The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-10

1
worn it. And how came it here? These
grewsome questions l could not answer,
strive as best ] might
Along somewhat more distant in the
sewer / noticed that there were dirty
bubbles on the water. Occasionally they
ourst ana gave forth a faint, Duftng
noise, miniature explosion
AS leaned over them with my lamp,
there was more violent sound, and in
mld-alr, there shot sheet of fire.
started 6aek hastily. l cried for help :
but as did so, even before the words
couId leave my tongue, the fire had van
lshed, and again DlackneSs reigued in this
dismal underground vault.
l thought of ire-damp, and of the
thousand and one horrors of subterranean
lie, but none of these su1iced TO explain
the phenomenon of the moment before.
My head reeled | was on the point of
being overcome. Then it was clear to me.
l had come to point in the sewer where
there were leaks in the connection pipes
mat supplied Illuminating gas to the
houses in the vicinity.
FASTENED forward with all speed, first
eNtingulshing my lamp, to avoid a repe-
tltion of the troubles
The smell o. the gas became stronger
and stronger. Old sewerers told me that
Illuminating gas often gets into the sew
pipes, actually opening into the ground.
So insidious is this fluid that it will force
Itself through the pores of q brick So
the leak might be 20 feet away so far as |
was able to tell
Then | came to place whore the odors
were less offensive. A gust Of fresh air
swept through the air holes in the cover
OF a manhole. That revived me greatly.
The body of dead dog swept by on
the current
stumbled over something 1t was
round and smooth. I Bonded down, and
reachingmy arm into the slime cautiously
felt for the object.
l was rewarded by pulling up out of the
mud half a dozen silver knives. three
forks, and two spoons. They were all of
late pattern, and had been little worn
by the action of the waters, Not far
away ! came across lot of broken dishes.
] decided that / was now near the con.
nection of some big hotel, and that these
objects had gone down the waste pipe
through the carelessncss of the servants
There are, q present, in New York
city, over 500 miles of sewers These. too.
are being constantly increased various
changes have been made in the old sys.
TEN, which flowed direct into the sur.
rounding rivers. Now the original sew
ers are intercepted by a network of inter
NGuluS NUEhS. mus. INC sewerage oil
New York might be compared to a
checker board, especially along the river
districts. In other sections there are
great underground arteries, parallelinC
each other, beneath the principal streets.
In. anticipation of the lOnZed-fOr under
ground rapid transit railway, the sewers
are being sunk deeper and deeper
Rightly the system is regarded as second
in Importance only to the water supply.
To speak OF underground New York is
to refer to a world Of buried wealth
Untold millions of dollars lie slum berina
beneath the cobblestones. Who paved
the streets of London? You do not
konw. Who work under ground
in New York; Still again. you dc
not know. Neither do you care, so long
as the sanitary condition of the city is
sufficient for the needs OF the day OF
the hundreds of men who toll down in the
subterranean trenches, the sewercr, the
electricians, the pneumatic tube men
the laborers, no one knows and no one
cares. Daylight to them is the
it is night always. Immense under
ground drainage works are theirs
to look after, to plan out, to perfect II
maintain. And SO they dig and delve
in another world, entirely apart from
ours. If occasionally they come up to see
wife or children, the interval is brief, for
the demands for their services are press
ing. Life is short, time is flying, and
money is scarce. To wade around in mud
and slime, which often comes up to the
hips, to risk ones health, to offend ones
nostrils with rank odors, to be in daily
contact with grewsome and noisome i'm
pedimentS-al these are but Incidents in
the life of the sewerer. Only the strong
est men can stand the strain. and even
these succumb to diseases of the throat
nerves and lungs. The men from the
south it is noticed, stand the rough, hard
work less effectively than do the work
men from the north, but in the end it Is
the same.
la Paris they do things in a better
fashion. There, there is IA regular, thor
ough medical examination. There is Il
yeritable class of sewerers. The govern
ment looks after their needs The city
provides them with the best sort of cloth
ing.
The sewers of Paris, too, unlike those
Of New York, are immense underground
works, as clean as kitchen floor, almost
and certainly well lighted and ventilated.
You can drive through them with cart
and horses. All the materials of the
streets are swept into them, and from
thence cared for in various cunning ways.
A whole army of uniformed, well trained
men live here the year around. Over
there. when q sewerer gets too old to be
of longer use, he is pensioned. Here,
when he dies in the trenches, his body is
hurried off to an unknown grave, on
Harris island, the Potter's field of the
big city.
The.sewers Of New York, unlike those
of Paris, are not famous for the dark and
bloody crimes committed in their hide
Gus depths. In vain petitioned the detec-
tives of Supt. Byrnes' force to tell me of
the sewers, in their relation TO crime.
Little that these men could recall was
noteworthy.
Occasionally" said detective, "a
thief, who is hard pressed, will fling a
purse IN catch basin, on some corner, as
he is running to escape the law"
"But do not murderers escape some
times through the sewers"
II do not know of a case. But | remem-
Der Incidents in which men have lost their
lives in New York sewers, through acct
dent. Some laborers were working over
big sewer, not long ago; one of their
number plunged headlong through
a man hole. But this happening when
the others were not looking, the mans
disappearance was not noticed for a long
for hours Then a search was insti-
tuted. But he could not be found. Days
after-a week or moro-there foated out
of one of the big sewers which open into
the North river the body of an unknown
IT. lob