Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1917 — DRINKING WATER IN GUTTERS [ARTICLE]

DRINKING WATER IN GUTTERS

However, the Ladies of the Andean Capital Also Bathe In It ■ - Ibague, capital of the Colombian province of Tolima, claims 2,300 “souls,” but the count takes much for granted. It is a square-cornered town of almost wholly ttiatched one-story buildings, its wide streets atrociously cobbled and its few sidewalks worn perilously slippery and barely wide enough for two feet at once. A stream of crystal-clear water gurgles down every street through cobbled gutters, lulling the travelweary to sleep and furnishing a convenient meansofwashing photographic films. We drank less often, however, after we had strolled up to the end of the mountain and found three none-too-handsome ladies bathing in the reservoir. It is a peaceful, roomy place, where everyone has unlimited space on the grassy, gentle slope to put up his little chalky, straw-roofed cottage, yet all toe the street line as if fearful of missing anything that might unexpectedly pass. Foreigners seem to be a great novelty, and I could find no satisfactory reason why so many Ibnguehos were blind, unless they had overindulged themselves in the national game of staring. —Harry A. Franck, in the Century Magazine.