The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-06-27
THE SEWERS OF PARIS.

quite common thing to make a trip under
ground, at any rate from the Place du
Chatelet to the Place de la Madeleine.
The old guide books are full of the Won
ders of the catacembs; nowadays, instead
of going into these great gypsum quarries
visitors are allowed to traverse the egout
Rivoli, and there are always plenty of
claimants for the tickets of admission.
You sit in a sort of open railway truck,
with lamp at each corner, pushed rapidly
on by four men in white blouses; there is
no more smell than there is in the streets
above-not so much, except just when we
are passing Jour guide tells us) under the
barracks of the Louvre. Under the Place
de la Concorde the land journey comes to
an end; at this point the Rivoli sewer falls
into the main; and so, instead of our cars,
we have to take to boats; but the voyage
is a short one, and we soon get to the
winding iron staircase, by which we emerge
among the astonished idlers of the Place
de la Madeleine.
This, of course, is the shower sewer
widest, loftiest, cleanest Of adjust like a
canal, with broad, neat footpaths. Be
tween this and the house drain, there are
ten kinds of sewers, getting gradually
smaller and smaller, but all, except two,
having foothpath enough for the scaven-
gers to walk along. Beside noting the
telegraph lines wrapped in their gutta per-
cha covering, we see long pipe, too mar
row for water, too wide for gas, inside
which every now and then we hear whiz
like the rush of an arrow. This is the
pneumatic tube, along which cases full OF
little parcels are driven by atmospheric
pressure. The only other things to be
seen (for the journey is rather dull one)
are the shafts, called regards by which the
workmen can escape if the sewer gets
flooded by heavy rains. As as means OF
escape, every regard has its iron ladder
leading to the manhole in the street.
What struck me most was the vaulting
of the main sewer. 1t shone as if COW
cred with chunam, and was so smooth that
it carried the voice to vast distance
There is whole system of telegraphing
which depends ON the echo along this vault
ing.
How is the main sewer cleaned? There
are big barges nearly as wide as the water,
each furnished in front with an iron plate
fitting almost exactly into the subterranean
canal. These plates have each three holes,
as big as an octave volume, cut in their
lower ege. The barges are dragged up
stream, and the solid matter is all forced
through the three holes, leaving the chan
mel completely free. Each of these barges
is calculated to do the work of hundred
men. Where the sewer is too narrow for
barges, rails are laid along the footpaths,
and trucks furnished with some sort OF
plates do the work just as we'll So swift
is the stream that one never sees bit OF
anything floating along; whatever there is,
is swept under the surface. But lower
sluice gate, and stop the current, and
within a short time the water will be Gov
cred with straw, with dead cats and dogs,
with feathers enough to stuff score OF
beds, etc. Corks, too, of which there are
great numbers, are caught by grating
before they can escape into the Seine, and,
after being pared down, are sold to the per,
tuners. Wine merchants and scent mer'
chants are both good trades in Paris, p" said
our guide, as he explained to US the future
use of the corks. If you can get leave te
climb up the ladder of one of theregards
you will be able to look into one OF the
narrower sewers without footpath, which
pours its unsavory cataract into the mail
drain.
Sewers of this type have to be kept cleal
"by hand" Somehow, nearly all the G3'
men employed in the Paris sewers are Gas
cons from the sunny South" 1t is hare
life, and men can rarely stand it more thai
fifteen years. They get pains in thei
joints, general weakness-what they cal
plomb (as if their limbs were of lead
"Sewer rats 5" the poor fellows are called
and their only comfort is that they hav
waterproof boots, a new pair every 81
months. The old boots are not throw
away; they are slowed on one of the quays
and when good many hundred pair ar
collected, there is a grand auction, an
they are sold in lots of hundred for fror
100 to 125 francs. 1t is almost always til
same man who buys them, and he cuts o.
the feet and sends them to the boys up tn
Disc, where they are used by the peat cut
tiers; the legs are subjected to process
which turns them into fine, soft leather
Many Il fashionable lady's boots are mad
of the leather which has been first used b
Gascon scavenger. OF real sewer rat
there are comparatively few. They can
work through the hard cement (chunan
with which the new sewers are caset
They keep to the old stone-roofed drains
and of course they still abound in the mai
kets and at the abattoirs and knacker'
yards. There are many stories of thei
fierceness, but of these | need not at pres
ent say anything.