A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from September 05, 2016
Night-soil Man (Night-soil Collector; Night Soiler)

Entry in progress—B.P.
 
(Oxford English Dictionary)
night-soil collector  n.
1853   Hull Packet & E. Riding Times 10 June 8/2   The night-soil collectors..had taken a piece of ground on the opposite side of the road.
(...)
night-soil man  n.
1844   Mechanics’ Mag. 5 Oct. 235/2   This information ought not to be lost upon the night-soil men of London and other large cities, but still more should it engage the attention of the Commissioners of Sewers.
1860   N. Amer. Rev. Oct. 471   Much stress was laid on the fact that night-soil men are often hearty and vigorous.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Peter Clark : Night soil man
Author: Peter Clark; Sarah Scragg
Publisher: Brisbane, Qld. : State Library of Queensland, 2009.
Edition/Format:   eVideo
Database: WorldCat
Summary:
In 1976 Peter Clark became the garbage collector and night soil man in Coen. He tells some stories about retrieving the waste and the troubles they had covering it in the summertime.
 
Ephemeral New York
September 2, 2016
One of the worst jobs in 19th century New York
(...)
Enter the night soil cartmen. These men made a living after dark, entering tenement districts and removing the “night soil”—a creative euphemism for excrement—from outdoor privies.
 
The guy who actually picked up the waste (using a cart probably similar to this garbage cart above) apparently worked for a company, which was awarded a city contract take care of unsanitary things like dead animals, trash, and tons of human waste.

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityWorkers/People • Monday, September 05, 2016 • Permalink


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