If they refuse to do this the health office has the right to condemn a building, to allow no one to use it, or even to order it torn down. The law in most cities says that no man has any rights in property, above the rights of public health. If there is a dirty stable or factory near you that breeds flies, the health officers will see that the place is cleaned, for flies carry disease. City inspectors watch bakeries, markets, dairies, cold-storage houses and commission houses, to see that no spoiled food is sold.

A well managed city forbids many things that cause accidents. They make speed laws for automobiles, railway trains and street cars. Merchants cannot hang swinging signs over sidewalks, or use the walks for boxes and barrels. People who are putting up tall, new buildings must put wooden sheds over the walks to catch falling bricks, bolts and plaster. Street cars must have fenders to catch people who may fall in front of them, and they are allowed to stop only in certain places, so people will always know what a car is going to do. When a street is being repaired, a hole must be enclosed at night, and a red light hung above. Theaters cannot crowd the aisles, and must mark exits in big letters and with red lights. In a number of cities, railroads are elevated. Even with all the things that are done to protect people, every city has thousands of accidents a year by which people are injured or killed. Many of them are caused by carelessness. One good thing to remember is, that there is more room behind a moving car than there is in front. Another is that a city street is not a safe playground for a child.

It really seems as if cities are more careful of children than many parents are. Many city health departments print little books telling mothers how to feed babies in the hot summer months, when so many babies die. The laws about milk are very strict, for milk is the only food of helpless babies and many sick people. Cities often have fresh air sanitariums in parks for sick babies, and bathing beaches for older people.

Within the last few years, big city school boards have hired school doctors, and visiting nurses, who work with the health department to keep school children well. These doctors examine children's eyes, ears, noses, throats, teeth and skin. They watch for contagious diseases and keep them from spreading, and they find and cure many children who are in the early stages of tuberculosis. They tell parents what to do for sick children. If the parents are too poor to pay for glasses, for dental work, for removing ad'en-oids from noses, or for any other trouble, the children can be treated at free dispensaries and hospitals. Every city has public hospitals supported by taxes, to take care of poor sick people. There are special wards for contagious diseases, and cities are beginning to build camp hospitals and sanitariums for people with tuberculosis.

One of the things that all cities and most towns do now, is to forbid spitting in public places. This is a filthy habit, very offensive to clean people. And now it cannot be allowed at all, because tuberculosis, "the great white plague," that kills so many thousands of people, is known to be spread by spitting. Signs forbidding it, and warning people that they will be fined, if caught, are put up in street cars and public places. People are warned, too, not to use public drinking cups without washing them thoroughly. The only safe cup to use is your own, or one set in a fountain basin with water overflowing it all the time.

After a child is reported well of scarlet fever or other contagious diseases by a doctor, city health officers come and disinfect the house. To disinfect is to kill the disease germs. They do this by filling the house with fumes of for-mal'de-hyde. Clothes that can be washed must be boiled. Rugs, mattresses and bedding are taken away to the city's plant to be disinfected and returned. Then the warning card is taken down, and the family may mingle with other people.

You know how you like to be "head" in school—to be the best in everything. Cities like to be " head " in health. They keep records of the babies born, the number and ages of people who die in a year, and the diseases they die of. If a great number of deaths are from preventable accidents, or diseases caused by contagion, bad water, bad food, or bad drainage through sewers, a city is very much ashamed. Besides, a city with a low health record is not a good place to live in, so people who move from one city to another avoid it. Cities are rivals for people and trade. They all try to go "up head," in health. To get there takes an army of street cleaners and inspectors and officers. The work is hard and dirty, and often dangerous, and it is never done. The good-health brigade is always on duty, standing sentinel, cleaning camp, scouting for the enemy, and fighting the foes of dirt, disorder and disease. They are soldiers of peace.