Friday, July 30, 2010 January 15, 1850 Difficulty, and Often Danger, of Perambulating the Streets of St. John's Residents of the City of St. John’s have complained loudly in recent years about the lack of snow clearing of the side walks in the city. They bitterly complained of being forced to walk on the streets - with the vehicular traffic – putting their lives in danger with every step. The city has tried to resolve the issue by introducing snow sidewalk clearing for the priority routes; schools, senior complexes, and some arterial routes. The complaints if the residents are not new. An Editorial in the Morning Post and Shipping Gazette a St. John's newspaper on January 15, 1850 speaks about the difficulty of getting about the town. The editorial reads: “Solely from a desire to preserve the well-being of all classes in the community, we call the attention of the Police to the extreme carelessness manifested by the drivers of vehicles of almost every kind, in neglecting to provide them with a sufficiency of bells to give the foot passenger timely notice to move out of their way. No person in St. John's need be reminded of the difficulty, and often danger, of perambulating the streets of this town during the winter months, and when these are increased, the latter in particular, to an alarming extent, we think it quite time that we should point out the cause of that increase, to those whose duty it is to have the evil, remedied, but whose near-sightedness has probably prevented them hitherto from discerning it. The Police would do well to order that all vehicles, both sleighs and slides, whether drawn by horses or dogs, shall be amply provided with bells to give timely notice of their approach; an order which, we hope will not only be given, but strictly attended to and rigidly enforced.” For more information on this and other related subjects contact the Archives of the R.C. Archdiocese. www.stjohnsarchdiocese.nf.ca Other “Archival Moments” will be posted at this site on a regular weekly basis. If you have friends or colleagues who would like to receive these "archival moments" please send us their e mail address or forward this moment to them from your desk!! Larry Dohey Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s P.O. Box 1363 St. John’s, NL A1C 5M3 709-726-3660 E-mail: archives@nf.aibn.com We hope that you have enjoyed this archival moment.