Water should never be taken from a river or brook
which is contaminated by filth of any kind, and this danger
can easily be avoided, for there are few localities in which it
is not possible to obtain a plentiful supply of wholesome
water from wells or springs. If there is a good, unfailing
spring within convenient distance of a house, water should
be drawn from it in preference to any other source, and
sometimes by means of a few yards of pipe, spring water
can be brought to the very door of the house, which,
although it costs something at the outset, is in the end a
real economy. But, as in a large majority of cases, wells
and wells only, form the source of water supply, it is to
them that your attention must chiefly be directed, and in
building a house I would advise you to make, if necessary,
many sacrifices, in order to secure a well of good water. In
the first place, a well should never be dug in a place where
there is any danger ot its receiving the drainage from house,
water-closet, barn-yard, pig-sty, or any similar source of
contamination ; it should not be in the near neighborhood
ON HABITS AND MANNERS. I2J
of large trees whose roots are likely to grow into the water
and make it dirty and unwholesome; it should be so cov-
ered that not even leaves can fall into it, and should occa-
sionally, in a dry season, be thoroughly cleaned. There is
really nothing so safe and certain as an artesian well, which
consists of an iron pipe sunk perpendicularly into the
ground until its lower end strikes a supply of pure, sweet
water; and these wells are coming gradually into use, their
advantage over the ordinary wells being that they can
be sunk to any distance necessary to obtain really pure
water, and that they are beyond the possibility of contami-
nation, either from drainage or any other source. But from
common wells, which are at present, as I have already said,
by far the most frequent source of supply, the precautions
already mentioned will usually secure water sufficiently
pure not to affect the health of those who drink it.
Even in these clays of comparative enlightenment in
regard to the matter of drainage, water, etc., there are many
people who cling to the ignorance which for the moment is
so easy, regardless of the fact that in the end it costs them
the heavy price of health and life. They say that they are
willing to fc' take their chances " as their fathers did, and it
is difficult to prove to them that they are morally responsi-
ble for the results of their own wilful ignorance and care-
lessness.
124 ON HABITS AND MANNERS.
Page 55
Presented as published in 1888. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Water should never be taken from a river or brook which is contaminated by filth of any kind, and this danger can easily be avoided, for there are few localities in which it is not possible to obtain a plentiful supply of wholesome water from wells or springs. If there is a good, unfailing spring within convenient distance of a house, water should be drawn from it in preference to any other source, and sometimes by means of a few yards of pipe, spring water can be brought to the very door of the house, which, although it costs something at the outset, is in the end a real economy. But, as in a large majority of cases, wells and wells only, form the source of water supply, it is to them that your attention must chiefly be directed, and in building a house I would advise you to make, if necessary, many sacrifices, in order to secure a well of good water. In the first place, a well should never be dug in a place where there is any danger of its receiving the drainage from house, water-closet, barn-yard, pig-sty, or any similar source of contamination ; it should not be in the near neighborhood
of large trees whose roots are likely to grow into the water and make it dirty and unwholesome; it should be so covered that not even leaves can fall into it, and should occasionally, in a dry season, be thoroughly cleaned. There is really nothing so safe and certain as an artesian well, which consists of an iron pipe sunk perpendicularly into the ground until its lower end strikes a supply of pure, sweet water; and these wells are coming gradually into use, their advantage over the ordinary wells being that they can be sunk to any distance necessary to obtain really pure water, and that they are beyond the possibility of contamination, either from drainage or any other source. But from common wells, which are at present, as I have already said, by far the most frequent source of supply, the precautions already mentioned will usually secure water sufficiently pure not to affect the health of those who drink it.
Even in these clays of comparative enlightenment in regard to the matter of drainage, water, etc., there are many people who cling to the ignorance which for the moment is so easy, regardless of the fact that in the end it costs them the heavy price of health and life. They say that they are willing to fc' take their chances " as their fathers did, and it is difficult to prove to them that they are morally responsible for the results of their own wilful ignorance and carelessness.