San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-05-16
SEWER SYSTEMS.

San Antonio is putting down the
mains and getting ready to make indi
vidual connection with them in carry
ins cut her plans for sewering the
city. This sewer business is a peculiar
one The very need of it exists in the
corruPtions of material growths. They
are the underground rivers that carry
off the over ground pollutions. If they
are not properly constructed and the
house-trap properly plumbed so that
no sewer gases arise into the dwell
ings and business houses and streets,
the sewers will destroy more life than
they will save. 1t is of the first impor-
tance then that these connections and
constructions be scientifically made
TO do this expert labor is needed The
man that successfully constructs a
sewer system must know how.
Under the windows of the old sane
tum on Commerce street, where for
more than eleven years the Light
preacher has typed out his thought for
the readers of that ever growing I'll
luminator," and where the sermon for
this morning is being wrought out for
the Mergenthalers, under those win
dows overlooking the waters of the
winding river, the laborers are now
busy digging the sewer trench along
Commerce street, just east of the
bridge. Each one has his part assign
ed him in that construction, and the
everwatchful overseer, with his eyes
on his section of the work, is eternal
ly yigilant in order that there may be
no imperfection in the job when it is
offered for inspection. Thus as the
work progresses the thought of the
morning sermon is suggested, for any,
thing will do for a text.
Turning from the particular work of
these San Antonio sewers to the system
itself as employed in all cities of con-
siderable size one recognizes several
facts. Among them this one. that it is a
system that applies exclusively to cities
and has no place in the economy Of
country homes. This arises from diff
ferences of conditions, and not from
differences of habits in either or both.
The man in the country when he
moves into the city needs the sewer as
much as the man who was born in
town. The man born in the city can
when he reaches the country Just as
well as If he was born thera. 1t is not
then in place for the man in the city
to ridicule the country because it has
no sewer system; nor is il in place to
condemn the sewer in the city by the
man in the country, because the coun-
try needs none.
Another fact is that the aggregations
of population in small compass require
the sewer system as a means Of carry
ing off the effete and refuse matter
of these populations, while in sparsely
settled districts and where people are
not forced together in close contact
there is really no need of any sewers at
alLAagain the man who dwells solitary
or comparatively alone on his farm, has
no warrant to kick 1T his fellow either
in the metropolis because he has al
under ground river of corruption run
ming UNDER the streets. II that farmer
lived in the densely populated town h,
would find that the fresh air of hi!
country home was only possible undel
the purifying Influence of that sewer
which while on his farm he was 81
ready to condemn.
There is one other fact in connection
with this sewer work that is worthy
of notice. There is no option about it
Given a city of a certain size and 10
Gated within reasonably circum
scribed territory, there is nothing pos
sible but that sewer If the health o
the people is to be regarded. Fact!
are in themselves proof of what is al
legged and there is no argument upoI
them. The cities of antiquity tina
have surviving enough of their under
ground structures to offer testimon,
on this point, show that Babylon AM
Tyre and Pompeii and old Rome HaC
their sub-conduits of the most jolit
construction, as well as their iopel
aqueducts. The old cities afford tn
strongest reasons for concluding tina
the art of p,Operly -const quoting sew
ers was 20 them Eelf known, and il
arts-Of cleanliness iand all that minis
:, tered to health they were adopts.
Here then we have certain facts tina
apply to the sewer systems of cities
having for their objects the physica
health of the citizens, their convenience
their salvation from the inevitabl
death increase and epidemics ths
would follow lack of proper sanitatio
and provision for the removal OF a
those cOrruptions that are engendere
In the supply and wastage Of life. Di
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