Death of the Arabber

We think of the nineteenth century United States as a land of steel and railroads.  Walk down any urban street in 1890, however, and you would see horses.  Lots and lots of horses, and lots of horse manure: 3300 tons of shit left on the streets per day in New York City, deposited by more than 12,000 railway horses and thousands more privately used ones.  It seems difficult to understand Progressive era municipal reform--efforts to literally and figuratively "clean up" the cities teaming with immigrants and ruled by ward bosses--without understanding these horses and the sights and smells they left behind.  There have been two books written on the subject in the last three years, which I'm hoping to read sometime soon...

I was reminded just how distant this urban world is from our own when I read in this morning's Baltimore Sun that city health officials are quickly shutting down the urban horse stables used by the Arabber community.  One of the most exotic, nineteenth-century vestige left in Baltimore City, Arabbers sell fruit from horse-drawn carriages.  To the health officials--and to the city's suburban population--these Arabbers are nothing more than animal abusers.  The Sun has been exposing their code violations for years.  This round's violations?

Standing water, mud and unsanitary conditions in the stables.... [R]at infestations, lack of proper bedding for the animals, trash and debris.

Sounds pretty vague and, well, urban-like to me.  The urban horse, once such a common sight, is now on the verge of extinction, the result of a century-long campaign to eliminate it and transform the city into something new.  Push the horses into the hinterland and out of the city. Cleanse the city of its dirty areas.  Clean up the dung.  What would a history of the twentieth-century city look like if we looked at the flight of horses from cities alongside the flight of (white) bodies?

Image of Arabbers from the Maryland Historical Society