The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-05-12

y
car load to St. Louis and other points west
t Capt. Thos. sproa. is 81 years old to-day
and sent these berries to his son, Johr
Sproat of this city, as an anniversary, anc
we, with many others, wish that he may
live to see many more anniversaries, anC
his life be sweet and fsir as these berries
are.
Much praise 10 due to the captains and
pilots of the water crafts In our harboi
who always make it point to render
every possible assistance in fighting fire in
the city. At Wednesday mornings fire the
III. s. McComb, commanded by Capt. Ii
V. Thompson, and the smaller boat OF
Halliday Bros, did some splendid work
But at this fro as at nearly every other
fire where the city's hose was tested in con-
nection with the McComb's, it was found
to be very defective. The McComb's hose
had been drawn on the top of the Cuhl
building and the pumping apparatus was
forcing the water up there from the river
with pressure of one hundred and forty
pounds without doing any damage to the
hose. The city's hose Of the same dimen-
sions and weight was also attached to the
boats pump, subjected to pressure OF one
hundred pounds and torn all to pieces
time and again. With every fair test it
becomes more evident that the city has
been badly swindled in its fire hose, which
must be due to imperfect testing when the
hose was bought. In the future the city
should have all new fire hose tested by the
McComb's pumps.
Mr. John O'Brien, OF St. Louis, was in
the city yesterday and the day before. He
was formerly acitizen Of Cairo, in partner.
ship with Mr.. Smith Terrence, in the boiler
and iron working business. He went 10
st. Louis several years ago, established
himself in bushes there and, by his skill
and industry, has succeeded in establish
ing for himself one of the largest sheet iron
workshops in the city. He employees con-
stantly about one hundred and twenty-five
men and receives orders for work from all
over the country. His visit to Cairo was
for the purpose of perfecting arrangements
for doing several big jobs Of work for par
ties In this city. He has the contract for
repairing the damage done to the gas
works by the late storm, the principal
feature of which will be new gas holder.
He will also furnish boilers and other nee
essary iron equipments for new corn meal
mill to be soon established in the upper
portion Of the city by Messrs. Charles
Gallagher & Son. He will furnish the
ferryboat Three States with q new reserve
boiler, and has several other minor con-
tracts for work Of this kind. During his
stay here he was greeted with many a
hearty shake of the hand by his many
friends Of old, who were all pleased to
know that he was making fortune in ST. |
Louis. He left yesterday evening.
The petitions asking the Illinois state
board of health to use its influence with the
proper federal officers to have the marine
surgeons office temporarily removed from
the post Office to st. Marys Infrmary where
the marine hospital station now is, have
been circulated very freely Throughout the
city and are being signed by nearly all
citizens under whose observation they fall. |
The officials Of the several railroads have
become Interested in the movement and have
circulated the petitions among their subor-
dinates with good success. The
mayor and city council have also signed it,
as have also nearly all the government off.
cials in the custom house. The object
saught to be attained by the petitioners is
so palpably beneficial to the community at
large that but few, if any, hesitate to give
it their hearty support That thsRbject
will be attained there is no doubt, for the
evil complained Of is too fragrant and the
complaint will be too loud, to be ignored
by the federal board Of health and the
surgeon general, who have, respectively,
charge OF the general public health and of
the marine hospital service. The petitions,
when ready, will go to Secretary j. II.
Rauch, of the Illinois board of health; this
board will embody the petition in re
quest to the federal board Of health, which
will, in turn, submit the petitions, etc, to
the surgeon general, together with request
that the evil complained Of be speedily
removed, and this officer, seeing the neces-
sity of it at a glance, will not hesitate to
comply with the request The
only reason tho government could urge
against the removal of tho surgeons Office
from the post Office, would be- that such a