San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-10-23
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CRIMINAL PLUMBING.

some of the Changes CareIessness May
Bring tn an Otherwise Good Home.
1t is only now and then that some
accidental revelation exposes work of
the criminally careless or incompetent
plumber. Sometimes it is fatal diseases
in families which lead to critical eXami-
nation of his work, and in rare cases the
official inspectors of buildings detect it;
but it is fact known generally to ply
sicians and to all who have given the
subject careful study that One-half or
more of the fevers and other malarial
maladies which are so common are the
logical results of the criminal plumber,
In point of fact the sanitary plumbing
proclaimed and profesSed to be practiced
by the organized master plumbers is sell
dom enforced. The keen competition in
trade compels active undertaking for
work, and that causes plumbing con-
tracts to be taken at such low prices that
the contractor must choose between do
ing bad work where it is concealed or
losing money on the contract Few are
willing to DO good work at less than its
actual cost, and plumbers are eminently
human in that regard. Most of their
work is hidden from ordinary notice,
and they largely make their profits by
dishonest practices.
The one part of Il residence that should
not be offered to competition by contract
is the plumbing. Only the most expe-
rienced, skillfGl and honest men should
ever be employed to do the plumbing in
home. and then it is safest to watch it
with care. The ignorant or dishonest
plumber will sow the seeds of death in
every home, if he is allowed to do the
plumbing, no matter how well he is
watched or paid. and the only safe rule
is to employ thoroughly competent and
honest men. to pay them fair prices for
their work, and then require them to
guarantee it for five years, subject to
semiannual tests. This rule would be
likely to assure first class plumbing and
it would drive the incompetent and the
criminal plumbers out Of business.
There is no excuse for ignorance of
poisonous gases in home. The in
tegrity of the pipes can be as easily and
as certainly tested as the leaks in a roof
when it rains, By closing the pipes and
applying sulphur vapor under pressure,
it will not only find every imperfection
IN the plumbing, but it will declare the
exact point of the defect alike by its
visible color and by its 0dor. If it enters
the house anywhere. it at once exposes
the negligent, incompetent or criminal
plumber. This test. or some one equally
effective, if there is such. should be APP
piled to each home at least every spring
and fall, and it should be part of the
plumbers contract to repair for Il term
of years all defects thus exposed at his
own cost.
The plumber who deliberately puts
imperfect work in the hidden parts of a
house and thus exposes Il family to dis
ease and death is as much IL criminal as
any bUrcLr or murderer. He knows
thai the o.. Isl. \ of poisonous gases de-
stroys health and imperils life. and
when he deliberately leaves hidden vents
in plumbing for sewer gas to carry its
deadly fumes into homes. he is Grim
inal and should be treated and pun
ished as criminal. The criminal
plumber eau be driven out of business if
the people act with common fidelity to
themselves. and it is high time that the
good work should be beguif i'll earnest
Philadelphia Times