Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1910-06-30
| FREE ICE WATER BARRELS
Health Authorities Called Down
AID Libitum AID NauSeam
THE CHRONIC FAULT-FINDERS
The Old Oaken Bucket Did Not Breed
Germs Nor Does The Public Drink.
Ing Cup, Bacteria
Communicated. }
tor of Evening CAPITAL.

Editor of Evening Capital.
Dear Sir:-Scarcely had the barrels
of ice water been installed on. the
street corners than the knockers Athe
curt and suggestive name of those
who oppose any and every improve
ment looking to the public welfare
began to find fault.
at is outrageous, said one. it
encourages the spread of tuberculosis
and every contagious disease to estab-
lish public drinking fountain. where
all sorts of people use the same cups
Unfortunately" "Of course, !"
said another, "the water will become
foul in those barrels, and the next
thing that happens will be an cpl
demic of typhoid fever, or some other
terrible affiiction, and all due to these
horrible, infectious, so-called drink.
ing fountains. The health authorities
should prohibit it at once. +" and so on.
ad nasueam.
Then another Joined the small group
and added his quota: "They took
away the pumps that We used to have
years ago when thirsty man or boy
could get as much nice cold water as
he wanted, and compelled everybody
to get wat from the reservoir, which
is not cool and has bad TASTE in hot
weather.
Any reflective person might, if il
were worth while, answer every one
of these objections. For instance
the barrels of ice water were placed
by thoughtful and benefcent city
government at convenient places for
the comfort of strangers and all others
who might desire to quench their
thirst. None is compelled to make
use of it, and if there are some par
ticularly fastidious individuals who
fear infection from a public cup
(Which by the way may be readily
rinsed or cleansedD there is not the
slightest objection to the use of indi-
Qidual cups of any material which
such persons may carry with them.
The danger of conveying tuberculo-
sis or any other remotely infectious
disease is not half so great from the
use of public cup as it may be from
inhaling the dry and dust-laden air of
the streets. especially when the most
ordinary precautions are usually taken
of rinsing the cup thoroughly before
drinking. And as for foul or stag
nant water remaining in the barrels
to add to the other chimerical dan
gers, let the minds of these fault
finders and chronic GROWERS be at
ease; the barrels are emptied and
ceaned every morning before the new
supply of ice and fresh water is put
in them. Just moment, in passing,
to the thought of the ancient pump,
which for many years after it had
been discarded in other cities as
souce of danger, continued to furnish
refreshment land in some cases ser
ious illness) to those of our citizens
who were so welded to the old Gus
toms and saw only the poetry of the
"Old oaken bucket, the moss covered
bucket
As dripping with GOODNESS. it rose
from the WELL"
If those good people could only turn
their thoughts to another picture of
the liquid contents of cess pools slow
ly but>surely and persistently perco-
lating through the soil to contaminate
those same cool and invigorating
streams, perhaps they would see the
thorn concealed behind the rose.
Within the mspory of many of our
citizens an outbreak of cholera oc-
Cured in Annapolis which, for a
short time, babe fair to assume very
serious proportions, and cost a mum
Der of valuable human lives. Even
without the aid of modern appli
aces for bacterial analysis, it did
not take long for our intelligent
physicians to trace the source of the
infection to one or two pumps. the
handles of which were removed anC
he plague ceased.
No, let the ice water fountains re
| main and continue to dispense the
life-giving refreshment to thirsty
passers-by and strangers within Oul
| gates, who will bless the kind fore
thought of our city fathers.
RIVULET