The Portland daily press., 1891-11-18
A Big THIRST.
New York Getting To Be
a Very Dry Town.
They Want DyrenfOrth to
Bombard the Heavens.
Even the BreWeries Af-
fected by Drought.

NEW YORK, November H.-People In
this city turned on the taps In their houses
this morning with doubt, hoping to see the
now precious Croton water how, but with
minds already made up tomeet any dlsap-
pointment In many instances the little
silver stream which ran gladdened their
hearts, yet many were rednced to the neces.
sity Of carrying water from tho basement
to the higher floors. In spite of the rain,
which cheered the heart Of the average cit
izen, Commissioner Gilroy and Chief En-
gineer BIrdsall. OF the department Of pub
lie works, were still gloomy over the out
look, and Mr.. Blsdsall said that. unless 1t
rained much harder than 1t did yesterday it
would do no earthly good, nor would 1t In
crease the water supply In any material
degree.
"What do you think of the suggestion to
have General Dyrenf0rth explode ton of
dynamite over Crot0n Lake, as a gentle
hint for the rain to fall, )" asked reporter
of Mr.. Birdsall.
81 don't know, don't know" he said
emphatically. as though he did not really
know just what he thought, and all at
tempts to get him to declare eimself In ia
vor OF or against such plan we're unavail-N
ing; he would not commit himself.
Commissioner Gilroy called a meeting of
all the water inspectors yesterday morn
ing, and gave them strict orders to prevent
any waste. To facilitate the work the
city was divided into districts and one in
spectOr was assigned to each district, and
for any waste in his district he will be
held responsible and will be discharged If
he does not do his duty.
Any citizen found wasting water VIII be
fined So for the first offence, and for the
second his water supply will be turned off
until all danger Of famine Is past. Police
Superintendent Murray said that he had
not received information of any arrests In
the city for the improper use OF water
through hose. AS his order on Saturday
instructed the police captains to send re-
ports of any such arrests the absence OF
any indicated that no such arrests had
been made.
People throughout the city began to real
ize yesterday what water famine means.
Especially among the many owners Of In
dustrial establishments which depend alto
gether on the CrotOn water for carrying on
their work were the anxious faces, and the
reporter was greeted by inquiries as to the
probabilities for rain in every place which
he visited.
The brewers of the city are naturally
most apprehensive of water famine.
There Is, perhaps, no other industry, which
requires such great amount of water, and
water of the purest kind, so that no make
shifts In the shape of impure water from
artesian wells will do.
The artificial Ice manufacturers of this
city, who turn out from 400 to 1900 tons of
artificial Ice daily, are alsosgreat users OF
water. This output represents several
hundren thousand gallons of water taken
from the Croton supply.
A number of dispatches from Maine
have been received during the last few
days at the office of the Knickerbocker Ice
Company, No. 432 Canal street, showing
that the long drouth In New England has
greatly diminished the supply Of water and
endangered the Ice crop OF the coming win
ter. The ice on the Penobscot river Is US
ually harvested in that section of the
stream between Bangor and Oldtown. The
water has fallen so low In the river, how
ever, that the sea water has come up much
higher in the stream than ever before, rem
dering the water in the usual field of har-
vesting brackish and unit for domestic
PURPOSES when frozen. the salt water has
affected the stream as high as the dam
above Oidtown, above which the harvest
ing of ice is more difficult and attended
with greater expense. The same condi-
tiOns prevail in the Kennebec and other
streams and ponds in the state where ice
Is usually harvested. If the water is frozen
at its present low ebb, the ice supply Of
Maine will be seriously diminished and the
expense OF harvesting greatly increased.