The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1912-03-07

them went 70 "a great deal of trouble
to get me the exact information
wanted.
From the replies received from
some siMtyIfour points on these five
great systems, 'nsixteen states, / get
the following information, and think
these responses are fairly Indicative
of what would be found on all the
other railroads, if 7 had complete
ermmary Of conditions there.
First as to water supplies. In
INST cities with their own water sup
plies the railroad company uses the
city water, but wherever possible l
fave classified these as lake, river,
etc. retaining the class Getty" only
fCr few, which was unable to
classify in this way.
In the siXty-fOur reports the source
cf supply is as follows; CITY water
four; surface wells, thirteen; artesian
wells, twelve; river, eighteen: lake,
nine; springs eight; total sixty four
OF these. twenty-one are filtered,
thirty-seven not filtered and no re.
port from six.
One thing that makes the number
| rot filtered so large, is the fact that
there are SO many places on these
| lines where the water comes from
| art sian wells, mountain streams and
| springs of known purity making fiji
tration unnecessary. As to whether
me water has ever been analysed,
forty-eight report "yes,' nine report
mo- and there is no report from
seven Thirty enc report that the
water is tested regularly for impurl-
ties, twenty-five that it is not so test.
ed and eleven do not report.
This shows only seveny-five Der
cent of the water to have come from
sources that have, as far as those
reporting know, ever been analysed,
AND less than half are known to be
examined regularly fer impurities. In
addition to this, some two or three re-
| Dorted that the water was from
sources of which they were very
doubtful.
IN regard to ice, conditions were
very similar to those in regard to
water, except that ice of known pus-
lily can be easily shipped to points
where IT cannot be obtained regular
~. and, with care in handling, there
is very little chance of pollution.
TwenV-seven use Lake ice, fourteen
river ice; and thirteen manufactured
ice; while four give no report. OF
these fifty-eight, thirty-eight are No.
ported as known to be pure; eleven,
not known to be pure; and nine have
no report. In most cases ice is put
d1rec' " into the coolers, but on one
division Of the Rock Island some
ranks are SO constructed that tn,
ice is not put into the wafer. I'm
fortunately We know that in the hand
ling of ice, there is chance OF it's be
washed off on the platform and c.,
coming unfit for use. It is usually Cur
into suitably sized pieces, and the,
rlaeed in buckets, or piled up on tn
|. PLATFORM, at the mercy of the omnj
present dog, to await the coming 6
water cooler without having picked u
fhe train, and If it arrives in th
much that is not good to drink, it i
more the result of accident than dc
sign.
IS to the care Of the coolers them
Se'Ves, there is much difference i
ractlce. Moost local trains have tn
coolers cleaned once day while tn
through trains are attended to at tn
end of each "trip.
or the sixty-four who replied. Il
teen report cleaning coolers ever
d"y;eVery two days, seven; ever
trip twenty-four; every week. two
regularly, one; when needed, one,
As TO the scalding of coolers ther
Is still more dicerence in practice
Two report that THY are scalde
every day; every second day, five
semi-weekly, one; weekly two; ever
trip, five; every second trip, one
peguarly, four; occasionally, four
when needed, one; not scalded, twe1
ty-three; with no report from 81;
teen. 1t is only fair to say. in r.
card to the cleaning and scalding Q
the coolers that there are a humble
of places from which I received r.
port, where the water in the coolar
is replenished on trains passing thr
where cleaning md scalding are in
ltra cticable. And yet, twenty-on
places, where there is any attemp
at coo1dipo nv ot1,or.,,;,st <1;,:.