The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1882-07-24
Mon day, July "a. 1881
THEART OF DRINKINGWA TER.

In the light of the so-called Darwin Huxle
genesis we are permitted to see-without Of
inp permitted to know the reason ofit-ths
an undue proportion of the jackass has bee
evolved into the composition Of man. Every
body knew before that there was great resem
blance between the creature donkey and tn
creature man, but it was not known that tina
docile but obdurate friend OF the human rac'
had reached the coveted boon of Immortality
by dropping himself SO libelally into the "m'
crocosm" when that composition was adjust
ed. albeit he left behind him some of his bes
traits and notably his hard donkey sense.
As conspicuous illustration Of the donkey
prevalence we are attracted at this moment BY
the great lack Of mans proficiency in the ar
of drinking water-not of drinking something
else in the place of water, which is the out
come of an original faculty not derived from
the brute creation. In the city of New York
50 years ago the city pump, located on every
square, was the institution which supplied
the people with the water they drank. The
island of Manhattan being surrounded by
sal, water, and the sea itself lying adjacent tc
it. the libation from the pump was necessarily
brackish and distasteful, but it was worse, it,
flavor was disagreeable, and many people &C
customed themselves to drink it only boiled,
while its effect generally was to promote
lively consumption Of tea.
Now the heavens sent down plenty OF pure
water in perpetual rains upon the City OF Ne"
York, and the lineal descendants of the don
key in that burg dug holes in the ground for
cisterns. and carefully preserved the water
which the gods sent them, to wash their
clothes in and perform their additions with.
But it never occurred to them that the water
from the skies might be fit to drink, and could
only be rendered unfit to drink by being de-
posted and permitted to stagnate, in hole
in the ground. To any mind excepting
just such a mind as the average human
mind it would naturally occur that water
freshly shed from its bed of vapor, just
when charged to its full capacity as a battery
with electricity, which is life, VAS sent by the
Maker Of heaven and earth under such condi-
ditions, as much that the outlaw man, as His
more sensible and law-abiding creatures who
drink water only, and the earth itself, might
drink it, and derive from its use new life,
energy, purpose, power. But in the extremity
which desperation at last imposed on the
people no such simple thought as
that, of building their cisterns Of slaves
above ground, SO that long standing
water might be run off and, at every
rain, fresh supplies received, and Of proceed
ing to drink it, entered that extraordinary re-
ceptacle, the New York Uranium to-wit, but i,
became occupied with a vast and costly
scheme of obtaining supplies of that fluid from
which the electric soul-life had long gone,
from a remote stream called the Croton river
having about the naviaable capabilities OF
the proverbial Goose Creek-and the famous
Croton Aqueduct was the result 1t was
a great triumph of science over common
sense.
And now we find in the same degree the
chief mental constituent of the San Antonio
human mind to be still the ignoble, but in
vincible donkey. People drink water from
holes in the ground, that are not even cisterns,
but impregnated with great varieties of filth
and numerous mineral poisons, or buy it from
the water-works company, which is only not
quite SO bad. But they obdurately avoid
every possibility of taking into their impaired
and abused systems drop of the pure electric
elixer of life sent to them from the clouds
without money and without price, by the
Benefcent creator or, as Carlyle expresses it,
the Author of the All, for their express use,
preservation and advantage Nothing ought
to be considered indispensable, for nothing
else is SO useful and valuable, as a capacious
cistern by the side of every house; and not a
drop of any other water should be drunk, OF
used for any of the purposes to which water
is applied. But it is seldom, or never seen OIL
thought of. al the dead liquid from the stag.
rant pools and streams, and drained from the
vapid soepy ground, is poured into the system
making the languid, creeping blood more
I,,ou;i concerning which the unfortunate
sufferer has neither the intelligence nor the
C, nsciouSness to care-more than any ances'
trail donky.