Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1902-08-01
Address all communications to
THE BARRE NEWSPAPER COMFY
BARRE, Vt.
BARRE VT, AUGUST ! 1902.
INSPECTION OF DRINKING
WATER.
The London Globe says:

uC LOuuOH GIODC says,
The distrust with which Eng lish
travellers abroad are apt to regard the
water bottle, whether on the dinner
table or as toilet appurtenance, will
not be lessened by the recent state
ment OF Paris newspaper. Accord.
ing to this authority there is no effec.
tive Supervision Of the public water
supply in fifty of the largest towns in
France, and in small towns and rural
districts the necessity is hardly recog.
nized even in theory.
There is no department OF sanitary
reform In which more progress has
been made in our own country than
in that in the supply of drinking
water 1t has been authoritatively
stated indeed, that there are very few
English towns possessing public
water works where any hesitation
need be felt in drinking as one feels
inclined, without any special pre-
caution. In London in particular,
the experts tell US that all our sources
OF supply are as near to absolute
purity as anybody need require.
The great danger is in the country
and it is still needful to remind the
people who take summer dodgers
in. isolated farmhouses that there
may be poison in the domestic pump
or the garden we'll, The chances in.
deed are very strongly in favor of its
presence, and the frequency with
which visitors from towns are attack
ed with ailments more or less grave,
but enough to mar their holiday, is a
warning against explicit confidence.
1t can never be too strongly pointed
out that the limpidity OF water is no
indication OF its purity
What is true Of England regarding
this matter is ,lSo true of the United
States and particularly New England.
The water supply Of our cities and
larg>r villages is, in most cases, pure
enough 50 person need rear no i'll.
ness from it's proper use. But in the
small villages ano in the farming copi-
munities it is different. To be sure
there are springs whose bubbing
GOODNESS can be compared to no other
fluid, and which is as pure as any
water obtainable unless it
be filtered rainwater or the
distilled fluid, but there are also wells
within whose messy stone bounds
death turks continually, and while the
water from tnem may ')c clear and
C id, it is not safe for drinking pur.
poses. Nine times out Of ten they
are located so as to receive drainage
from the house Or barn, and mySt. ri
Gus cases OF illness result. The spring
which is. located within the cellar Of
the house is also an object of su ,pi.
cion, and the spring which breaks out
on the slope below the BAN is bound
to be impure,
The life Of a farmer produce, that |
rugged health which it is SO hard for
disease to break down, but even the
,talwart countryman must in time |
,uccumb to the germs Of disease which |
pollute so man, sources of rural water
supply. The physically weaker city
resident falls an easy victim to dis
ease when he visits the country. and
those frequent cases OF change of
water illness 60 to prove that many
'ulal water supplies are at least not
wholly pure. To be sure the
country resident may cite sus.
oiciouS cases Of illness wnen
he is visiting his city relatives or
trends, but many times they are
caused by over indulgence in luxuries
lot SO readily obtainable In the country