The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1899-04-28

the construction of drainage system
which will take care of all the storm
water and drain every inch of soil be-
tween the Mississippi river and the lake
and reduce the moisture in the soil full
ly six feet. The first section of this
system will soon be finished and will
drain the entire business section.
The drainage canal proper is 80 feet
wide and 25 feet deep, built of brick and
covered over with asphalt. This work
has seemed wonder to all who have
investigated it, and is one of the great
engineering triumphs of the decade, of
which it's originators, Maj. Harrod and
L. w. Brown, have ample reason to be
proud. To build a canal of the dimen-
sions indicated in some places would be
child's play, but to construct miles
upon miles of monster culverts in the
soft soil of New Orleans seems little
short of miraculous. Recently party
of engineers and representatives of the
press descended into the culvert at
Canal street and walked distance of
two miles upon a surface wide enough
to accommodate three teams driven
abreast. That these underground
tourists were more surprised than
when they took their first boat ride in
the great sewers of Paris is not surpris-
ing. It will require fully five years to
complete the work so auspiciously be-
gun, and total outlay of perhaps $s,-
100000, of'which s., 00O,0 900 have already
been expended. When completed, the
new system will carry off the drainage
to the Gulf of Mexico, by way of Bayou
Bienvinue and Lake Borgne, thus keep
ing uncontaminated the waters of Lake
Pontchartrain, one of the most pic
turesque lakes in the United States.
The system of sewerage and of re-
moving the night soil is still as print
tive in New Orleans AS when Bienville
marched across the swamps from Biloxi
and planted the standard of France
upon the banks of the Mississippi. The
vaults are emptied twice a year, and the
offensive matter, dumped into the river,
producing condition at once unsani-
tary and offensive. This fact has at last
been impressed upon the people, and
even those most stubbornly opposed to
progress are beginning to realize that
in order to avoid guarantees and their
attendant evils and business ,depres-
sions, and epidemics and pestilence, the
cause must be removed. A campaign
was begun short time ago for the con-
struction of modern sewerage system,
q; thorough system of municipal water
works and an adequate system of street
paving; and it is almost certain that the
people will vote in favor OF. issuing
bonds for: that purpose. Such improve
ments would not only redeem the city
from filth, but make it at once the
healthiest and most beautiful NUM-
cipality in. the south and the greatest
port outside of New York. @ n S35:, +,
The death rate Of New Orleans now
is about 20 per 1000. Improved drain
age conditions will lower it easily to
us; and the completion of the sewer
age and paving systems and an album
aant supply Of pure water would, speak
| ing from scientific experience, reduce
it to ten or even nine per LOCO. s5s{
Preparatory to these far-reaching
innovations the city council has caused
the telegraph, telephone and electric
| light companies to place their wires
underground, so that in the space Of
half decade New Orleans will have