The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1878-12-11


wells, and many of them are loaded with Or
ganic matter and utterly unfit for use. In
cities and large villages most wells are in close
proximity to drains and vaults. More or less
fluid escapes from these through the porous
soil and poisons all pure water which receives
it, believe that in ali cases that have hap
pened in this village it will be found that the
families in which such have occurred use we'll
water, and in no case has there been diphthe-
ria where they use White Spring water. This
IS fact so well recognized IN cities that i'll
many places wells have been filled up"
The following is from the Philadelphia
Ledger
Health resorts may be made unhealthy by
sudden increase of population, for VIII ich
no adequate provision has been made in the
way of drainage. A village on Mount Desert
was thus made to suffer from an epidemic of
yellow fever and Bethlehem, New Hamp-
shire, was similarly threatened when thou
sands OF hay fever patients made descent on
it in 1877 for the sake of its pure air. A re-
cent lecturer before the Academy of Sciences
New York, thinks that the villages which
now line TIE New Jersey coast should give
early attention to this matter, and secure a
pure water supply and ample drainage not
only for those who live there in the winter,
out for the vast number of transient visitors
who occupy the hotels and boarding houses
during the Summer months. One Epidemic
would greatly injure for time the interests
of people doing business at places of Sum-
mer resort, and they should all have local
health officers to keep them in good sanitary
condition.
These remarks apply to the City of Lam
bertville, with as much force as to the locali-
ties named, and we present them as evidence
of the importance of the subject of sanitary
measures for the cities of our country that
have the ability and the disposition to grow
and increase in commercial importance, social
comforts and value of property.
When our population numbered some four
hundred, the surroundings were such that
good water could be had from wells and
springs, Swans Creek, or the River, and the
| natural pollutions from the few inhabitants
did but little harm.
| Now our city numbers nearly five thousand
inhabitants, and several important manufac-
tories much produce comes to the city for
preparation for the markets or for home con-
sumption, and the slaughter houses and butch
err shops are extensive. Our gas works and
paper mills have become permanent institu-
tions, and if we intend to retain them in their
usefulness and their importance, the city must
provide way to relieve them of the debris
that naturally accumulates about them.
So in regard to the inhabitants, the city
must provide for their accommodation, and
give them all the sewerage facilities that a
compact and dense population require.
To provide properly for the wants of a city,
most liberal charters are granted by the State
Legislatures, wherein the voters have the
power to elect from their own citizens proper
officers to regulate and govern their affairs,
and enforce such laws as tend to the general
good, and raise by "taxation " the necessary
amount of money to carry into effect their
wishes.
The city of Lambertvile possesses the nat
ural advantages for perfect city, as regards
bountiful supply of good and wholesome
water from the river and SWANS Creek, and
are not compelled to use from wells that
must Of a necessity be contaminated, as de.
scribed by the medical writer in Geneva, N.
Y, and if that writer had come into our city
for his ideas he could have found prototype
of Geneva.
The city is admirably adapted for surface
and sewerage drainage. We have an easy soil
to excavate and the contours of the streets,
in connection with the creeks and river are
well adapted, and in the State of New Jersey
we have the pipe manufactured to our hands,
and if plan was properly devised and the
work commenced at the natural points of
drainage and discharge the entire city could
be properly drained and severed at small
expenditure of money and of time.
In regard to putting the streets of this city
in first-rate order, at very small expenditure,
there is the finest opportunity, and of which
no other city of this or any other State of the
Union possesses SWANS Creek and its hill
sides, the bed of Alexsauken Creek, and the
hillsdes in our city limits will furnish the
very best Of material for the body of the
streets and the products of Goat Hill and
Prallsvlle give the pavement for the CUTTERS.
curbing SC. ; and there is material near at
hand to raise the grade of nearly every street
so that there shall be cellar eight feet in
depth under every house or building, and the
sewers two feet below the bottom of the eel
lars.
The method now adopted of letting out Sec
tions of our streets to be graded and macada-
mixed, in uncoGnected and detached portions,
and at contract prices that are far above what
the cost should be if properly planned and de-
signed, is reprehensible. And to grade and
complete the work before the sewer pipes and
water pipes are laid, is simply absurd, except
it be design to make more work and taxes
by tearing up and relsying the work now be-
ing done.
The plan of permitting persons In arrears
with their taxes to work the same out is a
very good one, and very just to both parties,
provided thcre is fair amount of work to be
shown for the sum paid or allowed, and in
this way every person seeking aims, or of the
"tramp fraternity" should be relieved from
immediate suffering but should be made to
work on the streets in compensation for the
relief.
Work should be laid out to suit the emerg-
ency, and appropriate for the season of the
year in which IL is to be done and with all
the requisite authority to compel the prompt
performance of work to honestly discharge