Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-12-16
OPEN LETTER TO THE ELECTORS CT
SACRAMENTO.


take this method of addressing you about
the sewerage of onr CITY. The RECORD.
"Ni'N mas o@iieu our ss'ehsiou 70 'ne suoJsc'
frequently and earnestly. Sill, nothing Is
done, | wish 10 address YOU as one of YOU,
having tho so,,a ;n,orssts no yo,, bove aud
n.
moved Dy the common Sood' ms Is 'ins
OF unusual sickness from diseases which are
attributed bv phvsiciaps of Sill schools 10 ma.
,ori.I o,,,-,z :, ,.s...;,-, -. - III
.'-" o"u''s' of oeieo'i'e se"efSke' Vi oo'h'
True, this sickness is not confined to Sacrs-
mento or California. But these causes are
nor conf,sa 70 Saorsroo-to a,d - = No
ie~Soh why we snouid De iholhefent 10 tne
causes of disease which may be prevented
because others negl, CT them. We are openly
toerating causes (which ought, by all known
laws of health, TO produce disease. The
csnses teom malaria l will not speak Of, only
those COM ected with sewerage.
The open canal below the city carries
putridlty and death IN the light OF the SUM-
The contents, as if TO punish US as much as
possible, move during the sickiest portion of
the year with almost imperceptible current,
just enough to let loose the seeds of disease !;
aud, as If this were nos enough, there are
many places where they spread themselves
cut in infectious pools, marshss ard lakes
fresh breeding places of feyers This slow
creeping current of death moves against the
prevaiiog winds, which take these exhala-
items, and bring them back to the city TO
sniff. Yet the city sits calmly, Cleopatra
Ike, with this viper fastened by its fangs to
her bosom, hanging away, down her waist,
aud ipisctlng fresh. poison into her veins with
every southern breeze
But the mischief of the canal is by no
means st its hight. 1t is rapidly fllirg up
with the materials of breeding putIiGity and
impregnating the banks, In a few wears the
whole region south of the CITY will be as fatal
to human life as the Campagna of Rome in
its worst days. Already in certain copdi-
tiols of the air the stencil half mile away
from the canal is intolerable. So much the
more viruleut in the coming wears will be Che
poison the impure air will inject into the
veins of the city. II this outlet for our sew.
age is 20 be continued, by all means lat the
canal be covered or be changed for pipes.
But this is not the oaly source If d;sease
nor the worst. A large part of the az yage of
the city is stored away in permanent yaults
and cesspools close to the houses impregDst.
ing the soil and making the yery foundations
on which the city stands noxious. and in
many Asses open connections exist hetween
these b1esdipg places of disease and the resi-
dences, thus not only filing the general air
with the evil Influence, but conducting it into
the houses o Single families ssn,rate aud
alone on the plains, that use these connected or
near vaults or cesspools for a number of wars
are liable to be invaded bvtypboids. dipht6eria
scarlet fever or other fatal diseases from that
cause. No CITY that longer tolerates them
within its borders can escspe sore punish.
ment.
We need, fellow-citizens, a new system
Every house, barn and shop should be con.
nected with a sewer, and sll the fecal and
fluid and semi fluid waste m after should and
its way into it and thence be speedily re.
moved from the city.
/ The pneumatic system is advocated bv
some and have no doubt. if adopted. It
would prove effective. But it involves great
immediate outlay, and total and abrupt
change of all our existing works and subsii-
tuition of new ones.
A better way. think, for us would be to
have a cistern and pump for the DISCHARGE
of the sewage into the river, az [ suggested in
an open letter to the Trustees Of the city two
years ago. The cistern, for the sake of the
easy discharge of its contents into the river
and to afford sufficient fall for the sewers
should be situated s,mewhere near Second
! and T streets. Il should be water tight. sunk
SOME thirty feet below the surface Of the
grouId, and come up as high az the top Of the
levee. Then let the pipe with which sll the
sewers are connected enter the cistern some
twenty feet below the surfacs Of the ground
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