Accepted, ---- 189

* * * * *


INSPECTION OF BUILDINGS IN NEW YORK.

NEW YORK, N.Y., December 22, 1889.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE AMERICAN ARCHITECT:--

_Dear Sirs_,--In your issue of the 21st. I note an editorial setting
forth how the New York City Health Department trapped an ingenious
builder, who piped his sewerage into his back-yard, and I, and, I think
I can safely say, many other architects of New York, would ask why you
omit, when publishing such facts, to mention that such work was so put
in and is continually put in, in as bad or in a very unworkmanlike and
insanitary manner, under the supervision of the same department, and
thus shows how the paid officials and inspectors whose business it is to
pass upon and approve the plans and specifications and to give continual
inspection--to see, examine and test every length of pipe and every
joint; who have the might of the law to strike down the offender who
shall make bold to violate their mandates, fail to give protection to
the innocent owners and purchasers of property, or curb the avaricious
hands of unscrupulous builders and careless workmen.

I should like further, to ask you to publish to the New York City
public, the fact that the "Department", the "Health Department", with
its Bureau of Plumbing and Light and Ventilation, and the Building