Excerpt from Street-CleaningDepartment. There is little to be found in the city's records as to the manner in which the work was done, but it was evidently very unsatisfactory to the people. In 1881 the Department of street-cleaning was created by law, and Mr. James S. Coleman was made the first commissioner, being appointed by the mayor, with the approval of the Board of Health. He held the office for nearly nine years. In 1882 he let out the cleaning of the streets south of Fourteenth Street to contractors, doing the work north of that street with his own forces. The contract system was continued through nearly his I whole term. He said.