Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-02-22

Now that the operations for the construc-
ton of water-worls have commenced, we
think it right to discuss the matter in one
point of view which il Is impossible to neg
lect consistently with our duty rs public
Journalist. We take it in hand as a matter
affecting the public health.
When this matter was first undertaken
the pebble was given TO understand that tae
water was to be brought from point high
enough up Red river TO keep clear Of any OF
those sources Of impnrity which the pres
ence of a city on river bank always furnish.
At that time We were decidedly in favor OF
water-worizs for the city, and are 50 still, bnt
at that time we had not been informed OF
the conditions under which they were TO be
constructed, nor did these become known,
as our readers are well aware, until after the
contract was drawn mp and signed. Wesfelt
Ominous misgivings from the time read
4 that contract. We have since come 10 the
conclusion that the silence with which
we have treated the question was derelic-
ton OF our duty, and. now that the plans of
the company are developed and turn out to
be worse than the worst we anticipated, we
| hasten 70 make amends.
1 Although the public were led to suppose
| that the water was to be brought from Red
4 AlhGfs no FutsttAOn was A1eSatcN Ai4 t2AE
contract for any particular source, aud we
now learn with dismay and indignation
| that the water Is to be drawn from a source
| right on the city wharf, contaminated with
some IF the worst and most dangerous i'm
/ puritIes that a city can supply. It is a point
| below the point where the gas-works dis
charge their refuse fluids into the river
below the saw-milIs, which are constantly
| filling the stream with decomposing vegeta-
BILE matter, and, above all, below the outlet
OF the little creek that runs through Gallows
| Hollow. Now let us give a separate atten-
ton TO each of these sources of pollution.
The refuse fluids of gas-worSs are known
to be strongly impregnated with sulphuret-
| ted and carbIretted hydrogen, both active
/ poisons when concentrated and always
source OF sickness when either inhaled or
ifnbibed in any degree of dilution,
The effect OF decaying vegetable matter on
| water may be readily observed by any one
who will keep tumbler of water for two or
| three days with saw-dust in it and then
| place drop OF it under a microscope. He
will find it filled with vegetable and animal
| ayttsoria, the presence of whichin water has
always insured its condemnation as bsver-
/ age wherever science has any influence over
the public health.
But the offscourings of the Gallows Hollow
creek, which enters the river just above the
saw-mlI, demand a more extended notice.
Fhis creek is destined, whenever the increase
of our population becomes such as TO cause
its banks to be thiekly occupied by dwell
lings, 10 become to GAINESVILLE what the
bayou Gayoso is to Memphis and the creek
which cIeeps through Brownsville has been
20 its citizens. This is no time to mince
matters. We had intended to call public
attention to its condition aud its effect on
the public health before We heard of water
works, but>were deferred for the time by the
excited condition of the public mind in ref
erence to yellow fever We delay the duty
no longer. During last fall some six or eight
cases of fever occurred in the immediate
neighbOrhood of this creek the symptoms of
which were malignant in an unprecedented
degree. Some of our physicians gave the
opinion that they Were yellow fever. We
differed from them in their diagnosis, but
considered 1t malignant fever of specially
virulent form. There Were no such fevers
in any other part of GAINESVILLE. Any one
who has glinmering of knowledge Of the
laws of health need only to walk along this
hollow from the saw-miu TO the passenger
| depot in order to see that 1t abounds in all
I 4
creek is dry in hot weather, a muddy torrent
al heavy rains and filled with stagnant
| oack-water when the river is high. More
over, its banks-you may almost say its bed
lis occupied in increased numbers every
year by the shanties of the poorest class,
white and black, of our citizens. OF course
its stream, whenever there is a stream, car
ries with it 10 the Cumberland all the accu-
| nulated impurities which result from such
tenements and which need not be here de-
'cribed. Well, this stream so polluted emp
lies into the Cumberland river about fifty
yards from the spot at which it Is proposed
iraw water to be introduced into every
| house in GAINESVILLE.
We desire TO represent to the Board of
Mayor and Aldermen that they must stop
this thing at any cost or prepare for such a
storm of obloquy as the bOldest man will
think twice before he encounters it from his
fellow-cItizens. II was a most culpable
oversight which led them to make their
contract without n clause specifying the
source from which the water was to be de-
rived in such terms as to secure the city
from such an offensive outrage as Is now
proposed to be perpetrated upon it. We
leave them TO seek the remedy.
1t is to our fellOw-ctizens that we now
address ourselves, and we urge upon them
the advice with which this article is headed
-'fkeep zap yo11- cisteras." Build more as
they are wanted and especially urge upon
your poorer neighbors not to be without
them. Even if the water from these works
were brought from the comparatively pure
source originally proposed, We would say
continue to use cistern water for drinking.
Attend to q few facts on this head. While
Nashville u few years ago was deeimated
with cholera, not a case occurred in Edge
field just across the river, E lgefield uses
cistern water, Nashville the water OF the
Cumberland; not, indeed, where the Off
~cOurings Of the city empty into 1t, but from
point about mile above GAINESVILLE
itself furnishes an illustration. Not long
ago we printed in these columns a paper re-
lating to GAINESVILLE as it was forty years
ago by our oldest citizen, Mr.. W. R. Bring
hurst, Sr. He describes GAINESVILLE as being
in those early days q very unhealthy city
and as having been visited by an epidemic
of cholera; but says that It's health began to
improve just as soon as cisterns began to be
built. In our own time also Nashville on
one side of us and Erin on the other were
both visited by fatal epidemic of cholera
While the Erin people were dying by scores
and the Nashville people by hundreds, IL
not thousands, not more than six cases Of
anything at all resembling cholera occurred
here. Some alarm arose from these cases,
and the present writer, with the lamented
Dr. Haskins and another physician, were
requested by the then Mayor to visit any
such cases and report upon them. We found
that every patient who had suffered or died
from a suspicious disease, whether cholera
or not, had been in the habit of getting his
drinking water from one out of two springs,
one near the passenger depot, the other near
the old Beaumont house. No person who
had drank cistern water exclusively had
been III with anything resembling cholera.
Keep up your cisterns, then. Alas, there
will be large portion of our population to
whom cisteTn water will be unattainahle
after this scheme is well inaugurated-our
poorer whites and our negroes, Let our
people look to It! GAINESVILLE could better
afford three such fires as we had last spring
! than to lose her GRIND reputation for health-
fulness.
knights Oh Pythias,
The Grand Lodge Of the Knights of Pythias
of this State met IN Nashville on the 18th.
i We are glad to learn from our representa-