The San Francisco call., 1897-09-26
In It's Construction Arrange
ments for Water Were
Neglected.
No Drains Were Made From the Basins
and the Faucets Cannot Be
Used.
l wish that my room had ficor,
don't so much care for a door;
But this cropping around
Without IeIt hing the ground
Is getting 10 be quite Il bore.
gillette BURGESS in The Lark.

With the trifling exception that no
water can flow through it, the PheIan
fountain leaves nothing TO be desired. 1t
was such slight oversight. Just matter
of eig ghteen inches or so Of solid granite.
but even the virtues of sparkling water
would not suffice TO overcome this diff
Guilty, and the defiant young man with
the unfurled flag and the benign winged
damsel perched on hign must perforce
limit their hospitality to pleasures OF the
artistic eye. For the indiyiI ual with ''h OF
coppers" they have never grateful dror
Just Low the masterpiece of Douglass
Tilden's art and Willis Polk's skill came
TO be erected with such peculiar error IN
its makeup is one of the things which no
fellow can find out. Probably in the cor
emplation of beauty lines and inspired
conception the vulgar idea OF utility was
crowded badly in the background, for
had water been what was wanted, would
not a hydrart have served the purpose as
we'll as heroic bronze and stately granite :?
The miscue in the fountains construc-
ton is by no means irremediable. In a
few days modern Moses with knowl-
ed ge of crafts lapidary and a big auger
will smite the stone and it will give forth
an abundance of pure water, as Spring
Valley water goes. The wonder is that
such an elementary consideration in the
building of a fountain should ever have
been forgotten at all.
The trouble lies in the drain, or lack Of
drain, from each of the upper basins
The waste water from the elaborate dol
phln-head fountains is caught, or would
be if allowed to run, in shallow basins
These hold about two gallons each, and
upon becoming full he water trickies, or
would tiickle, gently down the outside,
over the granite steps and merrlly on
down Market street.
The presence of q babbling brooklet
making its way along the sidewa K toward
the ferries might be strictly pas oral, but
as an a accessory to pleasant pedestrianism
it would have obvious drawback.
1t is only fair 10 say that such an ar
rangemen, was not in the contem plation
of the fountain makers.
That they intended the water to escape
from the upper basin into the lower basin
by means of a drain pipe is evidenced by
the fact that from the lower basin is duly
fitted up an escape into the main sewer.
Yet to reach the lower basin the water
would now have to seep through a foot or
more of solid stone. And waters habits
of seepage, being largely acquired in rural
districts, are not adapted to metropolitan
practices.
Now that the fountain is up the mistake
is little inconvenient to remedy. To
bore through the stone without prelimi-
nary preparation might crack the basin
and tnat would mean patchwork foun-
Tain. A plaster cast will have to be mad e
to fl within the basin and the boring will
be done through this. The result OF the
mistake will only mean few days further
wait for the limpid liquid and the peop e
can stand that. They stood waiting ali
right before there was any fountain at all.