Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-02-14

| NOCH. NCll hCAls DuL IIlC SllIldG6 IlUSl
be nearly fiat; for, if crowned more
than a few inches, the horses, in wet
weather, slip and fall, and ruin them
selves in efforts to rise.
/ observed the same objection was
made to the use of asphalt-pave-
ment in London, where there is per-
haps 20 m les of il Whereverthere
was a grade of more than l or feet
in 100, the horses could not hold
their footing with any greater load
than a cab and two or three persons
in it. On a wet day, one might see
a dozen horses down in the distance
of half-a-dOzen squares, with gaping
crowds standing around each, watch
ing the struggles of the poor brutes
to rise with the hel lp of the driver
and several policemen. The cabmen
of London recently held 3 great
meeting, at which they passed resO-
lutions condemning the asphalt-pave-
ment, opposing the laying down of
any more, and demanding its remov-
al from all streets chat were not al
most level.
| l must: .:digress still further to OBJ
serve that the most popular pave
ment in London is the
WOODEN BLOCK NICOLsON,
of which considerable is being laid
1t is liked because it affords a good
loot hold for horses; is noiseless,
smooth, and easily kept clean
The great draw back, of course,
is its perishable nature. But |
was told that, on the retail dry
goods streets, and in the old parts |
of the city, all around "the Bank"
the tax-payershad expressed a will
lingnesS to bear the expense of |
renewal once in every FIVE or six
years, for the sake of the comfort |
of its use. Before the blocks were
laid, they were put through chem
ical process to preserve the wood |
from decaying, and the spaces be-
tween the blocks were filled with tar
and gravel, and is done in Chicago.
There is no wooden block pavement |
in Paris. |
In both Paris and London, asp
palt is coming into general use for
sidewalks, for this part of tie street |
nothing has been found equal to it,
and it is destined to supercede every
other material for that purpose in
European cities.
The City Government of Paris
pay the contractors $500, 900 a year
for
KEEPING THE STREETS CLEAN,
removing all garbage and dirt, and |
sweeping the streets daily through
out the year. The contractors de-
liver the rubbish to other parties
outside the walls, for which they |
receive about 100000. The pur- !
| chasers of it, after having rotted in
pits, sell it to the farmers and gar
deners at from so cents to 81 per
cubic yard, and realize therefrom
S750,O0O to $4,000 per annum.-
The number of scavengers in the
city employed in cleaning the streets
and carting off the accumulations
average 5000, divided into several
legions and companies, each having
its own district of territory to clean.
The wages paid to the scavengers-
large number of whom are women,
and the rest old men and boys
range from to 8 cents per hour, or
so to 80 cents per day. They are
said to wear out 10000 broCms per
hour but what a contrast between |
the street cleanliness of Paris and |
that of any American cityl 1t is
almost the difference between a par
lor and pig-sty. There is not the
slightest particle of dust in the
street to soil or spoil the delicate
and dainty displays of goods in tens
of thousands of shops which line the |
thoroughfares Can as much be
said of the streets of Chicago!
The first municipal consideration
of city is t
SYSTEM OF SEWERS
to carry away all liquid impurities |
and filth, and to drain the soil. The |
average sewerage of Paris is very |
perfect, but the surface level favors |
easy drainage, as the city lies in a
valley, with range of low hills on
either side, so that the ground rises |
as the streets recede from the river.
At the distance of mile back from |
the Seine, the ground is generally
as to 100 feet above the surface of
the river, which itself flows, at low
water, twenty-five or thirty feet
below the adjacent street level
The Seine has a fall of l99 feet be-
tween Paris and Havre, distance
of $50 miles; hence it is rapid run
ming current, and easily carries OF
all sewage discharged into 1t.
The present system of sewers con-
sist of seven main tunnels, each as
large as the tunnel under the Chica-
ago River at Washington or La
Sale streets and some of them or
4 miles in length. Into these main
galleries opens forty or more small
Ter tunnels, of or 10 feet in diam
eter; and these are fed by vast
number of smaller ones. The ag.
gregate length of all the sewers
built in Parisis
ABOUT 400 MILES.
The contents of all the sewers on one
side of the Seine are conveyed under
the river through a great syphoon,
and discharged into the main sewer,
which is Is feet in diameter and /
miles in length. 1t discharges Its
river of filth into the Seine, below
the walls, at a village called Asnie-
res, whence the foul-fuid diffuses
with the water of the rapid stream,
and passes off to the sea without be-
ing noxious to the country.
Paris receives its
SUPPLY OF wATER
from several sources, and consumes
for all purposes a general average
of S2,OOO,OOO of gallons per day.
About one half of the water is
brought from branch of a Seine
the Ourcq one third is taken from
Seine itself, about so miles above