San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1886-11-18
CHAPTER ON SEWERS.
Our Contributor Discusses This Great
Necessity and the Great BENEFITS
to Be Denied.


such II population and size as TO render Il
system OF sewerage essential TO santa
ton Is u proposition which no man out OF
Bedlam will call In question. Ny mind
misyives me, that the preceding asser-
iiun is too broad and sweeping, and Tor
that reason, hasten to attach qualifi-
cation o it so as to save my credit Tor
veracity with the reader.
There Is a queer breed of men In San
Antonio that NAV be fifty designated as
"oId fDgeis," or mOssbaCks, who pride
Themselves upon being prOnOuncedly
non .prOgre sive. They plume them
selves upon tagging in the rear of the
march OF events and OF doing all that
lies I'm their power to clog the wheels of
the car OF progress. The old fogies or
mossbacks are recruited from all peo-
ples. nations and tongues Progress Is
OdIuus to them. Improvement Is In
their estimation only another name
for crack Drained theories-wild pro-
iects-utopian schemes and wasteful
expenditure OF money. Anything likely
to add few mills TO the sum total OF
their annual taxes suillces TO throw them
into spasm OF mingled fear and
horror. They ut once grow melan-
choly and affect the tone of
street mendicants. Nay, some OF them
fish out their moth-eaten and thread
bare suits, and put them on, while they
uroAk dolefully up and down the streets,
about the ruin that Is about TO cover San
Antonio like pail. These mossbacks
would cordially support system OF
municipal improvement and sanitation,
regardless of its cost, provided they were
EXEMPTED from the payment OF any ad-
ditiOnal taxes. ParsimOny Is what ails
them and they seem to have 1t In
chronic ,rm.
San Antonio, perhaps has a larger
number of inCuraOle mOssbacks than any
other city in Texas. They are devoid
of every spark Of the spirit OF progress,
and are especially opposed to se"erlng
the city.
Sewerage be hanged" says Stand
still. 81 have lived in San Antonio ever
since 1853, summered and wintered it
here. and never have felt the need of
sewers. 1t is a wild scheme, gotten up
BY the fool doctors and the rascally
politicians In order to pump money out
OF the pockets of the people"
Il agree with you, Col. Standstill," ex-
Claims Stop-gap, "sewers is new in
yentiun to spend money. When | was a
boy. nobody ever heard of sewers, and |
shall vote against it every time.
small villages and towns, where the
houses are few and far between" may
suffer 10 Inconvenience from the want
Of sewers. In former years San AntO-
Mo did not need sewers, since her pOpu-
laliun only amounted to 10000 souls, and
the houses were wide apart, affOrdlng
room and verge enough" But matters
have changed since that time, and San
Antonio now contains a population of
~, 900 souls, and the houses are built
close together, thereby impeding the
tree circulation of the wind. In point
of tact, the hotels of the city at present
create u greater necessity for sewers
thOn existed in the entire city prior to
1874. No man in his right senses would
contend that the clothes Of the l0-year-
old boy were large enough for an adult
man. Yet mOssbacks insist that city of
a., 900 inhabitants needs no greater mea-
sures for sanitation than the same city
when 1t contained only 10000 souls. Is
this folly or lunacy?
A large army gathered at one spot,
creates an absolute necessity for the
most active sanitary measures and the
utmost attention to cleanliness. Gar
bage and filth forms the seed-bed of ma
laria. 1t is not unlikely that the num-
Der of persons stopping during the year
at all the hotels In San Antonio would
amount to 100000, so that these hotels
alone would require ten-iOld more at
tentiOn TO sanitation than the entire city
did when its population was only 10000
and WAS scattered over wide area. 1t
Is sheer nonsense for men TO ignore stub
born facts. CirCumstanI eS must shape
our course and prescribe our duty. The
tribe of mOsebacks shut their eyes to
facts and circumstances and their minds
are impenetrable to reason and common
sense. But it is to be hoped that the
men lii San Antonio out
number the tribe of mOssbaCks and will
cordially unite to push forward to COM
pletion some plan of sewerage adequate
to the needs OF our city.
The futme growth and pros
perity of San Antonio depend, in
lent belief Of the people outside
Gifts corporate limits, that Il is not ex-
posed to epidemics of malarial diseases.
Ii is not enough that it is regarded as
safe from malarial diseases by its own
The public abroad must
look at itin the same light Why so? Be-
cause men of good sense will not settle
in city which they look upon as being
so full of garbage and filth as to invite
disease.
San Antonio should aspire to become
the iavorite winter resort of persons la
boring under pulmonary diseases. Her
natural advantages are superior to those
Of any other city in the union. The hui
nudity of the climate in Florida consti-
iutes an insuperable objection to that
state, In the opinion of such as give the
matter the proper consideration. But TO
attract invalids to San Antonio, it must
be placed abreast with all progressive
cities, in the matter Of sanitation, side
walks and street crossings. Ne must
have II sewer system to drain off
garbage and Nth, and thus
prevent the generation Of malaria.
We must also have system Of
surface drainage, that will carry off the
rainfall, rapidly and efiectually and am
that the storm water onght not
10 enter the sewer pipes at all, since it
would leave q sediment Of much of the
mud, held in solution by it, and by so
ioing, clog up the pipes at various
points. The surface water should be run
into the river-while the sewer pipes
should not empty into the river at all.
Now, the money needed for sewers
could be raised upon bonds of the city,
having 10 years to run. 1t is perfectly
safe to assume that 20 years from now
the capital and population of San Anto-
tonic will be double what they are at
present, SO that the payment Of the bonds
would scarcely necessitate an appreci-
able increase IN the rate of the taxation.
But when measure OF sanitation is alb
solutely essential, the cost of 1t be-
comes a secondary affair.
Prevention of sickness Is wiser as well
as more economical than to at
tempt to cure IL, after having invited
L. hu a nhnmnfnl hinrnnnrh Of thn