A careful investigation was commenced, and it was found that in rounding the curve at Fourteenth Street and Broadway, and the sharp curves at Fifty-third Street, every person who was not provided with a seat was in danger of losing life or limb.

The standing passengers were jostled, jolted, and flung this way and that, without sufficient protection against being thrown off the cars.

Inspectors from the Health Board were stationed at the different points to ascertain just how many persons were forced to travel in this dangerous manner.

The inspector detailed to watch the Lexington Avenue branch of the cable road reported that during two hours, 1,750 had been standing up in the 135 cars that had passed him.

From the various reports it was seen that most of this crowding could be stopped if the companies made rules to regulate the number of passengers allowed in each car, and provided enough cars to accommodate their patrons.

When the reports were all in, the Health Board met to discuss the matter.

One of its members is the President of the Board of Police.  His department has had a great deal of trouble with the Broadway Cable Company.

It has been necessary to station extra policemen along the route to help people to cross the tracks in safety.  Several policemen have been injured at the curves, and the Police Board has no love for the railroad.

At the meeting he introduced a resolution which he wished to make a part of the Sanitary Code.

The Sanitary Code is a set of rules enacted for the protection of the lives and health of the citizens.  These rules relate to all matters that concern our daily life.  They prohibit unhealthy businesses being carried on.  They require that tenement houses shall be properly built, drained, etc.  They prevent the keeping of cows, pigs, or poultry within city limits.  They regulate the sale of provisions, and prevent unwholesome food being sold in the city.  Under these rules, all the meat that is dressed for market within the limits of the city is inspected, and must be prepared in a certain manner.  No one can offer milk for sale without a permit from the Board of Health, and this permit is only granted when the inspectors have assured themselves that the applicants have clean and airy places in which to handle the milk.

The Sanitary Code covers everything that applies to our health and comfort, and, as you may suppose, its rules are very far-reaching.

The new rule proposed by the Police Commissioner is to the effect that no surface car shall be sent around any curve at a greater rate of speed than two miles an hour.

This rule, if passed, will put an end to the horrors of Dead Man’s Curve, as the Fourteenth-Street curve has come to be called, for at this slow pace the passengers will have no difficulty in keeping their feet, and the pedestrians will easily be able to get out of the way of the cars.