Alexandria Gazette

WASTE PAPER.—The Alexandria correspondent of the Baltimore Sun says:

"The overflow of waste paper challenges the authorities and makes it impossible to keep clear King street or any other of the business streets. The ill legal and dangerous custom of burning the waste papers on the streets, which at one time afforded one method to abate the nuisance, was so carelessly done that the remedy became worse than the disease, and the mayor was constrained to enforce the law against street fires and forbid the throwing of paper upon the street. Yet the streets are strewn with papers, and the means of their removal, even when collected in boxes, is insufficient. It is probable some further action on the subject will be taken."

The casting of waste paper in the cemeteries and roads and lanes leading thereto is also reprehensible. People carry flowers, which are to be placed on graves, wrapped in newspapers, and after the packages have been opened the papers are cast into the nearest road, if they are not left in the cemeteries, and are hurled in every direction by the wind. It would be no great hardship for the person after having decorated the graves of loved ones to fold the papers which covered the flowers and carry them away with them. There is but little excuse for untidiness, and it is hoped these suggestions will cause a cessation of the practice which is probably due merely to thoughtlessness.