The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-07

furnished the city at various dates for
street sprinkling, for use in the city
buildings, and for labor performed on
the connections by which the water was
furnished to the city, for all Of which
the city is said to have refused repeat
eddy to pay.
City Attorney Benham, following the
reading of the defendants answer,
submitted large number of affidavits,
bearing on the water supply.
Master Mechanic Cobart, of the st.
Paul & Duluth, deposed that the sup
ply Of water had been so loaded with
impurities that the railroad found it
necessary to insert a strainer in its four
inch feed pipe for water used in it's
engines and round house. This strainer
became clogged so that 1t had to be
cleaned about twice month, but that
during the epidemic of 1891 this condi-
ton was so much worse that one day
it had to be cleaned twice, and for a
period of at least thirty days, it was
cleaned about twice a week. The water
tank from which the locomotives OBJ
tanned their supplies became so foul
that the stencil was unbearable, and
from 1T were removed on one occasion
thirty barrels of rubbish, including not
only putrid fish, rags and old paper,
but linoleum, and a furry animal
whose decayed condition prevented its
close identification.
A number of ex-employes Of the
water works company testified to hav-
ing cleaned quantities of dead fish from
the chamber under the Holly Gaskell
pump. 1t seems that there is a double
pump, both pistons drawing from one
chamber, with the result that there is
a continual current in this chamber,
toward the side Of the ascending pis-
&nr1 Ns-1,
are washed around until they get
caught in the closing valves, and are
mangled to pieces small enough to per-
NIT their entrance through the aper-
lures in the valves to the mains, or re-
main there until the chamber is cleaned
out. These fish in many cases were
removed when fresh, but frequently
they were so spoiled that the men who
took them out had to turn their faces
away to avoid the stencil.
An old time fisherman named Osborn.
who has since been a sailor, made an
affidavit that he was familiar with the
currents of Lake Superior, and he testi-
fed that the prevailing current in that
water was from the south shore, and
was easily traceable by its color, as it
washes the south shore clay banks
He had observed 1t washing along the
outer edge of Wisconsin and Mime
ship canal, but some times as far as
five or six miles back on the north
shore, 1t thus having made the COM
plete circuit of the head Of the lake.
This current, he deposed, prevailed ex-
cept when there was strong northerly
or northWesterly wind. The object of
this aft1davft was to show that the
current through the Duluth ship canal
from the sewage basin in st. Louis
bay was carried directly toward the in
take pipe of the Duluth Water and Gas
company. Further he deposed that he
was familiar with the fish of that
vicinity, and said that while white fish
and other clean water fish were former,
ly plentiful in that portion of the lake
where the intake pipe is located, now
they were not to be found in that
vicinity and only such fish as lived in
dirty water were to be found there
City Engineer Patton deposed that
he was familiar with the current and
also with the various city improve
ments made by Duluth in connection
with its sewage system.
Peter Olson testified that the en-
ployes at the pumping station had a
drinking faucet which drew directly
from the water supply pipe near the
chamber referred to in other affidavits
The presence of dead fish in the cham
Der was detected frequently by the
taste and smell of the water as drawn
from that faucet, and sometimes the
employees took the cup out and dipped
from the lake when they were thirsty
Magnus Engebretsen, former
Waterman at the reservoir, testified to
having frequently found fish, live and
! dead, in the reservoir. He had been
instructed to remove the dead ones,
and was provided with a pail with
which to dip up and remove the oily
scum on the water which accompanied
the putrefying fish.
Other affidavits Of similarly
nauseating character, and more so,
were presented, and when shortly after
o'clock, Mr.. Benham stated that he
had sent for some other important
dispositions whose absence he had only
discovered during the day, the hearing
was continued until this forenoon at
10 o'clock. when it is expected that the
affidavits will have arrived
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