Opening the text

Last winter in the United States : $b being table talk collected during a tour through the late Southern Confederation, the Far West, the Rocky Mountains, &c.Zincke, F. Barham (Foster Barham)

History

Last winter in the United States : $b being table talk collected during a tour through the late Southern Confederation, the Far West, the Rocky Mountains, &c.

Name: Last winter in the United States : $b being table talk collected during a tour through the late Southern Confederation, the Far West, the Rocky Mountains, &c.
Author: Zincke, F. Barham (Foster Barham)

Zincke, F. Barham (Foster Barham)

United States -- Description and travel; United States -- Social life and customs -- 1865-1918

From the time I left New York till I reached Chicago, I had nowhere
seen in the towns clear drinking water. At New Orleans it was of
the colour of a mulatto, at Cincinnati of a mestizo, and at the
intermediate places of the intermediate shades. At Richmond it had a
kind of ochreous tint. The reason is the same everywhere. The rivers,
with the water of which the towns are supplied, all run through a
yellowish or reddish loamy soil—sometimes sandy, sometimes clayey;
this is easily worn away, and carried off in suspension by the stream,
and is largely added to, after rains, by the surface-washing of the
country. At Chicago, by a boldly-conceived and most successfully
carried-out plan, the whole city is supplied with the purest water. A
tunnel, large enough for two mules to work abreast in it, was carried
out for a distance of two miles beneath the lake. At this point they
had reached water which is perfectly free from all the impurities of
the shore; and here it is admitted into the tunnel in sufficient volume
to supply all the wants of a population of about 280,000 souls. It is
calculated that this tunnel will be ample for all that 100,000 more
inhabitants will require. When the population has grown to this extent,
a second tunnel will have to be constructed. The water is pumped up
from the level of the tunnel to reservoirs that are above the level
of the city: which latter is not the original level of the prairie,
but considerably above it; for it having been found, after a great
part of the city was built, that it was subject to being occasionally
flooded, they raised the ground several feet. In doing this they did
not pull down or bury any part of the streets and blocks of houses
that were already completed, but lifted them up to the desired height
by hydraulic machinery. In this way the Sherman House, one of the
large American hotels (I stayed in it while at Chicago) was elevated
to the level of the raised street, without a guest leaving it, or any
interruption of its business.

[Sidenote: _Post-office Arrangements._]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Last winter in the United States : $b being table talk collected during a tour through the late Southern Confederation, the Far West, the Rocky Mountains, &c.Zincke, F. Barham (Foster Barham)

History

Last winter in the United States : $b being table talk collected during a tour through the late Southern Confederation, the Far West, the Rocky Mountains, &c.

Zincke, F. Barham (Foster Barham)

United States -- Description and travel; United States -- Social life and customs -- 1865-1918

From the time I left New York till I reached Chicago, I had nowhere
seen in the towns clear drinking water. At New Orleans it was of
the colour of a mulatto, at Cincinnati of a mestizo, and at the
intermediate places of the intermediate shades. At Richmond it had a
kind of ochreous tint. The reason is the same everywhere. The rivers,
with the water of which the towns are supplied, all run through a
yellowish or reddish loamy soil—sometimes sandy, sometimes clayey;
this is easily worn away, and carried off in suspension by the stream,
and is largely added to, after rains, by the surface-washing of the
country. At Chicago, by a boldly-conceived and most successfully
carried-out plan, the whole city is supplied with the purest water. A
tunnel, large enough for two mules to work abreast in it, was carried
out for a distance of two miles beneath the lake. At this point they
had reached water which is perfectly free from all the impurities of
the shore; and here it is admitted into the tunnel in sufficient volume
to supply all the wants of a population of about 280,000 souls. It is
calculated that this tunnel will be ample for all that 100,000 more
inhabitants will require. When the population has grown to this extent,
a second tunnel will have to be constructed. The water is pumped up
from the level of the tunnel to reservoirs that are above the level
of the city: which latter is not the original level of the prairie,
but considerably above it; for it having been found, after a great
part of the city was built, that it was subject to being occasionally
flooded, they raised the ground several feet. In doing this they did
not pull down or bury any part of the streets and blocks of houses
that were already completed, but lifted them up to the desired height
by hydraulic machinery. In this way the Sherman House, one of the
large American hotels (I stayed in it while at Chicago) was elevated
to the level of the raised street, without a guest leaving it, or any
interruption of its business.

[Sidenote: _Post-office Arrangements._]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Last winter in the United States : $b being table talk collected during a tour through the late Southern Confederation, the Far West, the Rocky Mountains, &c.

Last winter in the United States : $b being table talk collected during a tour through the late Southern Confederation, the Far West, the Rocky Mountains, &c.

No reviews yet