Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-03
WON'T DRINK WATER.
Southside Citizens Give Up All
Hope of Getting a Pure Fluid.
MINORITY REPORT FOR COUNCILS.
Health Officer Baker Says the Echindery
Will be Abated,
BUT THE STATE BOARD HASN'T SAID so

Southsiders are becoming more and more
impatient every day over the manner in
which the attempt to procure q better water
supply for that side of the river proceeds.
From the way the members of the Schindery
Committee talked week ago, it looked as
though something definite would be done,
and the citizens who had prepared a call
for public indignation meeting decided not
to issue it.
The action of the committee last Friday
in referring the matter for the second time
to the State Board of Health, after having
received legal opinion from City Attorney
Moreland to the effect that the city had
jurisdiction over the schindery or any
nuisance within five miles of the city, has
again disheartened the citizens. They are
beginning to feel that there is no remedy for
them. DIR. W. F. Pollock said last night:
'It was the wrong thing for that commit
tee to do. The matter is now just where 1t
was a month ago, and there it Is likely to
stay. It does not require an expert medical
or scientific man to detect the impurities in
our water, and it will be getting worse every
year. am in favor of abolishing every un-
necessary source of impurity. 1 cannot
think of any better plan than to bring
water here from Lake Chautauqua."
Aiming blow at the schindery DR.. Pollock
said: "It ought not to be expected Of sc, 900
or go, 900 people that they shall put up with
such nuisance perpetrated by one man
alone. If our city authorities have juris-
diction they ought to proceed at once, and
stop putting it of until it will not be of any
benefit to have the schindery abolished. If
extremes follow extremes, and they usually
do, 1 look for long, hot, dry summer, and
if my expectations prove true, l am sorry
for the people OF the Southside next year.
1t is almost certain that we will have an
epidemic of typhoid fever"
BAKER IS SATISFIED.
Health Officer Thomas R. Baker said in
regard to his action at the Schindery Com
mittee meeting on Friday that he considered
he had done perfectly right, and that the
matter was now in the proper hands, those
of the State authorities. Ee was sorry to
differ even from so eminent authority as the
City Attorney, but all minds could not be
brought to bear the same views. He thought
that DR.. Lee, the Chairman of the State
Board OF Health, as practical man. would
at once have the matter fully investigated,
and if he found the schindery to be a
nuisance, would at once have it removed.
DR.. j. R. Thompson, the local member of
the State Board, would, he thought, make
full report ON the case in very short time
without doubt, and the matter be settled
finally.
In the meantime the Southside residents
continue to absorb animal matter of an un-
desirable kind into their systems through
the taps of the Monongahela Water Com
pany. and complaints are almost daily made
to The DISPATCH reporters of the continued
unhealthfulness of the water.
Another feature of the repugnanee to this
water is the fact that it results in . very
large Increase in the beer trade of the South
side. This is shown by the immense num-
Der of wagon loads of beer which daily goes
up the various inclines or the roads to the
hill wards, although no saloons are sup
posed to be running in these neighbOrhoods.
With water unfit to drink and no saloons
licensed, every man his own barkeeper be-
comes the order Of the day, and the testi-
mony of some hundred of the hilltop citizens
goes to show that the beer traffic has doubled
within year and is still increasing.
NIsBET WILL FIGHT.
W. W, Nisbet, Councilman from the
Thirty-frst ward, is still in the field as far
as fighting the Southside schindery is con-
cerned. He still afirms that the City At
torney's opinion clearly places the city
under obligation to have the matter ad-
justed, and he intends to make the fight on
that point when the matter comes up,
as is expected, at the next meeting
of Councils. It is his intention
to offer a minority report, in which he will
refer to Colonel Bakers interference in the
business of the subcommittee on water.
He will not enter any objection to the right
of that body in adopting the resolution, but
thinks that Mr.. Bakers offering it exerted
an undue influence over that committees
deliberations