Year: 1876

a powerful effect upon the health or sickness of any locality as the water the people drink. Health is the greatest earthly blessing, but it is preposterous for people to expect to have and enjoy it If the water they drink is bad. Per- sons living in places where the water is impure must necessarily breathe foul air, for the evapora- tion continually going on fills the atmosphere with poisonous matter spreading disease and death all around. What makes people live in districts where they cannot ob. tain good water? That is the question. It must be avarice, the greed for making money, for cer- tainly there can be no pleasure in living in place where death is in the water and the air, and carries off it's victims by thous- ands, especially children. These remarks are suggested by reading the following editorial article, which we find on the OdkIGnd Tribune, of the 5th instant. Read the terrible picture, and be thank full thati we don't live in such a place.

 NASTY WATER.

 "The unusual amount of sick ness which has prevailed recently is attributed by most of the physi. cians to the execrable water which is furnished to the people of Oak land. If human life were consid- cred of any consequence in this country there would be a law against damming up the cafons and peddling out the accumulated trainings of cow pastures and barnyards, especially when pure and living streams are accessible. Talk about the deleterious effects of liquor drinking Why, the water furnished to the inhabitants of this city has carried more peo- pie to the grave during the past year than all the rotgut that has been sold and consumed in the State. It is a good thing that the people do not stop to inquire where the stuff they pay for as water comes from or they would grow very thirsty before indulg- ing In that very unwholesOme beverage. At times during the past week the water has been so filthy that respectable COW would turn away from it in disgust. Of course the water company are not to blame. The evil is one that will return every year in spite of all that they can do. It is natu- ral and inevitable accompaniment to the system of water works which we rely upon. It is esti- mated that if all who die annual ly from the effects of poisonous water in San Francisco and Oak land had their lives insured for $10. 900 each, the aggregate amount of insurance would be sufficient to pay for bringing pure fresh water from any of the natural reservoirs in the Sierras. The sanitary side of the water question has not been fairly psesented to the people, and yet this is the all important point; or, at least, it would be in any country but this. It would be fol- ly for either San Francisco or Oak land to purchase the franchise of any of the existing water com panies. They are but temporary affairs at best, and at the end of another decade will be entirely insufficient to meet the require ments of the population which the two cities will then contain. In the meantime public or private enterprise will seek 8 reserviOr among the mountain lakes from which to furnish an unlimited supply of water for future genera tions. It is pleasant to think of this good time coming, and to contrast the joys of the water drinkers of ten or fifteen years hence with the miseries of the mud-suckers of today"

 And this in the beautiful city of Oakland, Cal, the home of re- finement and luxury. Contrast this with Yuma, where the water and air are so pure that there is hardly any sickness at all, and what little there is generally brought from abroad, This is certainly one of the most healthy districts in the world. The water of the Colorado river is very pure and soft, and is health-giving in the highest degree. Let people 1rJ,o oro ip oooroh Of onO6 Vuofor