The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-10-08
THE SEW RIS
WHAT THE VISITOR MAY SEE ON A
TRIP THROUGH THEM.
Great 1unBeis, with WATERWAYS and
IL ats, Railways and Csrs-A Perfect
subway sys,ea--rhrilling Blasts ON

i
Signal Horns and What They Mean.
One of the most unique bits of sight
seeing anywhere i'm the world may be en-
joyed in Paris during the spring and sum
mer months. Ii consists of nothing less
than a trip by rail and boat across the
city, not through the streets and along the
Seine, not even by balloon or flying ma
chine overhead but underground, through
the great sewers.
In order TO visit these subterranean won
ders, you must write "a note TO the project
de la Vile, asking for passes. The sewers
are open for inspection twice week from
May l until Sept. 30, always providing
that the days fixed arc perfectly clear. If
the permits sent you say good for next
Friday, and on that day there should he
Clouds no amount of American money
could bride way down.
The parties descend at the same hour
one entering by means of stone flight of
steep stairs, at the Place dc la Madeleine
and the other at the Place du Chatelet
| The steps run down between gray stone
walls and are just wide enough to admit
of one PERSONS descending at "a time.
If you make your descent at the Place
de In Madeleine, on reaching the bottom
of the steps you find yourself standing on
long platform, with wide canal in
which water is running slowly past you
TO the right down into darkness and dis
lance. Looking to the left, you see
brilliantly lighted, arched stone tunnel,
through which the canal runs with "a mar
row stone TOW path on each side.
Overhead you see n huge pipe, held to
the center and top of the arched roof by
iron hnnpc L. thronDh - Al Il
Paris is supplied with all her common
water, for in this city they have two grades
of water. That in this large pipe is taken
from the Seine and is used for flushing the
streets, to water the gardens, to extin-
guish fires-in fact for everything except
cooking and drinking.
Next to the big pipe is another of about
one-half its capacity, and through this is
carried the pure spring water which the
people drink.
Next you will see n heavy cable made of
many ropes, all covered, so as not to come
in contact with each other or be damaged
by dampness. BY these cables are trans
mitted all the different forces used in the
city. There are the pneumatic tubes,
through which you may send letter
across the city, as "change" is sent in our
retail shops. Then there are the electric
wires, for messages or light and the pipes
transmitting condensed air, which the
city sells to those wishing TO use it.
CHANGING along the walls of the arch
you see numbers at regular intervals
which correspond with those of the houses
in the street above and make it easy to
locate any trouble and rectify it. You
can, if you happen to live in any of the
streets under which you pass, see your
own address at n little underground OPEN
ing that corresponds to the big doorway
above, where you run in and out every
day.
Having gazed around and seen these
main features of the sewer, you will be
asked to take IA scat i'm wide, flat bottom
ed boat large enough to hold 20 persons,
and with your captain" aboard, dressed |
in white duck, you begin your "trip, drawn
by four men, two on each side of the canal, !
who, like the captain, arc dressed in white |
and are SO clean that the nickel buttons |
on their clothing twinkle in the bright |
electric light
At each street crossing you can look to |
right and left down uncnding vistas of |
archcd sewers, lighted always by huge |
electric rcllectors.
Sometimes there are seven or eight of |
these boats in line going down the Rue /
Royal which Is the widest sewer i'm Paris |
and when you get out to 'change cars" at !
the Rue dc Rivoi there are sometimes as !
many as 200 persons on the platform
Here you leave the boat and take your
seat on sort of hand car which runs on
rails and spans narrow canal as an en-
CINE does its roadbcd. The cars are clean
and bright, and are fitted up with nickel.
They are pushed by n crew of four men,
always in spotless white, by means of a
long handle bar, which projects over the
footpath of stone on each side of the canal.
At intervals along the route you pass
openings in the wall, through which
comes roaring and dashing the waste wa
ter from some huge fountain in the street
above, and at regular intervals, also, there
are rays of daylight to be seen through the
that lead up from the sewers to
the streets by means of iron bars driven
into the stone walls.
There is system of signaling to the
men in the sewers that is thrilling to the
visitor. Every little while the long blast
Of a horn rings out and echoes through the
sewer, so that you think noisy Paris above
must hear, but it does not. There are
only four signals given; one blast or two
tells the workmen some private order, but
|
the city and when there are four
long, ringing notes given it means that
must leave the sewers by the
nearest manhole, that rain is falling as it
Fan fall only in Paris, and that he that
stays in the underground waterways will
ind in them his grave.
When you know the significance of these
signals, it is thrilling TO hear the three
blasts ring out and it must be thou
'andfold more so when the warming to
eaye comes. 1t is because the sewers fill
50 rapidly, in case of rain, that visitors are
allowed to descend only on clear days.
Throughout the whole trip through the
sewers there is not single sight or odor
hat is unpleasant-in fact, it is just the
reverse; from the stone arches and the
iazzling lights, TO the nickel buttons and
he ornaments on the mems hats, every
hing is clean, bright and in order, for
1ou must know that it is only the surface
drainage that passes through the sewers of
Paris; all house drainage is removed in
quite different way.-M. w. Lewis in
Philadelphia Times.
" |
Greatest Drinkers of AIcoboI