Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1867-07-15
LOCAL. NEWS.
} HoNpAY EVENING JULY 49,
GREAT EXCITEMENT ON TILE WATER CUES

:. 3 .
rExc1TEMENT ON THE WATER CUES
r,oN-No COFFEE FOR BREAKFAsT.-Ihose
Of sour citizens who shsppenedto stake-an early
morning walk yesterday, could not fail to be
IL strnck with the unusually perturbcd appear
ance of sundry colored citizens and other maids
Of all work, who were rushing wildly about,
bncket, tub, or pitcher in hand, seeking sup
!, ,,lv Of water. The old rusty handles of the
long disused pumps were speedily put into
rand motion, but alas no water came from
the lower depths; all that was, obtained in re-
tnrn for the labor was-exercise.
The hyd1ants of neighbors, we learned, had
been before appealed to, but all had been found
useless: no water was come-at-able. Here
was dilemma.
To these days of hydrants, nobody keeps
simply of water on hand, and yet, even on
Sunday mornings, water is a necessary OF lite.
How could the children be washed and dressed
and sent off to Sunday School, without water :?
How could the mistress, or the maid herself,
get ready for church without the same hides
nepsable solvent? Above all, what would be
the temper of the master, when he rose from
his late Sunday morning nap, and found his
breakfast without its never omitted Ingredient,
coffee?E And looking farther, how could the
ham be boiled, or the vegetables dressed for
dinner minus the liquid element?
All these considerations presented themselves
70
maids and, upon speedy report of the state
of affairs, to the dismayea mistresses, also, and
many were the conjectures as to what could be
the cause. Had the water pipes bursted?; had
81 BABY skeletons been found in the reservoir,
as the papers tell US was the case recently III
St. Louis?; was there great fire in progress
somewhere at the other end of town or had
the water been stopped to make alterations
10 pipes? This last suggestion was at once re-
jected as wholly untenable-who ever heard of
such work being done on Sundays? and, be-
sides, was there not a notice in the Gazette
about shutting off the water some time next
week? The Gazette vas, at once, hunted up
and appealed to, aud found to read thus
#"Water Consumers will please take notice
that the water will be drawn Oft on Tuesday,
the 10th inst, commencing at clock. .
So it couldn't be that; what could it be?
Meanwhile deep growl is heard from the
bath room, followed by sundry ordinations
not exactly suitable.for Sunday, in fact slightly
protane. Paterlamilias had risen and betaken
himself to his bath he wasin a state Of nature,
and in the tub but the one thing necessary
was wanting, and he had to dress as he best
could, and appear as one of the great I'M
washed DO wonder he swore.
At last. however, the hydrants began to
show signs OF recovery; little mud and wa
ter began to drip; and presently, a stream
eameiiorth the buckets we're repenished, alb
lutiops were performed, breakfast was eaten,
snd things subsidized into their usual Sunday
Quietness
On enquiry it was ascertained that the plugs,
on some Of the mains, had been opened by
order of the Board of Health, to cleanse the
pipes, and this had destroyed the necessary
pressure on the pipes in many sections of tho
town. = ~