Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-11

From the Kan
A Kentuckian, a real Blue Grass
colonel engaged In the business OF
shipping water into tie United Statesl
Shades of old Bourbon, perish the
thought! Yet It is a fact.
Kentucky is the last place in which
such a venture might be expected to
take its inception The reputation Of
the old commonwealth has been made
on beverages differing radically from
the familiar aqua pura we all know.
This alone would make the enterprise
of Colonel Clifford T.. Nadaud remark
able, but there are other features that
add to its marvel.
The water that Colonel Nadaud will
bring to the land of Uncle Sam must
make a journey from the other side
of the world from far off Jerusalem.
1t comes from a country which is so
far behind the rest of the world that
1t has no casks in which water could
be stored, no wagons to do the haul
ing to the nearest seaport, seventy
miles away.
Yet all obstacles have been over
ccme, the venture Is success and
soon the deVout of the United states
can have for purposes Of religious wor
ship water shipped directly from the
where the great founder of the Chris
ton religion received his baptism.
The sacredness of the waters of the
river that has flowed for centuries from
its source at Balais to the Dead sea
has passed into a tradition. Thousands
of devout Christians from all parts
of the world yearly make the pilgrim
age to the Jordan to receive the bless
ing that is believed to come from bath
ing there.
Many of these take away filled bot
ties to give to relatives. friends and
officers OF the church at home, so that
they, too, may share the blessing.
Now the enterprise of Colonel Nadaud
makes this pilgrimage unnecessary. He
brings the river to the very door of
the faithful I'm the United states and
he sells it for 81 a gallon.
The whole project is almost without
parallel 1t is a startling union of the
practical and devout. The inceptor of
the movement regards 1t purely as a
commercial enterprise, yet many wor-
shippers will look upon him as bene-
factor.
Colonel Nadaud-he gets his title
f rom the fact that he is a colonel on
the governors staff-first got his idea
carrying away the water in bottles
and other vessels
He planned Immediately to ship 1t to
the United States in bulk, but even
the most casual investigation disclosed
innumerahle difficulties in the way.
He began by forming the Information
al River Jordan Water company. Next
he went to the Turkish authorities at
nstantinople and outlined his scheme.
These had no objection to the removal
of the water, but pointed out that the
of obstacles would make the
r'an commercially infeasible.
In nowise discouraged, the doughty
colonel went to the scene of operations
to study the local conditions.
From the Jordan to the nearest sea-
coast port at Jaffa is seventy miles,
and to make the journey the mountains
of Judea have to be crossed. These are
about 1000 feet above the level of the
Mediterranean, and $500 feet higher
than the Jordan itself
OF itself this would mean little, but
taken in connection with the primitive
transportation facilities a serous prob
lem was presented. The lack of casks
was remedied by bringing wood from
Asia Minor and making suitable vessels
in which to carry the water. To sup
ply the lack of wagons special trucks
were built. This met the first needs.
The next thing to be considered was
the installation of such sanitary meth
DDS as would make it possible to guar
antee the absolute purity of the water
at the end of its long journey.
Here the natural conditions helped
The Jordan is one of the purest of
rivers. In it's entire length of 160 miles
it has not one source of pollution.
rTI,ar ts Hri1la nr.c oil
its shores. The natives drink from the
river at any point and the draught is
as perfect as water can be- Assured
that the water was all right, it only
remained to cleanse the vessels scien-
The ffty-three casks comprising the
first shipment, bulk of about thirty
two tons of Jordan water, We're first
cleaned with cold water then hot, then
steam and soda.
AS a final precaution a disinfectant