Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-02-14
NOT FIT TO DRINK.

uTllhluS- WdJ6I lOuiiu III IduCe VII
begin to compare with the water
furnished to the people of Chicago
in point of purity and healthfulness
1t may safely be asserted that mos
of the water is bad-hardly safe tC
drink; and it is not, after all, the
actual cause that impels the whole
Population to seek substitutes il
coffee and wine? Long experience
has taught the people that the wa.
ter of their country is not condu.
Give to health, and has made them
seek for substitutes. The cheapest
most pleasant, and beneficial, long
custom has decided to be
COFFEE AND LIGHT WINE.
If the water of France were oi
equal purity with that of Lake Mich
igan, it is questionable whether
there would be pint of wine con
sumed where there is now a gallon
for the French are an exceedingly
economical people, and, were it not
for the deleterious character of the
water, they would not occupy SC
much of their land with grapes,
but would raise more grain and cat,
tie.
THE CHIEF BUILDING MATERIAL
of Paris is soft, cream-colored sand
stone, which becomes moderately
hard on exposure to the atmosphere.
1t is very easy to indeed, too
tender-and has to be dressed down
after it is built in the wall. While
new, it it very pleasing stone to
the eye; but, III few years, it be-
gins to discolor, and eventually
turns dirty sombre brown, anything
but cheerful or pleasing to view.
There is no variety of of building
stone in Paris and this straw-colOred
sandstone is all the material they
have. 1t gives the city a sameness
of color which is exceedingly mo-
notonous. The grandest public ed
ifices are constructed of this stone,
as well as the commonIst buildings;
even the monuments of the cemete-
ries are chiefly composed of this
yellow sandstone.
Paris is a handsomer city than
London, ,E ,.. GEL.
ARCHiTECTURALY.
The continual fogs and vast con-
sumpsion of bituminOus coal have
besmeared all London with SCOT, and
infict on it a black and unclean
look. But, aside from this besmear-
ing of creosote, the buildings are in
ferior to those in Paris in point and
architecture. The prevailing styles
differ, however. The London taste
rather inclines to Gothic, while that
of Paris is Grecian. Indeed the
French are exceedingly Greeian in
all their tastes and ways; and they
boast of it. They call Paris the
modern Anthems, and London the
modern Rome, as regards the fine
arts and literature. Several of the
recently-erected public buildings in
London are modelled after the style
of Partisan buildings and the mate
rial is the same, being imported
from the basin of the Seine. In fact
the English are importing this straw
colored sandstone in large quanti-
ties, not only into London, but many
other cities of Great Britian.
There is an almost total
H ABSENCE OF CoNFLAGRATIONs
in Paris. Fires seldom break out,
and rarely or never spread beyond
the walls of the building where
they originate. There never has
been a destructive fire in Paris, nor
is there ever likely to be, except
such as are purposely kindled and
encouraged by Communists or other
madmen, I have been studying the
cause of this perfect immunity from
fire, and it is simple enough. 1t
consists of strict rules for the con-
stru1ction of houses, and personal
liability for damage done by the
spread of fires. Paris is substantial
ly fre-proof without the use of iron
girders and beams, iron lathing, or
brick for the floors, by the adoption
ofa ...
SIMPLE PRINCIPLE OF CONSTRUCTION,
which is, that there shall be no air
space left between floors, or between
the plaster of walls and the studdlng
or wall itself; and that the roof
must be covered with tile, slate, OF
metal. There is not such an neen-
diary thing as wooden or taE-and
gravel roof in Paris, and for aught
I know in all France. The spaces
between floors must be filed with
cement or of plaster of Paris, which
is here cheap and abundant, and the
wooden floors must rest close down
on this cement, so that, in case OF
a fire, there is no air space under
the floors. The spaces between the
studding in partition walls are also
carefully filled up with cement and
against it the plaster is placed, SO
that there is no chance for hre to
oct between them, to rush up from
one story to another, or to fly along
between floors. When fire breaks
out it spreads so slowly in houses
thus constructed, that it is always
opeuched before doing much dam
age or extending to other build
ings,
The other prcaution is intended tC
prevent earelessness and incenda
rism, SO common in American cities
If fire, no matter how it may hap
pen, does any damage to any othel
person, he has full resource at law
for
ALL HIS DAMAGES AND COSTS,
against the person in whose Premi
ses the Gre broke out. This simple
rule of eurity and right makes ev
erv body waetchful and careful OF
fire. The gross carelessness every
where witnessed in American cities
is never seen in Paris or France. 1t
don't pay here for a man to set nrt
to his stock of goods in order to gel
high insurance; nor for a i"hu'
lord who has an idle tenement on
his hands, or bad tenants, to hre his
'''' - .ba soks of realizing on
r -. ,e ;nsuranees nor hal