Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1890-05-09
WATERWORkS ADVOCATED.

Editor Register The papers inform us
that the ThomsOn-IIouston Electric
Light Co., that contracted to light the
streets of our village for the ensuing
year, fails to put in an appearance unless
the people to be lighted will furnish the
larger part of the capital necessary to
put in the plant and run the business
not unlike the man who would pay theI
note he owed his neighbor provided theI
creditor would sign with him at theI
bank, so he could raise the money. ThisI
company, after two years of persistent
effort TO obtain the contract. when Sc
cured coolly say, furnish Us the money
and take all the risks and we will allow
electricity to light your streets. This Is |
fortunate failure for us. should pri- |
vate enterprise undertake and carry for
ward the work, as appearances seem to
Indicate. Then our capitalists will adj |
vance their own interests and benefit +
the town. Let us hope the scheme Will
be consummated in the near future then
our citizens can possibly be able in their
evening walks to shun the mud-holes
and boulders that infest our streets. a
feat impossible to accomplish by sun
light. We will hope that so much en-
lightened enterprise will enable US to see
our own faults. and seeing. cause our
W bt SI'ttllN llllDlONtu.
1t is an admitted fact that in summer
on the second day after ii rainfall no
pleasapter village can be found in New
England than Middlebury; if the day is |
not so hot as to require the refreshment
the town pump or some saloon may af-
ford. On the third day after the last
shower. when the cisterns grow dry, and
on the tenth day, when the street sprink-
Ter usually is on parade for about 30
rods on each side of the creek bridge,
dust and sewer drains, that is, the wash
from every kitchen in town, hold I'M
disputed sway, preparing the town and
the people for the annual visitation of
typhoid fever, that neither little pills
nor nOstrums can assuage; making pOr-
lions of the village a doctors paradise,
with only the drawback that too many
cases prove fatal and immigration fails
to keep the vacant places supplied with
new victims.
Giving ourselves and benetcent Nature
credit for much that is good and praise
worthy, we should honestly and candid
~ consider our faults aud necessities.
In so doing all must admit that we need
and must have an efficient system of sew
erage before our village can be consider
ed "A healthy locality. The wells have
been so long used and the soil has been
so long permeated with the wash from
dwellings that the water is unsafe to
use. We need water for our dwellings,
for our lawns, for our streets. Water is
necessity that we cannot do without.
The village as corporation should,
without further delay, meet this necessi-
ty in a manly and businesslike way,
namely, by calling meeting and pro-
ceeding to vote bonds of sufficient
amount to put in pumps and apparatus,
build reservoir on Chapman hill and
lay the pipe over the village. One sea-
son is little time for the work. When
completed venture the assertion that
within two years the income from water
rates will pay the expense of the bust
ness and IN five years the income will be
sufficient to begin to pay the bonds,
which will all be paid with proper man
agement within Is years without taxing
one cent on the grand list.
Let us at once proceed to earnest and
effective work in this matter, and thus
make our village one of the healthiest,
pleasantest and most attractive in New
England. y