WEBVTT - A Sea Of Manure 0:00:08.285 --> 0:00:18.085 School of Humans doab Booby. Oh don't you love this 0:00:18.165 --> 0:00:22.365 song Morning by Greeg. Doesn't this little ditty just soothe 0:00:22.405 --> 0:00:26.765 your soul? I like to imagine when I hear this song, 0:00:26.805 --> 0:00:29.485 that I'm frolicking through a field. 0:00:29.885 --> 0:00:31.645 Perhaps even riding a horse. 0:00:32.685 --> 0:00:36.285 I've never ridden a horse before, but I can see 0:00:36.365 --> 0:00:38.685 us galloping through a field. 0:00:38.325 --> 0:00:40.845 And it's not hurting my vagina one bit. 0:00:43.525 --> 0:00:51.685 Horses, aren't they lovely, majestic, beautiful creatures. But wait, imagine 0:00:51.765 --> 0:00:56.845 one horse. Then imagine another horse, and then another, and 0:00:56.925 --> 0:01:02.685 then another, and then there are so many horses. They're 0:01:02.685 --> 0:01:06.365 all crammed together on a busy street, I'd say a 0:01:06.405 --> 0:01:10.805 street in New York City. They're everywhere you can't escape. 0:01:11.605 --> 0:01:20.725 Oh God, I don't think I like horses anymore so. 0:01:21.165 --> 0:01:24.525 At the end of the nineteenth century, horses were one 0:01:24.565 --> 0:01:29.005 of the biggest problems in metropolitan areas all over the world. 0:01:30.125 --> 0:01:32.405 They were all over the place. They were used for 0:01:32.445 --> 0:01:37.645 all sorts of things like transportation. Horses powered the trolley system. 0:01:38.085 --> 0:01:42.165 They were the locomotive engine for carriages and buggies, and 0:01:42.245 --> 0:01:46.045 these buggies could be dangerous. Two hundred New Yorkers got 0:01:46.125 --> 0:01:52.005 run over by carriages every year. Yeah, those horses were drunk, 0:01:55.645 --> 0:01:58.845 but most of the horses were used for hauling goods 0:01:58.965 --> 0:02:02.605 and building buildings. And no, they wouldn't build with their 0:02:02.645 --> 0:02:06.205 little hoofs. They were used to power the machineanery that 0:02:06.245 --> 0:02:13.285 would build the buildings, you know, literal horse power. And 0:02:13.325 --> 0:02:16.525 the reason there are so many horses is because there 0:02:16.525 --> 0:02:21.365 was so many people in New York City. In eighteen hundred, 0:02:21.685 --> 0:02:25.445 there were like thirty thousand people, but then by eighteen 0:02:25.565 --> 0:02:30.405 ninety there's like two point six million, and it wasn't 0:02:30.445 --> 0:02:34.605 built to hold that many. Luckily, very few people live 0:02:34.685 --> 0:02:39.205 there today. And then there's like two hundred thousand horses. 0:02:40.765 --> 0:02:44.805 That's like one horse per ten people. And do you 0:02:44.805 --> 0:02:49.165 guys know what horses do? Unlike me, they poo and 0:02:49.285 --> 0:02:50.045 they pee. 0:02:50.845 --> 0:02:53.045 That's right. I don't have a body. I'm just a 0:02:53.165 --> 0:02:54.405 disembodied voice. 0:02:55.405 --> 0:02:59.725 And the thing is the pee and the pooh. Mostly 0:02:59.765 --> 0:03:05.445 the pooh builds up. It's estimated that one individual war 0:03:05.525 --> 0:03:10.005 horse would expel somewhere between fifteen and thirty pounds of 0:03:10.125 --> 0:03:15.565 manure a day, so in total, that's like three to 0:03:15.645 --> 0:03:19.205 four million pounds a day from all the horses just 0:03:19.365 --> 0:03:21.125 in the streets of New York. 0:03:22.045 --> 0:03:22.965 And let's also not. 0:03:22.965 --> 0:03:26.925 Forget how each horse would also expel courts and quarts 0:03:27.005 --> 0:03:37.485 of piss. And if you can believe it, all this 0:03:37.645 --> 0:03:41.165 horse he dung was a problem. No one wanted to 0:03:41.205 --> 0:03:46.685 be clomping upon miles of horse excrement. And so that's 0:03:46.725 --> 0:03:50.365 what we're talking about in today's episode. How did they 0:03:50.405 --> 0:03:54.285 solve this horseshit problem? 0:03:54.365 --> 0:03:55.445 Well, let's stop. 0:03:55.165 --> 0:03:59.085 Horsing around and get into it. Cue the theme song, 0:04:04.365 --> 0:04:07.165 This is American Filth Gabby Watts. Every week I tell 0:04:07.205 --> 0:04:11.045 you a filthy story from American history. This week's episode 0:04:11.525 --> 0:04:26.885 a sea of manure. So yeah, New York. Lots of 0:04:26.925 --> 0:04:30.845 cities at the end of the nineteenth century were covered 0:04:30.845 --> 0:04:34.605 in horse dookie. One person in the late nineteenth century 0:04:34.605 --> 0:04:39.605 called New York a sea of manure. The shit was 0:04:39.685 --> 0:04:44.165 quote lining city streets like banks of snow. And the 0:04:44.205 --> 0:04:46.445 thing is, even when it snowed or when it rained, 0:04:46.605 --> 0:04:48.405 that didn't help the problem at all. 0:04:48.765 --> 0:04:50.645 The peo would just get caked. 0:04:50.325 --> 0:04:55.165 Into the sidewalk, into the streets, into the buildings, and 0:04:55.245 --> 0:04:59.285 the horse shit. That's not the only problem. There's also 0:04:59.325 --> 0:05:03.605 a lot of trash and garbage. People were producing a 0:05:03.605 --> 0:05:07.405 lot of ash in their house because of fires and shit. 0:05:10.445 --> 0:05:15.205 But there wasn't a functional public garbage collection service. Like 0:05:15.325 --> 0:05:18.685 if you wanted your street to be cleaned up, you 0:05:18.725 --> 0:05:21.885 personally had to pay someone to do it or just 0:05:21.965 --> 0:05:22.805 do it yourself. 0:05:23.325 --> 0:05:25.005 And the thing is, every time that New. 0:05:24.885 --> 0:05:28.805 York City did hire people to clean they never seemed 0:05:28.845 --> 0:05:32.485 to do their jobs. The garbage collectors and street cleaners 0:05:32.845 --> 0:05:35.845 had a really bad reputation, you know, as lazy and 0:05:35.885 --> 0:05:38.565 as slackers, and then they would only work if they 0:05:38.565 --> 0:05:44.045 were bribed. The thing that's interesting, though, is that New 0:05:44.165 --> 0:05:48.645 York City used to actually have great trash collection. This 0:05:48.805 --> 0:05:52.365 was earlier in the nineteenth century because then they didn't 0:05:52.405 --> 0:05:55.085 have that many horses, but they did have a lot 0:05:55.165 --> 0:06:00.605 of pigs, that's right. It used to be that pigs 0:06:00.605 --> 0:06:04.405 were just running them up throughout the town. And you 0:06:04.445 --> 0:06:07.045 know what pigs like to do. They liked to eat 0:06:07.245 --> 0:06:10.005 trash and then for a dessert, they liked to eat 0:06:10.045 --> 0:06:15.525 their own shit. Perfect sustainable. So the reason there are 0:06:15.565 --> 0:06:17.965 these pigs in the city was that, like in the 0:06:18.005 --> 0:06:21.005 eighteen twenties, a lot of people started moving to New 0:06:21.125 --> 0:06:24.285 York in part because of the Erie Canal opening up. 0:06:24.925 --> 0:06:26.885 But some of the people who already lived. 0:06:26.685 --> 0:06:29.325 In New York City before this great influx of people. 0:06:29.485 --> 0:06:32.485 They were homesteaders and these were their pigs. And so 0:06:32.725 --> 0:06:35.125 the city was being built up, and the pigs were 0:06:35.165 --> 0:06:38.285 just there, just free roman doing whatever they wanted to do, 0:06:38.645 --> 0:06:42.325 which was mostly eat trash. The city was their brunch buffet. 0:06:44.205 --> 0:06:47.085 In fact, there were actually so many pigs, like there's 0:06:47.125 --> 0:06:50.765 twenty thousand pigs was running around that they became part 0:06:50.845 --> 0:06:55.125 of New York's early identity. Like travelers would come from 0:06:55.125 --> 0:06:57.925 all over and they always had something to say about 0:06:57.965 --> 0:07:01.125 the pigs. Like Charles Dickens, he came to New York 0:07:01.205 --> 0:07:03.805 City in eighteen forty two. He wasn't really a big 0:07:03.885 --> 0:07:07.445 fan of Americans, and so he was delighted when he 0:07:07.525 --> 0:07:13.245 saw that America's big city was littered with swine. He wrote, 0:07:13.525 --> 0:07:16.925 two portly sALS are trotting up behind a carriage, and 0:07:16.965 --> 0:07:20.165 a select party of a half a dozen gentlemen hogs 0:07:20.485 --> 0:07:22.165 have just now turned the corner. 0:07:23.405 --> 0:07:25.165 Wow piggy courtship. 0:07:26.645 --> 0:07:30.245 But the politicians and the rich people in the city 0:07:30.565 --> 0:07:34.925 didn't like that pigs were associated with New York. They 0:07:34.925 --> 0:07:37.605 didn't want visitors to keep thinking that their city was 0:07:37.685 --> 0:07:41.165 no better than a barnyard. So they launched a smear 0:07:41.245 --> 0:07:45.045 campaign against the pigs through the eighteen fifties and sixties 0:07:45.085 --> 0:07:46.005 so that they could get. 0:07:45.965 --> 0:07:46.925 Rid of them. 0:07:47.205 --> 0:07:50.845 They're like, oh, pigs, they attack children, they pooh on you, 0:07:50.965 --> 0:07:54.285 They cause carriage accidents because they don't obey the traffic rules. 0:07:54.885 --> 0:07:58.205 They're in the way. They also accused. 0:07:57.765 --> 0:08:02.245 Pigs of carrying diseases, which they didn't really like. If 0:08:02.285 --> 0:08:05.085 any rich person in New York would get a headache, they'd. 0:08:04.805 --> 0:08:08.365 Be like, oh, it's because of the pigs. The pigs 0:08:08.405 --> 0:08:09.245 did this to be. 0:08:10.725 --> 0:08:12.925 And then they said the biggest sin of all that 0:08:13.005 --> 0:08:18.205 the swine had been committing. Sometimes ladies, that's right, ladies 0:08:18.325 --> 0:08:22.725 would see swine copulating in public view. 0:08:23.045 --> 0:08:23.445 That's right. 0:08:23.485 --> 0:08:26.645 That's something ladies should not be seeing. And so they 0:08:26.645 --> 0:08:29.125 got rid of the pigs. And by getting rid of 0:08:29.125 --> 0:08:35.925 the pigs, they actually gave themselves a much bigger problem 0:08:36.325 --> 0:08:40.045 because the horse shit, unlike the pigs, the horse shit 0:08:40.725 --> 0:08:45.685 actually does lead to disease, because what comes with shit mosquitoes, bugs, rats, 0:08:45.725 --> 0:08:50.365 other vermin that transmit disease. So New York City they 0:08:50.365 --> 0:08:52.525 had all the hits, they had cholera, they had typhoid, 0:08:52.525 --> 0:08:56.725 they had typhus, they had yellow fever, malaria. Adults were sick, 0:08:56.805 --> 0:09:01.965 children were dying death indirectly by dung. So yeah, a 0:09:02.005 --> 0:09:05.205 lot was at stake. So we're at this point in 0:09:05.245 --> 0:09:10.445 time where people are seriously considering how to improve sanitation, 0:09:12.685 --> 0:09:16.005 and city officials, you know, they tried to do some 0:09:16.165 --> 0:09:21.485 things about it. One plan that worked briefly was that 0:09:21.525 --> 0:09:24.325 the city had farmers come in and take as much 0:09:24.325 --> 0:09:27.205 of the manure as they could, because they're like, hey, 0:09:27.485 --> 0:09:30.645 you could use it as fertilizer, and wow, look at 0:09:30.645 --> 0:09:34.805 this symbiotic relationship. You provide the labor to remove the dung, 0:09:35.165 --> 0:09:39.085 and whilah, free fertilizer. But the thing is, there was 0:09:39.165 --> 0:09:42.565 just too much poo and the farmers didn't need that 0:09:42.805 --> 0:09:43.765 much fertilizer. 0:09:44.005 --> 0:09:45.245 They realized that they were. 0:09:45.165 --> 0:09:48.165 At the end of a bad deal, so they're like, hey, 0:09:48.445 --> 0:09:51.765 we'll remove the manure as long as you pay us. Damn, 0:09:52.445 --> 0:09:57.845 the city couldn't get free labor boo. And the thing 0:09:57.925 --> 0:10:00.605 that might be even more disturbing than the fact that 0:10:00.645 --> 0:10:03.765 there was trash whether there was horse manure. 0:10:04.445 --> 0:10:07.245 Another big issue that they had was. 0:10:07.165 --> 0:10:11.845 That sometimes people would just leave their horses in the street. 0:10:11.925 --> 0:10:14.205 After they died. That's right. 0:10:14.325 --> 0:10:17.085 They would just leave their dead horses in the street 0:10:17.165 --> 0:10:20.765 to rot. Don't we love to hear that? And now, 0:10:20.805 --> 0:10:23.005 horse gurlies, you might want to tune out for the 0:10:23.045 --> 0:10:25.245 next couple of minutes because I'm going to talk about 0:10:25.285 --> 0:10:27.925 the horses and you're not going to like what I'm 0:10:27.965 --> 0:10:31.525 gonna say. Because the horses, they were not treated well. 0:10:32.685 --> 0:10:35.525 Most of them were being used for horse power, so 0:10:35.565 --> 0:10:41.445 they were worked to the brink. They also lived in 0:10:41.565 --> 0:10:45.845 terrible conditions. The horses were stabled in these big garages 0:10:45.885 --> 0:10:50.925 within New York's horse districts. They were just crowded in there, 0:10:50.965 --> 0:10:54.725 and they were fed from these large grainaries, which attracted 0:10:54.845 --> 0:10:58.565 rats and other rodents. And the craziest thing is that 0:10:58.645 --> 0:11:03.485 the grain sometimes would rot and because of like fermentation 0:11:03.805 --> 0:11:09.005 and whatnot, the garages would then explode. They were like 0:11:09.045 --> 0:11:11.885 burned down, and then all the buildings in the surrounding 0:11:11.925 --> 0:11:17.645 area would also burn down. What that's crazy. So, yeah, 0:11:17.685 --> 0:11:21.125 the horses weren't having a good time. The average lifespan 0:11:21.205 --> 0:11:23.965 of a horse is twenty five to thirty years, but 0:11:24.085 --> 0:11:28.085 in the eighteen nineties, the average lifespan of the workhorses 0:11:28.405 --> 0:11:30.325 was two and a half years. 0:11:30.765 --> 0:11:32.445 They were literally worked to death. 0:11:33.765 --> 0:11:36.325 I would at this point make a beating a dead 0:11:36.365 --> 0:11:39.525 horse joke, but that feels very inappropriate and a viable 0:11:39.605 --> 0:11:40.765 reason for cancelation. 0:11:41.045 --> 0:11:41.885 So let's move on. 0:11:43.245 --> 0:11:46.285 One thing city officials did with these dead horses starting 0:11:46.285 --> 0:11:49.805 in the eighteen fifties was send them to this little island, 0:11:50.445 --> 0:11:55.245 Barren Island, off near Jamaica Bay. Because this island had 0:11:55.325 --> 0:11:59.925 several processing mills. That's right, they would turn the dead 0:11:59.925 --> 0:12:03.205 horses into glue. And that's how it got the name 0:12:03.445 --> 0:12:08.685 dead Horse Bay. And you might be thinking, an island 0:12:08.725 --> 0:12:13.205 filled with glue factories. That sounds terrible. And what's worse, 0:12:13.645 --> 0:12:15.645 people actually lived on the island. 0:12:16.005 --> 0:12:16.725 Yeah, all the. 0:12:16.685 --> 0:12:21.045 People who operated the glue factories and whatnot they lived there. 0:12:21.765 --> 0:12:24.565 Most of the residents were immigrants, and they lived in 0:12:24.725 --> 0:12:28.525 very toxic conditions. And then even off the island they 0:12:28.525 --> 0:12:33.005 were treated appallingly. Like in eighteen seventy nine, there was 0:12:33.045 --> 0:12:37.365 this Brooklyn Railroad company that got the court to rule 0:12:37.805 --> 0:12:40.405 that they could legally turn away the people who lived 0:12:40.405 --> 0:12:43.845 on the island because their clothes smelled so bad. 0:12:45.285 --> 0:12:45.765 Yawnkes. 0:12:47.365 --> 0:12:50.485 But even dead Horse Bay couldn't save New York City. 0:12:50.765 --> 0:12:53.685 There are still a lot of dead horses and even 0:12:53.725 --> 0:12:58.605 more horse shit. And yet the city's politicians had done 0:12:58.605 --> 0:13:01.925 some things here and there trying to relieve the problem 0:13:02.005 --> 0:13:07.125 of filth. But the problem was the administration in the 0:13:07.165 --> 0:13:08.965 early eighteen nineties was. 0:13:08.965 --> 0:13:11.605 A little bit corrupt. You know, there was fraud. 0:13:11.685 --> 0:13:15.445 There's this organization, just greedy men doing greedy men stuff. 0:13:15.965 --> 0:13:17.965 And part of the reason they didn't have an effective 0:13:18.005 --> 0:13:22.485 sanitation department was because some of them were pocketing the 0:13:22.525 --> 0:13:25.245 money that was supposed to be for cleaning up the city. 0:13:25.485 --> 0:13:26.125 Whoopsies. 0:13:29.165 --> 0:13:31.685 But it was getting bad. There's so many people, so 0:13:31.845 --> 0:13:35.805 much worseshit. Everyone was like, something's got to change. People 0:13:35.845 --> 0:13:40.845 are sick and it smells. So there was an election 0:13:42.205 --> 0:13:46.005 and a new mayor, and this mayor was very much 0:13:46.045 --> 0:13:50.005 into reform and he knew who he needed to get 0:13:50.165 --> 0:13:53.525 to make everything change in the sanitation department. 0:13:55.365 --> 0:13:59.645 He called on George E. Waring Junior. 0:14:00.365 --> 0:14:05.605 God, what a cliffhanger be right back after these soothing advertisements. 0:14:08.325 --> 0:14:12.685 So while the politicians in New York were not investing 0:14:12.725 --> 0:14:15.925 in their sanitation department, aka taking away the money for 0:14:16.005 --> 0:14:19.365 the sanitation department around the country and around the world. 0:14:19.525 --> 0:14:24.885 There had been some innovation in sanitary tech sandy tech, 0:14:26.365 --> 0:14:30.005 and one of the men at the forefront was George E. 0:14:30.045 --> 0:14:37.685 Waring Junior, so Hoopsta's George. George was the son of 0:14:37.725 --> 0:14:42.645 a wealthy stove manufacturer, born in Palmdbridge, New York, and 0:14:42.725 --> 0:14:46.485 when he was younger, George studied agriculture science. He was 0:14:46.485 --> 0:14:50.245 a farmer basically, but then in eighteen fifty seven he 0:14:50.365 --> 0:14:53.445 joined a very big project in New York City. He 0:14:53.605 --> 0:14:56.445 was going to help with draining the wetlands so they 0:14:56.485 --> 0:15:00.325 could construct Central Park. He was like, yes, I will 0:15:00.365 --> 0:15:05.045 be an agricultural and drainage engineer now. And also what 0:15:05.085 --> 0:15:06.845 we need to I know about George is that he 0:15:07.845 --> 0:15:13.125 loved horses. And I know I was talking about all 0:15:13.125 --> 0:15:16.205 sorts of nasty things related to horses. So I thought 0:15:16.205 --> 0:15:19.485 we might have a nice tangent talking about how much 0:15:19.645 --> 0:15:23.085 this guy loved horses. And no, I don't mean he 0:15:23.165 --> 0:15:26.605 loved horses in like a brony or a furry sort 0:15:26.645 --> 0:15:31.445 of way. Nothing nasty, just a pure tender love for 0:15:31.565 --> 0:15:36.045 a horse. Don't be nasty. He loved horses so much 0:15:36.125 --> 0:15:39.645 that in eighteen seventy five he published a book about 0:15:39.685 --> 0:15:42.725 all of his horses and the adventures that they had 0:15:42.765 --> 0:15:48.285 had together called Whip and Spur, and it seems the 0:15:48.325 --> 0:15:52.965 horse he loved the most was his beloved Mayor Vixen. 0:15:55.125 --> 0:15:57.565 Vixen came into his life when he was working on 0:15:57.605 --> 0:16:01.485 the drainage system in Central Park. He realized to do 0:16:01.525 --> 0:16:05.005 his job that he needed a saddle horse to transport 0:16:05.085 --> 0:16:09.405 him around and do his duties. He went to various auctions, 0:16:09.565 --> 0:16:12.925 tracked down leads, but couldn't find a horse. It wasn't 0:16:12.965 --> 0:16:15.285 until a stable boy was like, hey, sir, I got 0:16:15.285 --> 0:16:18.045 a man who can get you a horse. And so 0:16:18.165 --> 0:16:20.245 George walked to the edge of town and met a 0:16:20.325 --> 0:16:25.045 dude who peddled not just clams but also potatoes. Wow, 0:16:25.205 --> 0:16:29.405 diversified inventory. And that dude was like, yeah, I got 0:16:29.405 --> 0:16:32.405 a horse you can have. So they went to the 0:16:32.445 --> 0:16:36.765 barn and that's where George met Vixen. She was scrawny 0:16:36.845 --> 0:16:39.405 from all the hard labor she had done, but he 0:16:39.485 --> 0:16:43.485 knew he wanted this horse because of her quote wonderful head. 0:16:45.245 --> 0:16:47.885 This was the perfection of a horse's. 0:16:47.405 --> 0:16:51.885 Head, small bony and of perfect shape, with keen, deer 0:16:52.125 --> 0:16:56.685 like eyes and thin, active ears. Her royal blood shone 0:16:56.725 --> 0:17:01.645 out from her face and kept it beautiful. End quote 0:17:01.885 --> 0:17:04.805 and George and Vixen they had a great time together. 0:17:05.565 --> 0:17:08.845 He helped him go about his duties, and then sometimes 0:17:08.885 --> 0:17:11.765 they would have some fun while working on the drainage system. 0:17:12.245 --> 0:17:15.965 He wrote, the park afforded good leaping in those days. 0:17:16.085 --> 0:17:19.685 Some of the fences were still standing around the abandoned gardens, 0:17:19.925 --> 0:17:23.645 and new ditches and old brooks were plenty. She cleared 0:17:23.645 --> 0:17:26.765 the brook with apparent ease, and once, in a moment 0:17:26.805 --> 0:17:29.805 of excitement, she carried me over a brook with a 0:17:29.845 --> 0:17:35.765 clear leap of twenty six feet. Jeorge really loved Vixen. 0:17:36.565 --> 0:17:39.925 She was a great companion, whether he was riding her 0:17:40.085 --> 0:17:43.005 or they were just walking next to each other. He 0:17:43.085 --> 0:17:46.845 said she was as good company as a dog, better, 0:17:46.925 --> 0:17:50.765 perhaps because she seemed more really a part of one's self. 0:17:54.525 --> 0:17:59.285 Vixen followed George into the Civil War, but unfortunately that's 0:17:59.285 --> 0:18:03.285 when she died. In his book, he spent many pages 0:18:03.325 --> 0:18:06.045 describing how he tried to save her, how he tried 0:18:06.085 --> 0:18:09.925 to keep her alive. At one point, she had gotten 0:18:09.925 --> 0:18:13.005 a fever, and he asked the veterinarian to stay back 0:18:13.045 --> 0:18:13.765 and heal her. 0:18:14.165 --> 0:18:17.245 He said the thought of leaving her was very bitter. 0:18:18.605 --> 0:18:20.645 And with the work of the vet, she did recover 0:18:20.845 --> 0:18:24.245 and was returned to George at their camp. George said 0:18:24.525 --> 0:18:27.405 there was now hope that she would recover sufficiently to 0:18:27.445 --> 0:18:31.685 be sent to Saint Louis to be nursed. But then 0:18:32.165 --> 0:18:36.845 that night another horse broke into her enclosure and broke 0:18:36.885 --> 0:18:41.805 her leg. George was beside himself. He said, I could 0:18:41.805 --> 0:18:44.285 not let her die now when she was just restored 0:18:44.285 --> 0:18:46.485 to me. He was basically like, I don't care if 0:18:46.485 --> 0:18:49.045 her leg is broken. He knew that she could never 0:18:49.165 --> 0:18:51.405 carry him again, but he was like, she could be 0:18:51.485 --> 0:18:53.685 my pet, and I could send her home and make 0:18:53.725 --> 0:18:55.085 her happy for many a long year. 0:18:55.165 --> 0:18:59.005 Yet meanwhile he's literally at war. 0:19:01.565 --> 0:19:04.765 But eventually, on a lovely Sunday morning in November eighteen 0:19:04.805 --> 0:19:08.805 sixty two, he saw Vixen sitting on her haunches like 0:19:08.845 --> 0:19:12.085 a dog, and she sat like that all day and 0:19:12.125 --> 0:19:15.725 refused any food, and George finally knew there was no hope. 0:19:16.285 --> 0:19:18.965 She wasn't going to get better. So one of the 0:19:18.965 --> 0:19:22.965 officers led him to his tent, and George said, I 0:19:23.045 --> 0:19:26.805 turned to look back at poor Vixen, and she gave 0:19:26.885 --> 0:19:32.285 me a little nay a farewell. He talked with the 0:19:32.325 --> 0:19:34.525 officer about all the good days he had had with 0:19:34.645 --> 0:19:39.845 Vixen until they heard a single shot. That evening, the 0:19:39.925 --> 0:19:44.005 band played a funeral song, and George said, the sun 0:19:44.085 --> 0:19:46.605 went down on one of the very sad days of 0:19:46.645 --> 0:19:53.045 my life. But anyway, enough of that horse story. After 0:19:53.085 --> 0:19:55.765 the war, George continued to work at the intersection of 0:19:55.805 --> 0:19:58.845 farming and engineering. He wrote a bunch of books about 0:19:58.885 --> 0:20:03.885 scientific agriculture along with his stories about horses, and he 0:20:03.925 --> 0:20:05.725 got a lot of good money for this. He went 0:20:05.765 --> 0:20:10.685 to Europe, where he wrote traveling stories and probably learned 0:20:10.685 --> 0:20:13.765 about what European engineers were doing to help their cities 0:20:13.885 --> 0:20:17.885 not fall to trash and rot. And along the way 0:20:17.925 --> 0:20:21.765 he developed a deep interest in public health. He wrote 0:20:21.765 --> 0:20:25.325 a bunch of stuff about sanitation. He would make the 0:20:25.365 --> 0:20:28.645 case that things need to be more sanitary because it's 0:20:28.725 --> 0:20:31.885 right for the public's health. But also he was like, 0:20:32.005 --> 0:20:34.685 if we invest in sanitation, maybe we can. 0:20:34.565 --> 0:20:36.885 Find a way to make money off of our trash. 0:20:37.005 --> 0:20:38.365 HM very idealistic. 0:20:39.365 --> 0:20:42.085 Now a lot of people think that George wasn't actually 0:20:42.125 --> 0:20:45.685 that innovative. What he was good at was taking other 0:20:45.685 --> 0:20:50.405 people's ideas and making them seem really compelling. He had 0:20:50.445 --> 0:20:55.805 a big personality and wrote with quote infinite gusto. People 0:20:55.805 --> 0:20:58.245 were like, Wow, this guy is bold. You know, he's 0:20:58.285 --> 0:21:02.725 like in the papers writing about the Privy that's very impolite, 0:21:02.725 --> 0:21:06.245 but also very interesting. So he was becoming a bit 0:21:06.325 --> 0:21:10.125 of a celebrity and also a hot shot in the 0:21:10.165 --> 0:21:13.925 sanitary engineering world. 0:21:14.205 --> 0:21:16.165 So in eighteen seventy. 0:21:15.805 --> 0:21:19.965 Eight, George was the person that the newly established National 0:21:20.005 --> 0:21:21.925 Board of Health called on to. 0:21:21.885 --> 0:21:23.325 Go fix Memphis. 0:21:24.925 --> 0:21:27.365 What was happening in Memphis was they kept having these 0:21:27.445 --> 0:21:31.565 cholera and yellow fever epidemics, and a big part of 0:21:31.605 --> 0:21:34.605 the reason the diseases were so bad there was because 0:21:34.645 --> 0:21:36.965 a lot of their water wells were right next to 0:21:37.005 --> 0:21:40.445 the places where they shat and pissed, and there was 0:21:40.485 --> 0:21:44.125 other various strangage issues. So they called on George to 0:21:44.165 --> 0:21:47.045 fix it, and he came up with a whole new 0:21:47.085 --> 0:21:50.245 sewer system for the city that would separate all the 0:21:50.285 --> 0:21:54.165 bad stuff from the water, and after. 0:21:53.965 --> 0:21:56.045 It was put in place, there were no more epidemics. 0:21:57.605 --> 0:22:01.085 So in eighteen ninety five, William Lafayette Strong became the 0:22:01.125 --> 0:22:04.925 mayor of New York City. Strong was big on reform, 0:22:05.565 --> 0:22:08.445 and he came into office looking to squash the corruption 0:22:08.685 --> 0:22:14.005 of the previous administration. One newspaper wrote that Strong's election 0:22:14.645 --> 0:22:17.565 was a revolution that closes a dark and opens a 0:22:17.605 --> 0:22:22.525 bright era in the municipal affairs of New York. And 0:22:22.565 --> 0:22:27.005 so almost immediately after he took office on January first, 0:22:27.365 --> 0:22:31.525 eighteen ninety five, William Strong appointed George Waring as the 0:22:31.645 --> 0:22:34.525 Commissioner of street cleaning for New York City. 0:22:35.125 --> 0:22:36.645 He was like, George, help us. 0:22:37.085 --> 0:22:40.525 We're drowning and shit and trash and dead animal carcasses 0:22:41.045 --> 0:22:45.565 the set. So George got to work. He wrote some memos. 0:22:45.605 --> 0:22:50.045 He said, there is much need for radical improvement. And 0:22:50.085 --> 0:22:51.885 one of the first things he did was a symbol 0:22:51.925 --> 0:22:56.125 a sanitation army. He hired a bunch of civically minded 0:22:56.205 --> 0:23:00.165 dudes to become street cleaners and trash collectors. He made 0:23:00.205 --> 0:23:03.445 them dress in white suits, you know, the perfect color 0:23:03.485 --> 0:23:07.485 when you're cleaning trash, shit, piss and oh also, you know, ash. 0:23:07.125 --> 0:23:10.965 Was a big problem. And he did this for a 0:23:11.005 --> 0:23:13.245 variety of reasons. You know. 0:23:13.325 --> 0:23:16.725 One, the public was skeptical about street cleaners because, as 0:23:16.765 --> 0:23:19.445 I said earlier, usually they were nefarious dudes who would 0:23:19.445 --> 0:23:21.565 only work if they were bribed, but George was trying 0:23:21.565 --> 0:23:23.565 to be like, no, look, these are professional men. 0:23:23.725 --> 0:23:24.685 Look at their suits. 0:23:26.325 --> 0:23:29.565 And George's approach to cleaning was very systematic. He was like, Okay, 0:23:29.605 --> 0:23:31.845 go clean this part of the city from this exact 0:23:31.925 --> 0:23:35.325 block to this one at this time, with this equipment, 0:23:35.365 --> 0:23:37.205 and make sure it looks good before you move on. 0:23:38.045 --> 0:23:39.885 And he told his men to start cleaning in the 0:23:39.925 --> 0:23:43.525 poorer areas of the city because the rich people would 0:23:43.525 --> 0:23:45.445 already hire people to clean their streets. 0:23:46.165 --> 0:23:49.005 And initially the people who lived in the poorer areas. 0:23:48.605 --> 0:23:51.365 Threw rocks at them because they saw a bunch of 0:23:51.445 --> 0:23:53.645 dudes in matching suits, and they were like, what the hell, 0:23:53.645 --> 0:23:57.485 they're trying to steal our homes. But eventually the residents realized, oh, 0:23:57.525 --> 0:24:02.525 they're just cleaning the streets. Nice cool, and after two 0:24:02.605 --> 0:24:07.525 weeks their streets looked just as clean as the peoples. 0:24:08.325 --> 0:24:10.965 And this literal street cleaning wasn't the only thing George 0:24:11.005 --> 0:24:13.765 Wearing was doing. Oh no, he made new and improved 0:24:13.805 --> 0:24:17.285 street cleaning and garbage collecting equipment. He also came up 0:24:17.325 --> 0:24:20.525 with this system where he was making residents separate the 0:24:20.565 --> 0:24:23.085 things they were trying to throw away he made them 0:24:23.085 --> 0:24:26.525 separate them into four categories, and in a short period 0:24:26.565 --> 0:24:29.445 of time George had really triumphed. 0:24:32.965 --> 0:24:36.085 The New York Times reported, clean streets. 0:24:35.685 --> 0:24:39.445 At last, marvels have been done. There was a parade 0:24:39.485 --> 0:24:43.005 for the sanitation workers, who were called white wings or 0:24:43.045 --> 0:24:46.565 white angels. But to be clear, George is actually the 0:24:46.565 --> 0:24:50.525 one who threw the parade. But whatever, it wasn't like 0:24:50.525 --> 0:24:52.005 the people got together and we're like, we're gonna have 0:24:52.045 --> 0:24:52.445 a parade. 0:24:52.525 --> 0:24:54.845 He was like, I'm making a parade for myself. 0:24:58.725 --> 0:25:03.245 But unfortunately, after the next election, that corrupt government from 0:25:03.285 --> 0:25:07.205 before was voted back in. George was out of a job. 0:25:07.325 --> 0:25:10.045 He was not invited back as Commissioner of street cleaning. 0:25:10.965 --> 0:25:14.765 They didn't want someone appointed under reformist mayor Strong gross 0:25:15.925 --> 0:25:22.645 But George Waring was not done with his career. It 0:25:22.685 --> 0:25:25.285 was eighteen ninety eight, the year of the Spanish American War, 0:25:25.485 --> 0:25:30.725 you know, the one with the embalmed beef scandal. George 0:25:30.725 --> 0:25:32.965 got a job to go down to Havana and make 0:25:32.965 --> 0:25:36.285