St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-13
DULUTH,s WATER WORKS SUPER
INTENDENT TALKS TO THE
GLOBE.
NO MICROBES IN THE WATER
HE SAYS, AND so FAR AS KNOWN
THERE WAS ONLY ONE DEAD
FISH.
md HE WILL GO BACK BOLDLY
To Face the Music and Listen to
the Taunts of Indignant Rate
Payers.

William Craig, superintendent of the
Duluth Gas and Water company, the
corporation whose tainted water is said
to have produced LOGO cases of typhoid
fever in the Zenith City within few
months. said last night at the Ryan
that his company's water was in effect
as pure as dew drop nesting 'twixt
the petals of a violet, and that if the
people of Duluth didn't think so, he
wasn't a little bit afraid of 'em-so,
there! The typhoid epidemic certainly
hasn't been caused by the water OF
Duluth. It was caused by something,
Of course. Maybe that something was
the air, or maybe it was just-some-
thing. He was sure, in fact, that 1t
must be.
Yes said Mr.. Craig-a reticent but
agreeable gentleman, whose accent is
somewhat less Scotch than his name
1.-The fever isn't caused by the water
supply, at any rate: Why, I've known
people to have severe attacks who
have made it a practice for the past
year of never drinking any water that
hadn't been thoroughly boiled, and 9TH
ers have the fever who always use
spring water. On the other hand,
there's lots of people UP there who
have used our water right along and
got fat on it. This ought to be suffi-
cient proof that the water is safe, but,
besides, the company has had a chem
icaI analysis made Of the water. The
city authorities have had other anal
ysis made-one by DR.. Menzies, of Du-
buque. Samples of the water have
been sent to DR.. Hewitt, secretary of
the state board of health, who lives
at Red Wing. Now, the result of all
these different examinations was pre-
cisely the same-not trace of animal
pollution, not the least wiggle of
single tail of a typhoid bacillus has
been detected in any of the samples
analysed.
"Of course, the people blame it all on
the water. They forget that typhoid is
equally prevalent, almost, in many 9TH
er cities this winter, and it isn't prob
able that the water supply is polluted
in Buffalo, in Chicago, in Cleveland, in
Two Harbors and in all the other places
where there's more or less of typhoid
epidemic. No, / don't know what is the
cause of typhoid-the air, perhaps. One
Of the things objected to in our system
is that the mouth Of our intake pipe is
only 359 feet from shore, and about 800
or 1000 feet from the mouth Of certain
sewer. But there's no law prescribing
how far out the pipe should begin and
the water there is at least thirty feet
deep, very different from the shallow
water in Lake Michigan opposite Chi
cago. AS for the sewer, it was put in
there two years ago, against the for
NAL protest of the water company. It's
not very near, to be sure, but we didn't
want any sewer about there, at all.
"Those dead fish? o, that's all a fake.
There was one fish-one solitary, lone
fish, that was found in the well at the
opening to the intake pipe when the
we'll was cleaned out a few weeks ago.
The fish had got chewed up in the pump
ing machinery somehow and fallen back
into the we'll. When he came back he
was dead, naturally, and we'd rather
not have any dead fish floating around
in the intake well, but it's liable to hap
pen. Yes, we clean the well cut, some
times, but the water out there is so
fresh and pure that it isn't necessary
to do much cleaning. There are no
sratings or sleeves of any kind at the
well, but the water is always in mo-
ton flowing into the big pipe, and it
keeps itself clear. AS remedy for pos
Sible dangers we're extending the pipe
now until it will be 700 feet or more
from shore, and the city is going to
abandon that sewer.
Stand in with the breweries? I
should say we didn't Perhaps, since
this scare began, there is more beer
drunk UP our way than before, and
maybe it would be hard to convict a
man in the police court simply because
he has taken undue precautions against
absorbing microbes. But our COM
pany's water is a good deal better than
anything from the Old Oaken Bucket,
and, for my part, I never drink any
thing else.
That's ridiculous. I never thought
of leaving Duluth on account of the re-
cent excitement against our company.
l went down to Chicago lately, but 1
returned home and stayed there a week,
and 1 just dropped down to ST. Paul
last night to attend a little business.
m going back tonight, and I don't ex-
pect to drink beer when I get there,
either"