Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-10

That has all been fixed, thanks to
the determination of the people to
STICK to their town and to make it
habltable. Recently, an enormous
drainage system has been completed,
which literally takes the water out of
the bottom of New Orleans. 1t is now
possible to live in New Orleans and
have not only a cellar. but a dry cell
lar under Your house.
To get the subsurfaoe water. out
and into the Gulf, however, has re-
CURED not only great expenditure,
but remarkable feats of engineering
In some of the mains, the water is
pumped five times before it is carried
to the river. A sewer carries it by
gravity till the sewer gets to the bot
tom of dry soil; then it is pumped
back to the surface, and carried a little
further by gravity; then pumped again
and so on.
New Orleans was Just ready to take
long breath after getting her drain
age system bought and paid for, when
big, fat rat scuttled off a fruit
steamer and slipped around a bale of
cotton just in time to be stepped on
by husky roustabout. Not even a
rat objects to number ten shoe in
its solar pleXus, and this particular
rat showed his resentment by sink
ing his sharp teeth into the leg of the
roustabout.
The next thing New Orleans knew
she was in the throes of a bubonic
plague scare. There We're only a few
cases, but the city health authorities,
the State authorities and the Public
Health Service at Washington all got
busy on those cases.
what shall we do about it?" the
city commission asked the Public
Health Service.
The. Public Health Service replied
that rats spread bubonic plague. If
there were no rats there would be no
bubonic plague. Therefore, get rid of
the rats. That was all the Pubic
Health Service could see to the situa-
ton. or course, in city as old as
New Orleans. containing as many old,
small buildings, crowded together on
narrow streets as are all Latin towns,
sitting on wood foundations or on
lightly constructed brick foundations,
the simple suggestion of the Public
Health Service presented difficulties.
There were lots of rats and still more
rat holes.
But the city commission of New
Orleans thinks in a straight line. 1t
gasped once; then it told the people
what the situation was, passed an
ordinance requiring every cellar and
every building in New Orleans to be
rat-proofed, told the citizens how to
lars rat-proofing the building owned
by the city and rested on its oars.
The people gritted their teeth, grinned
and spent their money, total esti-
mated at s6,000,O00. To-day the
Public Health Service says New
Orleans is as nearly immune to bu-
bonic plague as any city can be.
Levees, drainage and rat-proofing
surely that entitled the taxpayer to
surcease. Surely he coud now take
that long breath and rest. He did
for a few weeks. Then last Falls
storm hit the town. 1t was the worst
in the history of the weather bureau.
The wind reached a velocity of 131
miles an hour the highest ever re-
corded in the United States. Crash
went the windows, and away went the
roofs. Then, when New Orleans hat
had blown away, so to speak, it
rained for five days on her bare head.
All this, however, has since been
forgotten. With customary willing
ness and good humor, New Orleans
paid the bill and went merrily on her
way, taxing herself for still greater
improvements and planning for even
greater things in the future.