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11
houses in a court,having defective water storage,belonged
to one or two landlords, the constant supply system, by
means of water waste preventers, has been adopted.
The Company offers every facility for extending this
system, and is in no way responsible for the wretchedly
bad, deficient and dangerous provisions for storing the
water in the houses of the poor; rendering it impossible
for them to keep their houses clean and healthy, or
to have sufficient water for drinking and cooking purposes.
On Sundays they are frequently without a drop
of water, the Company not giving a supply upon that
day, relying upon the extra quantity supplied on
Saturdays; but, of course, this is of no avail with the
small rotten and riddled tubs provided for the occupants
of a whole house, probably ten or twelve in number, and
which willnot hold more than sufficient for one or t wo persons;
these tubs are generally without taps, and the water
has to be taken out. indiscriminately by means of any available
domestic utensil. I trust that the Vestry will continue
to require,within reasonable, time, a general and efficient
improvement in these receptacles. In the better class of
houses, especially all modern houses, we find for storage
purposes what are called cisterns, generally large enough
to hold a proper daily supply for two persons, they are
little square boxes lined with metal, and placed over the
water closets, through the medium of which they communicate
directly with the common sewers, and the impregnation
of the water in the cisterns by the sewer gases
is usually modified or graduated by means of an ineffective
trap; this is frequently out of order, and then there
is no interruption to the passage of the gases through the
pipe into the cistern, thus completing an infallible plan
for the creation and distribution of fever and other
diseases, people wondering, the while, whence they have