New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-05-21

manage But some one must mount tne
stairs with a bucket Of water unless the
family Is 10 go dry all night. In the tene-
nnan, houses orly too often II is the woman
wbo must do H. But the blow has fallen
an rho whole city not on the tenement
houses only. In all the swarming fat
houses ~ Harlem and beyond men and
won,en toll up narrow stairs with pals and
pitchers. In fashionable apartment houses
the servants and the janitors carry II Nd
on the elevators.
Ru, the mere inconvenience is not all.
There is no water whatever above the base
rsnts except what has been saved oy
those who have read the newspaper warn
,ncs. The faucets will not run. There Is
no water for sanitation. Ard the summer
heats are already here.
Tho first night there is considerapie
saving Of water The next the saving =
greatly reduced. Hardly housewife out
determines not 70 be caught again without
water. and she leaves a wash boiler or
tub standing under her open tap. SO tnat
the first trickle Of water will begin To MI H.
Tens and hundreds OF thousand Of these
receptaces overflow and let the water run
10 waste. Millions Of gallons are caught
and set aside in pals and tubs.
With every one in the city eager to lay
UP a supply the water doe not rise above
the first floor taps When at last the
lower tenants are satisfied and have re-
membered TO smut of their streams the
people of the second floor have their turn.
So II goes through the day and in hun
dreds and hundreds Of houses the tenants
nj efv pct ID
a. all In many an expensive elevator
apartment" the roof tank, which is usu-
ally filed during the night. gets no water
al all unless II IS pumped up. IN four
days or so all are empty.
At the end of three weeks three horri-
Bile weeks Of hot summer, The hand Of the
famine IS heavy on New York. With all
the inconvenience the water officials have
caused. with all the hard work they have
piled upon overworked shoulders. with all
the disease breeding denominations with
which they have filed the city they have
reduced the vast daily consumption of
water by only petty fraction. Still the
reservoirs sink. as the aqueduct sucks ana
sucks AZ them with its vast, thirsty gullet
There is little besides bottom 70 be seen
I'm Croton Lake now. Rushes have sprouted
I'D on the black mud fats and slimv
grovths edge the sinking water with vivid
green. like the eaweed on dock NJ low
tide Scum gathers on the water. II IS
gathered and DESTROYED by men in boats
The water as it flows into the aqueduct IS
treated" with chemicals, for II is heavy
with disease.
Then the dog days rush UPON the stricken
I Low
fails 10 check the drouth in its terrible
march. The laundries, ravenous consumers
Of water. are shut off by municipal oTdi-
nance. and all washing must be sent into
the country. or be done AZ home. Some OF
the laundrymen open establishments on
| Long Island or in New Jersey, but most
OF them shut up their shops and Join the
army OF refugees which is now pouring our
Of the city night and dag.
First a newspaper warning. then that
which has long been threatened comes n
earnest. The water is kept a the basement
level day and night. From Van Cortland
Park n the Battery not a drop rises 70
The living rooms except what Is carried by
hand or forced up BY pumps. New York
becomes a city OF nightmare.
II is harvest for the unemployed. You
nav a water carrier - cents for i've gal
| ions Of tepid. vile smelling water, delivered
in the bottom OF your bathtub. The stun
/ is too nauseating 10 drink. even II you be-
ueve the published declarations that II has
heen treated" and is perfectly wholesome.
| The towing companies and the bargemen
make small fortunes bringing fresh water
from streams up the Hudson and selling
in. 10 be- retailed a and 10 cents quart
Real spring water sells for cents a glass.
The soda fountains have doubled and
trebl4d their prices The artificial ice, all
made from Croton water. defiles everything
! ,1at n touches.