Fixing the Responsibility.
A suit for damages has just been entered in one of the Brooklyn courts by a tenant against the owner of the house in which he lived. The plumbing of the house was defective, and the tenant notified the owner of that fact several times, but no notice was taken of the complaints. Finally, some members of the tenant's family were attacked by diphtheria. Now the tenant brings suit for damages. When owners of property are compelled to keep tenements in habitable condition, and are held responsible pecuniarily for all damages to health or property resulting from their negligence or penuriousness, there will be hope of tenants' reasonable demands receiving attention. It should be a State-prison offense for the owner of property to allow defective plumbing to remain, when he knows that the lives of his fellow-creatures are jeopardized by his action. There is small difference between the man who with murderous intent deprives a human being of life, and he who through negligence and greed allows those who are in a manner his wards to breathe an atmosphere of deadly poison, which must eventually result in disease and death.—Christian Union.