Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1908-02-13


The sudden depression in the water of
the Village reservoir-at first attributed
to the practice of letting faucets run to
keep pipes from lfreezing-was found last
week to be due to a break in one of the
branch pipes that feed the system.
Opposite the George II. Slack place on
the Center road, in descending the hill,
two-incb pipe that conveys the water
from the four big springs in that direc-
tion, crosses the brook, being supported
by piers. During q recent thaw, the
pipe had been swept of the piers by ice
and broken, so that all the water had
run into the brook, instead of feeding
the system, cutting on about q third Of
the entire supply. None of the reservoir
water had run back and out there, rs the
break was somewhat higher than the res
ervoIr level, but the water froze in the
pipe Just at the foot of Slack hill and had
to be dug up at points and thawed for .
distance Of fifteen rods, keeping q gang
of men busy until Tuesday, when the
pipe was cleared. The coupling was
made yesterday and the supply restored
to the system.
Meanwhile, by economy in service and
cutting on motors, the reservoir was kept
at about the level IL had when trouble
q.
in the springs, and with the full supply
there will be no shortage after little.
For the first time In three years, the Her
aid has had to fall back on its reserve
gasoline engine, and the paper IL set and
printed with that power this week.
A Poor Vital Showing.
The vital statistics for Randolph, as re-
Gently published in these columns, show
ing a death rate for 1907 twice as large as
the birth rate, and q steady loss for the
past several years, have caused some COM
ment by newspapers within and without
Vermont. Says the Boston Transcript
.'The race suicide statisticisn should
turn his attention to Randolph, VT.
with its record of eighty-four deaths and
only forty-two births last year. Since
1900 the deaths have numbered s61 and
the births 400, striking show ing Of the
declining population Of the hill towns"
That Randolph has lost somewhat
through the natural processes is regretta-
bly, true and that the town has about
held its own in population notwith-
standing, is due to its attractiveness as
place of living, rather than the drawing
power Of any large manufacturing indus
tries.
The causes for the unfayorable vital
showing are not far TO seek. Randolph,
by the last census, bad the largest per-
centage Of American-born population Of
any Vermont town II IL notorious that
the old Yankee stock is no longer a fer
tile one. Other towns that have shown
quite reversal of the vital record, like
Barre and Northfieid, have depended on
the foreign element for the larger proper
tion of births. This element il lacking
in Randolph.
Another reason: Randolph village
is place OF residence to which
many couples, advanced in years, come
to pass their declining days. Such people
add nothing TO the birth column and
figure heavily on the mortality side. IL
is notable, in any gathering Of people
here. the number of gray and bald heads
that appear, as compared with the fixed
colors of youth or middle age.
Randolph has no large manufacturing
industries. employing hundreds of
young, vigorous people OF both sexes,
where children ordinarily abound. In
deed, many OF her day laborers are rather
on the decline in iife-and childless.
still another featurc-there are in Ram
dolph a large number of young or mid
dle-aged couples without children. A
of this phase might trespass
too far in the direction OF sociology for
local news item, and the Herald forbears.
Randolph is not to be classed among
the "hiii towns" as the Transcript has
IL, but at present about all the condi-
tions favorable to "race suicide'' seem
TO abide here. Let the Board of Trade
consider the matter at its banquet to-
night.