St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-01-10
WAVES SARCA STIC.

"CITIZEN'' WAVES SARCA STIC.
What ails the CaledOnian? Why
do you make so much fuss about
sewers? There have not been more
than sixty and perhaps not more
than fifty cases of typhoid fever the
last fall that could be proved to orig
mate i'll bad drainage and drinking
drain-water, and about five deaths.
Only some 1900 days have been lost
by the sick people and half as many
by their nurses, unless you count the
time lost by those that did not get
really sick but were feeling unwell
two or three weeks Are 1000 days
lost time, and five deaths worth
talking about?
Then it is such satisfaction to see
how beautifully the course of the
sickness proves the theory of its
propagation. From the fostering
pools of sewer-water in the valley be
tween Hastings street and the Gene
terry the vapor settled down to the
mouth of the valley and in the houses
opposite the brick yard the fever ran
through all of both families, one per-
son diving of it These houses are a
few hundred feet above the pumps
and the water from them runs into the
pumps and so into the houses of the
people The drainage too from J..
Denning's, where there was early a
bad case of typhoid, empties down
the same valley. Now Dr.. Billiard
said publicly when the Passumpsic
water was taken into the village
that a single case of typhoid at the
Centre village would belikely to pro-
duce an epidemic here, for it is well
known that the germs of this disease
NAV be carried any distance without
losing their evil potency. SO we had
a few cases of fever from cOntagiOn
in the sick room, a few that were
brought here, but five times as many
that were in the track of direct germ
distribution which might have
been prevented.
But preventing it would have cost
too much. Would YOU wish the au-
thOriticS to waste money III guarding
the health of the people? The Gale
DOMAIN ALWAYS was unreasonable.
And more than this, when they found
how it was going they stopped tho
pumps and took pure water from the
Fairbanks fish ponds month or two
until the fever abated, so saving q
great many lives 1t would have
cost q hundred dollars more to have
carried the sewage of the head of
the plain East and discharge it below
the village water works than to flow
it into the tever-bed where it goes
now; and it would cost more than
5000 to make the change now that
the present work is all in. 1t would
cost fifty dollars to finish the sewer
that discharges by the Portland street
bridge, and it would cost a hundred
dollars to put the filthy water that
spreads out between the loose stones
of the culvert on the top of the ground
back of the st. .JOhnsbury house into
q proper sewer low enough to drain
the hog burying ground and wash
the poison away instead of giving it
to the air in the centre of the village.
1t is too costly, and the CaledOnian
ought to praise the economy of adj
ministratiOn instead of finding so
much fault. Besides our money is
needed for light.
And about the light. Don't YOU
see that we shall actually get light
half of part of the nights of the
year cheaper by the year than some
other places are paying by the year
for all night service every night |?
And cheaper, too, than what it costs
other villages that made their CON
tracts before the competition i'll cleo
trio machinery brought down the
price one-half? And if the electric
company can afford to pay fifteen
hundred dollars for the same power
which was offered for only one thou
sand does that prove anything eX
ccpt the generosity of that company,
and are YOU so dull that YOU cannot
sec that this excess comes right back
into the village, that is, into tho
pockets of some of our own people?
If they pay that extra five hundred a
year to the village treasury won't
that bring the price of the lights low
enough? O foolish Calcdonian,
peace, and cease your croakinguntil
there is something to complain of.
CITIZEN.
NORTH DANVILLE.
There were over 80 present at Mr.