Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-07
lessee may take over the improvements &
the same valuation.
For Years Without a Sewer.


For Years Without a Sewer.
Baltimore is the only city Of size in the
civilized world, except New Orleans and
Manchester, England, without sewers
Constantinople, jerusalem Canton, Picking
and other great cities Of the east have no
sewerage, but they are not considered fully
civilized. For nearly 200 years the house
holders of Baltimore have dumped their
offal and slops In cesspools in the back
yards, which are dumped out three or four
times year by contractors who make
that their business and haul the contents
out into the country. Formerly the sew
age was burned, but 1t Is now worked over
into fertilizer.
Manchester, the great manufacturing
city of England, has similar system. ex-
cept that a tin can is left at the door Of
each house every night and carted away
with its unsavory contents before daylight
IN the morning. The people Of Manchester
consider this an excellent way OF disposing
Of what they don't want to keep, and the
people of Baltimore have tolerated their
great patience. In the business sections Of
the city several private sewers have been
built In years past as profitable invest
ments and the privilege Of using them has
been sold or leased to clubs, the owners OF
hotels, apartment houses and big business
blocks.
The fire has brought about a reform in
this respect and very elaborate, compli-
Gated and expensive system of sewers and
pumping stations has been devised by a
commission of engineers consisting Of Sam
ring Of New York and Frederick P. stearns
of Boston. Contracts amounting to 81, OOO,-
600 have already been let and bids have
been submitted for 100000 more. The
rights-of-way have been acquired; the con-
tracts for pumping stations have been
awarded and provision has already been
made for the disposal Of the sewage Fhe
fopO0raphv Of baltimore makes
drainage easy. Every street slopes toward
the river directly or indirectly, and every
rain washes it clean; but the new system
must be unusually complicated because Of
ten miles Of Baltimore and Ohio and Penn
sylvania railroad tunnels underlying the
central part of the city, one running east
and west and the other north and south. In
places they are sixty feet underground
ami the new sewers must run above them
In some places and below them in others
The engineers have devised an ingenious
way of getting around them in other places
by force pumps
When the new sewers are finished all
the private sewers will be closed because
they pollute the harbor, and all the sew
age will then be conducted In conduits to
farm ten miles below the city and here
purified for fertilizer.
Land Cheap and Rents Low.
Another old-fashioned feature of Baltl-
more, which is to be admired and COM
mended, Is the habit of having single-story
Individual buildings for banks and other
Institutions in place of sky-scrapers. 1 am
told that twenty-six banks in Baltimore &C.
cupy their own one-story buildings, and one
bank took down building Of six stories
after the fire to follow the fashion This
Is possible because of the low price of real
estate, which Is cheaper in Baltimore than
In any other city of half its size. The high
water mark was reached in 1865, when the
Savings Bank Of Baltimore purchased the
corner of Charles and Baltimore streets for
s., 200 front foot. High-water mark was
reached In Philadelphia the other day when
Chestnut street The highest prices ever
paid for property in Washington was when
the American Security and Trust Company
bought the old Riggs Bank at the corner