St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1876-11-03
New YORK, Oct. -. Isl

TON.
New YORK, Oct. -, 1876.
To the Editor of the CaletiOnian
The scarcity of water which began to
bt felt during the hot weather has not
abated. The autumn rains delay their
coming. and the reservoirs are still SO
sides on the first tioor-from the roof
suffers considerably from the lack. Con
sidering the vast supply which still re-
mains despite the drought. and the
lessened consumption due to cooler
weather, the continuance of the trouble
ELECTS loud complaints from the suffer
ers and numerous plans for its removal
from the wiseacres who among other
things want IL new and larger aqueduct
supplied from the upper Hudson. The
wiseacrcs however. are all Oh the wrong
track. The cause of the difficulty lies
deeper than they imagine, literally as
well ia tiguratiNelN. Down under The,
ground. far beyond the reach of the not
oNerprNing eyes of our water commits
sioners are miles of defective, wretch
eddy laid water mains, contract work
done under the bencticent rule of King
Tweed without inspection OF criticism,
the Ring caring for the jobs only as 81
many pegs on which to hang an equal
number of monstrouS bills against the.
city, and the contractors doing lust IL
little as possible for the small fraction
of these bills which found its way into
their pockcts. Ii follows that the leak
age and breakaGe of these mains steadi-
~ increases. And worse than this.
there are II considerable number of un
used mains which the ha>tN contractors
never took the trouble to plug. but
simply turned their end, into the hear
est sewers aud let them Iun. In this
way there is more water wasted under
ground than above it. This waste. il
utilized would speedily put an end to
complaints. and until it is stopped there
Is little use in increasing the general
supply.
Speaking of which reminds me of ii
little illustration of the Ring st\le of
doing hu-iucs. that | ,ht,iu.d mot man.,
evenings since in conversation with :,
man who formerly worked for = r,ur,.ru
which basked in the favor of tb,. Thieves
Court. He related th,. hist,,,, ,f 81,
small sewer repair which came. und,r
his own observation. in which = sever
builder being called to iu.u,ct IN,
breach and estimate. th, cost uf tixiu,r
it. said he would do the lob f,, S:,-
upon which he. WAS ordered +, ro ahead
When the work WAS dou, and tL,. man
went to the city foI his money h.. WAS
informed that he must MAX. nut and
receipt Il hill for S46O before he could
get his SIS \ little simpl,. arithmetic
will show the modest steal II, the. Riuu
of Sl22 on this one paltry Job. With
the pI"prietors of the jewelrI establish
ment in which this gentleman WAS en-
ployed Tweed WIS on the best of terms.
He spent Il fortune with them in dia
mouds and silverware. and would often
drop in for Il soca4 chat. On such oc-
casions he more than once remarked 10
my informant that there were plenty of
easier ways to make money than work
ing at the bench. and then went on to
give him points" on which he could
go to some official whom Tweed indi-
Gated and get literally paid AZ an in
former. On these suggestions. however.
he steadtastlN refused to act
Being AN expert clock maker nv in-
formant WAS employed to construct sew
eral magnificent time pieces both for
the court house and for Tweed's sunni
tuOus country residence. ut Greenwich.
Conn, on all of which purchases. to us,.
his own words they stole awfully." A
frequent duty of his was to 90 out tn
weeds place to set and regulate all
the clocks III his house, and during these
Visits he had considerable opportunity
TO observe the domestic relations of the
BOSS. These, he sad, always seemed
to he of ii very pleasant and cordial
nature in spite of the fact that the off
clhl acts of the head of the house were
no secret. On one such visit. which
occurred about the time of the first pub
lie uprising against the Ring, Mrs.
| Tweed, plain sensible appearing wo-
man talked freely with him about the
state of affairs, and plainly indicated
heI acquaintance and disgust with the
City Hall crew. II tell Mr.. Tweed. y
said she. THAT he is just It's bad as the
rest of them and that he'll surely get
into trouble sooner or later" Her pre-
diction may safely he said to have been
verified; and to-day the unfortunate
lady lies upon bed Of sickness per
haps of death awaiting with sorrow
and shame the return of the captured
fugitive.