Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-11-17


erage or ANYTHING in the line Of attached
improvements, l was greatly surprised to
read an article in your paper Of yesterday
over his signature, In which he advocates
doing 1t by taxing the whole property OF
ecity for such purposes, and coming In
for his share Of the benefits whether he paid
his share of the expense or not-the not
paying it being the position taken by him
in our private conversation.
DR.. LeHardy really does not know what
he is talking about, or else forgets his
knowledge In his esgerness to assault that
which he did not devise. The lot owners Of
the city pay now for their primary drains
the new bill providing cooperative method
by which they will get a good system for
ten dollars to twenty dollars each, where the
present system involves from five to twenty
times as much expense to each lot owner,
and he gets no properly graded system at
all.
l propose now to take up DR.. LeHardy's
objections seriatim and expose their unfair
ness, their mpracticability and their want
of common financial equitableness.
DR. l.. saws, first, that "the bill will prove
useless because it fails to provide for the
establishment of q well matured system. :"
The bill provides that II the present sewers,
which have cost the taxpayers OF Savannah
some half million or more OF dollars, or II
any part OF them can be used so as to save
our taxpayers any unnecessary additional
levies for constructing others In their
places, they shall be so used. But, II, for
the very class Of reasons referred to by Dr..
L., It is found that these old and larger
sewers will not do for the purposes OF house
drainage Ito which use they are now sp-
,,Tso a No CnnQrQfa EVgfpm shall he
constructed What more does Dr. L. want?
Then saws the Doctor: "It is left to the
option of majority OF the owners of lots
AUDITING on any street or lane, etc, or to
the will of any City Council to say whether
there shall be primary or secondary sewer
lain down in II, etc" l am surprised at a
man of DR.. LeHardY's position garbling the
language Of the bill, in order to bring the
bill down to the narrowness of his own con-
ception of it. The bill gives the City Coun-
ell the power to construct one OF these
drains down a street or lane when sanitary
reasons require 1t. DR.. LeHardY knows as
we'll as l do that there are number of
places IN this city where local stenches exist
to a frightful degree, aud where sanitary
reasons demand the exercise OF just such a
power as that conferred by this bill to pre-
vent the breeding OF flth-bOrn diseases.
Yet, knowing these facts, he makes sport OF
that provision of the bill which provides for
the removal OF Just such stenches He then,
also, objects to the clause permitting the
owners Of the lots to have any voice In the
matter. Well, as the owners of the lots
have to pay the money as well under
the new bill as under the one
now in existence, the difference being that
under the new bill the lot owner would get
something good for ten dollars, or his pro
rata apportionment OF the cost, whilst under
the present system, which we are trying to
remodel, he frequently has to pay from one
hundred to two hundred dollars, or more,
and gets nothing half so good as that with
which we expect to provide him for one
tenth the cost, Ireslly thought the lot owner
was entitled to a voice IN the matter. His
second objection "to the present sewers
has been alluded to alreadY-but It is hardly
| fair for the Doctor to call attention only
| to a few minor ones, and which under the
new billn can be reverted to simple surface
| drainage II found not suited to the purposes
Of house drainage, and to leave out of men.
| ton a number of larger well laid ones, which
| have capacity and grades sufficient and car
be frequently and thoroughly flushed
| by using which an enormous outlay can be
| avoided. If these old sewers need man
| holes, ETC., they can be provided with them
| at a much less expense than would be re-
aSured for the construction Of new sewers.
1t is equally unfair for Dire LeHardy tC
| charge upon these larger sewers the cases
| of disease which have been satisfactorily
shown to have been caused by defects IN
| the pipes between the bath rooms and water
closets and their connections with the larger
| sewers-the difficulties in ninety-nine
cases out of every hundred being found III
| these badly-laid primary pipes and not iE
| the large sewers.
Now, another point made by DR.. Le-
| Hardy is that "there will be percolation oil
| fluid contents through their walls, leaving
| the solid contents TO remain and rot and
poison our houses" etc. Now, as the bill
requires the sewers to be flushed systemati
| cally, most OF these solid contents will be
carried along by the flushing current, and
any quantity of water can be put in the
| flushing current. 1t is a mere question OF
volume and force. Then, as we propose tC
rid the city gradually of the existing 4,00(
| to 5000 privies and dry wells now soaking
| the soil of the city with their putrid perco
| lations, l venture the assertion, and DR.. Le-
| Hardy dares not deny the truth of it, thai
with the abolition OF the dry well and pFiYy
| system, and the proper flushing Of the sew
| erage system, there will not be the one hun
| dredth part as much percolation Of sewer
| age matter from the sewers (even the brick
| ones) into the soil Of the city as takes place
| from the privies and dry wells into the sol
| OF the city.
| There is another point to be considered
here. In sections Of the city where people
| are too poor to provide proper sewerage Of
| house drainage arrangements this provision
of the bill leaving it TO the lot owners is &
| good one 1t will doubtless work In thi
| way; That when a majority Of the lo
| owners fail to ask for drain, and few
construct it at their own expense, other
seeing its good effects and desiring them TO
themselves, will pay the owners Of thil
| sewer or drain fair equivalent for the privi
lege Of connecting with it and Kidding thei
| own premises of unpleasant nuisances. Ii
| either case the drain will have to be Lac
"under such regulations as the Mayor anC
| Aldermen shall prescribe"-a provision
which presumes that our Mayors and Alder
men have the ordinary run of common
sense, and will not prescribe silly regulation
| DR.. LeHsrdy to the contrary nevertheless
The doctor again objects to the "outlets'
for the drainage. What does he propose Il
do with IT? Literally nothing--so far as hi
paper indicates. 1t mustn't 90 to ftidt
water" by any canal or canals Gas the BilbC
canaDl 1t mustn't stop on the surface OF an
land (such as the Cuyler swamp canaD! L
mustn't avoid these conditions and be VoideC
directly into the river in front of US!
Well, think l can say this to the doctor
that this question Of what to do with I
after it gets out Of the city and away from
our homes and noses, is being seriously In
vestigated sill over the civilized world, an(
It is likely that we will be able to do Jus
about what other communities fud best
first, we will clean it out of our city, after
wards we will disinfect It or precipitste thu
solids and drain off the purified fluid
and dispose OF the solids as bes
we can, by cremation, II necessary
but we "hardly ever" expect to burn o.
cremate the fluid. Water don't burn! anC
we will probably be compelled to drain tina
off where we can get fall enough for The
purpose. II the doctor objects toall out.
let's, canals or anything else, he will put thu
collective community In condition OF in
t,tsSusceptiOn and set US all to vomiting GU
digestive supplies go as to be able to d.
without our "Outlets."
| II, in using necessary outlets, we canno
afford the expense Of constructing covered
drains, l suppose we will have TO wait unit
we can afford them, as they will probably
have to be constructed some miles in length
word more as to the assessments. By
DR.. LeHardy's idea a man who has $40, 00i
house is required to pay for fifteen feet OF
| pipe, Just twenty times as much as mar
who has a $500 house. That is, the riche
of the two is charged for his own and tn,
| pipe belonging to nineteen othe
persons who have $500 houses.
| do not think this just. l thinl
that whoever gets fifteen feet OF pipe should
pay for fifteen feet of pipe, whether he is
worth a hundred dollars or a million dol
lars. The richer man, under the proposed
bill, pays for the public benefit from the
drainage system by his larger assessment fol
the trunk drains, OF which the poorer mar
gets the same benefit at a small part OF the
expense, the expense Of the trunk drains
| ov,ar and ahova the cost Of urinary drama