Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 May 1896 — A Public Reservoir. [ARTICLE]

A Public Reservoir.

I saw an interesting sight while in Venice. Entering a little square shut in by high houses, and, like most Venetian squares, dominated by the unfinished facade of a time-stained church, I noticed a singular activity among the people. They were scurrying in from every alley, and hastening from every house door, with odd-shaped copper buckets on hook-ended wooden liows, and with little coils of rope. Old men aud women, boys, and girls, all gathered closely about a covered well curb in the middle of the square; and still they hurried on, until they stood a dozen deep around it. Presently the clock In the church tower slowly struck 8, and a little man forced his way through the crowd, passed his ponderous iron key through the lid, and unlocked the well. There immediately ensued a scene of great activity. The kettles went jangling into it, and came slopping out again at an amazing rate, and the people trudged off home, each with a pair of them swti»g from each shoulder. The wells are deep cisterns, which are filled during the it is out of amiable consideration for those who love their morning nap that they are given as good a chance as their neighbors oLgetting an uncoiled supply] If Is ihe firsf instance that has come to my notice of h commendable municipal restraint upon the reprehensible practice of early rising. I found, on closer investigation, that the water was of excellent quality.