, 1891-10-03
To the Editor of The ST. Croir "Auis'

/ WOulO just peg 70 ask, are tneF0 ualI d
dozen persons in it, even among the grade
of the higher classes, who really realize the
necessity of storing up water? or making
provision against unexpected dry weather,
or for that most necessary of all agrlcultur-
al adiuncts, irrigation?
The gardens run to waste. There is q
vail for rain, awful lamentations when the
water supply fails; but behold the cruel
waste as soon as we get the needed mois-
ture and then the matter drops, the long
anxiety is laid to rest, and the better people
slide along in a happy-go-lucky hope that
now the old receptacles they have had Stree
The year l are replenished the showers will
continue; and the common people, still
more happy, when they have exhausted
their kerosene pans caught in the last drlZ-
zle, take midnight French leave and forage
a raid on a more fortunate neighbours caSk.
This is no fiction, the writer all thro TINS
last 9 years drought, was edited wlththe daily
mornings far and near cutlery OF water "dem
lief out OF my barrel"
Look round the houses in our towns
and thrO' the country for that matter-and
see how many possess the necessary spout
ings, and just number in our poorer yards
how many rooms go 10 a %cistern and where
is there a reservoir to conduct water into a
field or garden, or bath rOOm?-and in con-
neCtiOm with this latter, where, aud oh
where, is the convenient pipe-and faucet
delivery of other landS?where you can bring
the element, Ariel like, 10 Your pleasure ny
the simple turning of Il tap? The d0uche
40 strongly recommended by medical men;
Is there Il dOuche bath in the whole island?
No, we cart the water to our tubs OH II
girls head, ard vigorous shouts supply the
rest OF the family's bathing requirements
and for the sick and invalided who want
doucheS and SO on, they are drafted away
TO Vichy, and Germany, and Arkansaw,
while our acres of roofing (and wlndmlllN
TO booty drip away the precious element
Into waste and weedy yards.
And this, where servants are said TO be
proverbially wilful and independent! Any
wonder? Why to balance such privations
as deficient aud uncertain rainfall-we have
even had the spectacle of water imported
into the island, as if it were a barren rock =
To balance such an evil, we say, every hoy
and man in the place should be a Mason
and Plumber. and every woman should un-
derstand soldering and cementing. And
pipes and SpOutings should ornament every
roof and tenement five knew all this from
childhood each one his own mason and
tinsmith at little cost why may we not all
know it? where is the drought that would
Distress us, or that we could not in a mea-
sure set at defiance. Am I romancing?
1t is no romance. | have in my minds
eye the action of one of our merchants. in
one of these our Danish Islands, a gentle
man, a MAJ of business, who, upon establish
ing his new home with his young wife, set
the pleasa It and rational example of ignOr-
ing the expensive nuisances of gardeners
and masoHS and carpenters around him.
and quietly, and tastefully, on afternoons
and holidays, aud chance moments, himself
worked up his little spot of garden into an
Eden, with his own hands doing every bit
of the masonry for fountain and reservoir,
and grOttO, and fish pond the piling up
of terraces and bits of walls, and all the
carpentering Of hennery, rabbit-coOp, and
flower stands, for the comfort and beauty of
the household; not forgetting the fountain
pipes.
If this gentleman with other and more
serious engagements on his time, could ac-
cOmplish so much, why not the swarming
young loafers running al ound US at large,
if they were only guided arightf Why not
also many wOuldsbe fine gentlemen (and
ladies' who now indolently think useful
work degrading? Why not even some
other merchants and gentlemen like the
one we have quoted? except they prefer to
remain fguratively and literally in the posi-
ton of the Yankee who couldn't see the
lovely mOnnriSe every one !about him was
enjoying, because 'this burned feet shut ont