Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1890 — What Water Costs. [ARTICLE]

What Water Costs.

From a profusely illustrated article on "The New Croton Aqueduct,” by Charles Barnard, in the December Century, we quote the following; "It is a curious commentary on the demands of modern civilization to observe the effect of building this dam. The million people in the city need a reserve of drinking waterr ahdlwentyone families must move out of their quiet rural homes and see their hearths sink deep underwater. The entire area to be taken for the reservoir is 1471 acres. Twenty-one dwellings, three saw and grist mills, a sash and blind factory and a carriage factory must be torn down and removed. A mile and a quarter of railroad track must be relaid, and six miles of country roads must be abandoned. A road twenty-three miles long will extend around the two lakes, and a border or ‘safety margin’, three hundred feet wide will be cleared all around the edge to prevent any contamination of the water. This safety border will include a carriage road, and all the rest will be laid down ter grass. As the dam rises, the water will spread wider and wider over fields, farms and roads. Every tree will be cut down and carried away. Every building will be carted off and the cellars burned out and filled with clean soil to prevent any possibility of injury to the water. Fortunately there is no cemetery within the limits of the land taken for the reservoir. Had there been one it would have been completely removed before the water should cover the ground. • Fifty-eight persons and corporations, holding one hundred and eleven parcels of land will be dispossessed in order to clear the land for the two lakes and the dams, roads and ■safety borders.” ONfe of the youngest monarchs in the world is King Thantai, potentate of Annam. Ue is nine years of age, very precocious and fully conscious of the importance of his position, He is I solemn and thoughtful, disdains childish sports, and spends all his time in the seclusion of his palace, studying, conversing with aged counsellors and poring over books and manuscripts. He is learning Chinese and French, and shows remarkable aptitude in the acquisition of foreign tongups. He is very arbitrary and exacting, and his teachers stand in great awe of him. Style it everything for a sinner, and and a leetle ov it won’t hurt even a saint 1