Evening star., 1902-03-15
OUR WATER SUPPLY
MARKED BY AN ABUNDANCE OF
DIRT AND DISEASE GERMS.
Not Fit for Drinking Purposes Nor
Good for Washing
Clothes.

+ The aggregation of inconvenience, dis
comfort loss and actual danger to health
and life occasioned by visitation of muddy
water, such as Washington has recently
been subjected to, is enormous, when the
subject is considered. The greatest men
ace, of course, is to the health Of the popu-
lation, and no one can estimate the amount
OF typhoid fever and bowel troubles that
will grow out of the turbid water supply.
1t is safe to say that the average house.
hold in the city does not possess filter
for purifying its water supply. The house
keeper who Is too Indifferent to the pur-
chase of filter, cheap as they are now
adays, is likely to be equally lax in the
matter of boiling the water consumed by
the family. Bitter experience has taught
Washington the danger that turks in the
muddy hydrant water and that at times is
also found In the clear water furnished by
the city pumps. There are many sod-cov-
cred mounds, some with headstones and
some without, in the cemeteries Of the city
that probably would not be there had closer
attention been paid to the water used in the
family of the departed
A familiar scene in the past three or four
weeks has been the sight of women and
boys standing in line about the street
pumps, with buckets and pitchers, awaiting
a turn at the crystal water flowing from
the spring. This supply would furnish the
water used on the table for all the family
for it has been absolutely impossible To
drink the vile stuff flowing from the ny
drants.
About some Of the most famous pumps
such as at the corner of Sd street and
Indiana avenue. at 18th street and New
York avenue, at 14th street and Pennsy.-
yania avenue, and in the north central Sec
tion Of the city. there have been I'M ongs
of the drawers of water all day.
Those. pumps, with the exception of the
one on Sd street, are supplied by springs
in the Soldiers Home grounds and in Frank
lin Park The water flows under natural
pressure and is obtained by pressing down
the handle of the pump. AT Sd street and
Indiana avenue Is an old-fashioned wooden
pump with a long handle, which a small
child cannot reach in its upward movement
The water is drawn from a spring. and
although it is in close proximity to the big
Tiber sewer, has not been declared by the
health Office to be contaminated, as have
some other pumps in the city. Several
years ago. during an unusually virulent
outbreak Of typhoid fever, the health office
condemned number of city pumps, as it
was found that the sewage seeped through
the walls Of sewers and contaminated the
water with disease germs, although the
water was as clear as ever and apparently
pure.
Thus while muddy water is not neces-
sarily.4 dangerous to health, as clear water
Is not necessarily free from disease germs
the average person prefers to take chances
with the clear water and goes to the local
pumps. There is no doubt, 1t is said, that
ir times of great freshets, as the one just
sLbsiding, the river water Is much more
dangerous to health. The hills and valleys
and the small streams were washed Of i'm
purities that had been collecting for
months, and all came down the river
bringing share to Washington's water
surply. Thus in glass of Potomac water
there may be only honest mud and the
SILT Of the hill side. but there also may lurk
the germ Of typhoid and dysentery.
The Inconvenience Of the atrocious water
supply Is felt in many ways. Look at your
linen in the past two weeks, and unless the
.washwoman or laundry has used filtered
water you will find a distinct yellowish
tinge, a reminder Of the clay banks of the
Shenandoah and the Monocacy. Steam
boilers are also clogged with the mud
which quickly precipitates in the pipes and
yalyoS