Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 263, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1915 — No Wonder Reading Residents Used More Water [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

No Wonder Reading Residents Used More Water

READING, PA.—For some weeks the city water bureau noticed an amazing increase in the amount of water used in this city. Inspectors and registrars alike were unable to account for it. People who seldom used watei

except to wash in had been Indulging in amazing quantities. Men who had not used it as a tipple for a long time had been forsaking bars and clinging to water attachments in public places In lieu of pumps. Analyses of the water discovered a peculiar taste. It was like three fingers of bourbon diluted to the eighth degree. This failed to solve the mystery, however, as no one supposed for a moment that a distillery had been located near any of the

reservoirs, nor that the local W. C. T. U. had been carrying on a Carrie Nar tion crusade in the neighborhood of the numerous city dams. By accident the key to the puzzle was found. One of the inspectois ol the state health board, patrolling the water shed, found several cider mills along the Maiden creek, which supplies the city, were dumping the waste and pulp from the apples used in making cider into the stream. This pulp, fermenting in the shallow places, produced the alcoholic juice that lent its peculiar applejack flavor later noticed in the city water. Even the fish showed the effects. Fishermen reported that the fish would not bite, but seemed to be running around recklessly in the water and indulging in antics that no fish in its right mind would think of.