The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-07-07


ing, drawing it through the Sewers at
such velocity as would scour them of
all rubbish edo this new. Solomon
exact justice;p the. words are his, not
ours. Storm waters are to be rushed
into the sewers and drawn out with
such velocity as to scour out rubbish. !"
1t will be news to most people to- learn
that rubbish is cast into the sewers.
said it. s~A g~sf
Did ever on the face of the round
globe, an engineer commit himself to
such expressions and live to blush be-
fore the engineering class.
Fact is AR. Muir is not an engineer,
by his own confession, if his language
is to be given a plain and uncontrolled
meaning. To be assured that no in
justice is done him we find further
on in this remarkable report that he
again speaks of pumps to draw
through the sewers surplus water
when raining which ordinary and I'M
as storm, waters"
However there is a CLEAN of light
in the report, since he speaks of the
pumps being attached to the sewers by
suction pipes. "air tight and automatic
tight valves to be fitted and be placed
at the street corners so that the rain
water can flow into the sewers through
the valves which prevent air escaping
from or to the sewers,
There is deal other of verbiage
about valves at laterals, flush gates,
etc. We refer to these things simply
because they relate to the secret of
the whole business, namely, the brazen
effort to push to the front water sup
ply taken out of the American River
just below the drainage of the town
OF Folsom, which stands upon high
bluff of the American River.
Mr.. Muir tells US that under his sys-
tenn we will have no more water
ponds" in the streets, which will as
suredly be a blessing, if beer ponds
or foot-wine ponds are not substituted
In summer the sucking pumps are to
draw from our sewers 'foul fumes"
and carry them to a cremating plant
to be there disposed Of. and we shall
all be happy, for Mr.. Muir tells US the
sewers we have already are ample for
our needs for many years to come, thus
ignoring the fact reported upon by en-
gineers repeatedly, that if we are to
abandon the cesspool system and con-
meet our houses with the sewers, our
sewer system is inadequate, incom-
petent, indeed impossible of use ex-
cept to a very, limited extent.
The poisoning Of the soil by the
thousands of cesspools seems not to
have entered into Muirs calculations.
Our sewers are large enough for us,
he says, thus flying in the face of the
whole public, which is demanding as
rapid substitution of correct sewer
system for the present inefficient one,
as can be had consistently with the
ability of the taxpayers.
Soberly. the ignorance of Mr.. Muir
concerning the sewer system of Sacra-
mento surpasses. Mr.. Devine's wit and
humor, which are as @undeniable as his
love for Sacramento straight"
Muir concludes his paper with a long
and strong Endorsement of Mr.. Devine's
American River water scheme. He
tells US how it will give us pressure,
power and water to all our need; that
dame nature is purifying the Folsom
water as it flows, and all we have to
do is to clarity it by filtration, and
that a single acre of ground is suffi-
cient for the purpose.
He and Mr.. Devine, says the conf
dent Muir, went up to the State Prison
at Folsom. Both of them had hot cop
pers and drank more than freely of
filtered American River water, and
both live to tell the tale, he assures
us, though each of them drank as if the
hot box could never be cooled, and no
i'll effects followed.
1t may not be worthy of mention, but
we state the fact nevertheless, that a
few days ago when Mr.. Muir voided
some of his ideas about a water sup
ply system for Sacramento in the pres
ence of a Record Union" representa-
tive, he was by questions direct and to
the point made to confess that he had
never investigated the driven we'll sup
ply east of the city, and knew abso-
lutely nothing about it., and he made
this confession in detail
1t may not be worth MITCH since Muir
has uncovered his "stagnAnt POOLS" to
note the fact that about one third of
the people of,Sacramento are now buy
ing and using water from these wells,
and three companies are Kept busy de-.
livering it. and that 'zonce taken
it is retained in use; that this use OF
driven well water has been going on
for over three years, but has had its
greatest growth in the lastssix months,
and that in Consequence the health rec
ord has risen remarkably, and the NOR
tally record declined in it's showings
The City Physician reports the annual
death rate as having fallen to 1880
per 1000 on the basis of the June re-
port, whereas. six nsonths ago and
PRIOR it was 81 per cent. higher and
it is added that the health of the city
is gratifyingly fine.
The anti-expansionists found very lit,