Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1871-11-23

through these Shiny veins flows on q
current of impurity toward the out
falls at Barking on the north, and Cross
ness on the south side of the river
Thames.
All this learned as we slowly waded
along, our voices sounding hollow, as
did the whispering, hurrying waters.
What's that ?' said my companion.
"Weu, that's a small drain coming from
side-road, and into that, you know,
there are small drain-pipes run from
the houses. Well go up it, if you
like, only you'll have most to creep.
did not like, so we did not go; but
waded on, keeping inconveniently close
to my companion, for did he not know
the mysteries of the place and did he
not bear the only light we had through
those dank shades?
"Accidents? Well, gas collects some
times, and we have a bit of an explo-
sion; but the men are very careful.
The water, too, comes down with rush
sometimes, after heavy rain-six, eight,
or nine feet-and then, of course, it
sweeps all before it; but our men are
very careful when they do come down,
which isn't often: they keep pretty
close to the openings"
"But suppose heavy shower came
now?"
"Well, we should have to get up as
soon as we could"
l looked to see if the water was rising,
and it seemed certainly two inches
higher up my boots. Ten minutes after,
I was sure of it. "Here's the water get
ting into my boots p exclaimed.
FAh, ahl it often does," was the
reply. " It's bit deeper here, for an
other big sewer joins just below
"But don't you think it is raining ?'
"Well, perhaps it is" was the cool
reply "but, as 1 told you afore, if it
came much, we should have to scud."
To scud! Fancy scudding in hip
boots down in a hideous drain, with
the prospect of being swept away and
drowned, like rat in a sink-hole
The idea took away my breath, and 1
must have gasped, for my companion
exclaimed: "Ah, the air is a bit bad
down in this part, but it'll get better
d'reckly. What's that opening ?-Ah,
that's the way up into another street.
Hadn't 1oe better get up? Can't get up
there, and, besides, them's the places
where the bad gas collects. Come along,
sir; want to show you the way we get
rid of the storm-water, and how the
sewers were altered. There's millions
of rats down here, but they scud off
before the lights, and we don't see 'em.
They keep mostly in the little drains
and pipes, and feed on the grease that
comes down the sink-holes, and the filth
and stuff that's put down here. People
throw every thing they can into the
sewers. There's tons of entraIls put
down by some one; and more than
once," he added in whisper, that
seemed to die away in the gloomy black
vista ahead, "we've found babies here.
Ia 7 do. .Txy6 OF
stuff their mothers 'arts were made on"
We went on and on, past openings
large and small, my companion talking
away all the time, needless of the guam
tity of mephitic air he was swallowing.
The walking was not of the best, the
curved brick bottom of the sewer being
rather awkward, and wading mid-deep
in water is not favorable to progression.
Suddenly thought occurred to me-
Suppose we should be lost ~ and l
asked my friend whether any one ever
did lose his way.
swell, as to that" was the reply,
was no gas in them, a man might knock
till some one heard him; and there's
always plenty of people walking over
the iron doors in the pavement"
"If there was no gas" l repeated to
myself, and then 1 tried very hard to
take it coolly but in spite of the dank
ness of the place, and the fact of my
wading in water, 1 was bathed in per-
spiration, and could not avoid an occa-
sional shiver as 1 looked forward or
backward, the dim light shedding q sort
of yellow halo around, revealing only
ourselves, the Shiny brick walls, the cir
cular roof, and the black rushing water,
on which the light shimmered and
desire to see swarm of rats swimming
away from us in haste, but none were
visible. I learned, though, that as many
as a hundred day are, in spite of their
swimming powers, swept away, drowned,
and afterward caught in the screens
used for straining the water at the
pumping stations, where it is raised
from the low to the high level sewers,
that it may find its way by gravitation
to the Thames, at the outfal reservoirs.
"This is what 1 wanted to show you,"
said my companion, stopping before
some brickwork and then he explained
to me that the old sewers used to run
down at once into the Thames, the new
system of drainage being arranged so as
to intersect all the old sewers, the lower
parts of which were stopped to nearly
the height of the roof, but left open
from storms, when the main sewers get
too full, they overflow into the old,
which channels carry off the nearly
pure rain-water by the old way into the
river.
At last 1 declare that 1 will have no
more of it, for I find that every fifty
| yards is but precise repetition of the
fifty yards before nothing but elong-
ated cellar, black and Shiny with the
rushing water, and here and there some
sluggish tributary stealthily pouring in
its adjunct of filthy water. Two thou
sand miles meandering beneath London,
from Highgate, Paddington, Acton, and
| Chiswick on the north and west, to form
functions at Old Ford and Abbey Mills
and then flow on to Barking; and on
the south side of the Thames, from
Putney, BALKAN, and Norwood, to joir
at Greenwich, and flow on to Crossnes:
beyond Plumstead Marsh. There ii
travelling enough for the enterprising
who like to try it, but when, in answer
to my solicitations, and after feeling
positively certain that we had lost ou
way, and taken wrong turning, my
guide brought me towhere l could onc'
more breathe the pure air of heaven
that is to say, the air as pure as we ge
Il