New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-01-08
LEANS, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY s, 1873.
City Hall Economy.

On the eleventh of April, 1872, the presl-
dent OF the Board of Health addressed
communication to the City Council recon-
mending the laying of a si1teen-inch main
from the Waterworks, on Richard .street,
up along the city front in the Fourth Dis
trict to the upper side of Louisiana avenue
in the Sixth District, the main to be pro-
vided with openings into the gutter of each
street running from the river for sanitary
purPcses. The comm unication concluded
By stating that the Use of such pipe, in
case OF IRE, would be selfevident.
This recommendation could have been
carried into effect at cost not exceeding
$4,000. The Council took no action, further
than to refer the communication to Admin
istrator Delassize-a way they had of con-
signing public business to the tomb of the
Capulets. Since that time, and within nine
months Of the date of that communication,
three large fires have occurred in the
Fourth District, which resulted in an ag
gregate loss of property to the amount of
Sl03,500.
Chief Engineer O'Connor, of the fire de-
P1I ctdtCO GtLbU GAO StCOI AO5o
tanned at these fires was wholly on account
of an insufficient supply of water; that had
there been an adequate supply-and there
would have been had the recommen dation
of the health officer been adoptod-nine-
teen-twentieths of the losses would not
have been sustained.
There is no subject in the way of city i'm
provements which demands more imne-
diate attention at the hands of our present
City Council than this of supplying the city
with water. Aside from it's necessity as
means 0fcombattipg the devouring elemen
and its equally important use as a sanitar Y
medium, there are seasons in the year when
the ordinary supplies are exhausted, and
thousands of families have reconrse to the
cutters to. obtain their, customary supplies
for cooking purposes
For the last few years the tugboat Tyler
has frequently pumped water up into the
cutters of the city for the sole use of fami-
lies whose home supply was exhausted
people who had to scoop up out of the gut
ters with dippers and pans the water neces-
sary for use in washing, drinking and cook
ing. This is a most singularly wicked state
of affairs in a city of 100000 inhabitants,
and along whose miles of frontage runs the
largest river on the hemisphere.
Worse indeed, than the ship-wrecked
mariner have this people been with
Water, water, everywhere,
And not drop to drink.
There IS nothing new-nothing original
in this crying need OF our people. They
have asked for water and our city authOri-
tres have given them stone-square block
pavement imported from Rockford, Maine.
Twenty years ago the constant cry of
good Mayor Crossman to the Council
was for increased water supplies, commen
surate with the growing needs of our
metropolis. He was answered, if at all, by
the miserable system of water supply or
ganized by Mr.. Pile, the worst that could
he devised, and, as if to add insult to
injury, finally came General Bragg, whosin
order to prevent the fire department OBJ
tanning a supply of water in case of fire
drove wooden plugs into the water escape
valves, and then sawed off the plugs close
to the iron
The public expect some action by the
present city government in this direction.
Let the people be not disappointed. We
know the city is Impoverished, and why
should she not be, making monthly dis
bursements of $4,000 in salaries alone
But some plan of economy may be devised
which will enable this consummatiOn to be
reached.