USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1882 > Part 9
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The presence of Alcohol, or rather its diffusion, in Sewage, in appreciable amount and volume, has been discovered quite recently. During the inquisition by the General Court, last Winter, as to the effect upon the profits of mill-owners if not
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allowed to thrust their arms above the elbow into our City Treasury ; it was asserted by one gentleman, the " nephew of his uncle," that the Blackstone would run dry, were the dams abol- ished ! That manufacturer is, in all kindness and unselfishness, prevised of his danger. Let Tasseltop once suspect that its sus- tenance comes down stream, instead of along the highway, and Worcester will not be left alone to contend for her legitimate outlet. Possibly a faint cry may come up from " Tourtellott's," asking why the elixir vitae should be restrained, that this fleece may be sheared, or that community skinned !
But what a theory to be advanced, seriously, by a man pre- sumably intelligent ! A stream that has flowed down from its original fountains, for aught that is known to the contrary, since the foundation of the earth, is kept from running out ! by a few works of human craft, and greed, dotted along in its course. The Architect of the universe was at fault ;- contenting Himself with shallows of sand or rocky rapids, here and there : shallows and rapids over which the waters might ripple and fret, sparkling in the purifying sunbeams, and always in continuous and vivi- fying motion. He should have anticipated the indispensability of mill-dams; and would have been forgiven, perhaps, had He supplemented their provision with suitable factories and full sets of ever new and self-regulating machinery. In the Divine Economy-known by whatsoever name in Heathenesse, or since ;- were evolved distinct genera and species: in the aggressive and griping greed of the mill-owners,-mules !
You shall have no water ! You shall pass no water ! Men of Worcester ! help yourselves if you can ! And there are those among us who would submit the other cheek !
Said CHARLES ALLEN-and his voice rang through the City Hall, to find swift echo in the hearts of the people ;- Bake the doughfaces !
What is lacking to Worcester ; as, in the imminent future, it will be to the towns along the Blackstone Valley ; for Water Supply and Drainage ; is, in technical phrase and common sense alike, head in superfluity. And Nature, otherwise so prodigal in her gifts, has not been niggardly even as to that. A vernal
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flood intercepted and saved, at the Seagrave privilege ! would attain the utmost elevation of the present ordinary service ; and the entire valley below might be converted into a continuous basin, for filling the pockets, or flushing the stagnant and putrid ponds of the dan-owners .* Use by Worcester is consistent with every other legitimate use : is exclusive of none. It is simply a public economy, in lien of private shiftlessness, and waste, which no one has hitherto interposed to check ; which no individual has ability or will to stop effectually ; but which, controlled and regu- lated by a vigorous municipality, would conserve and promote the general welfare throughout the whole length of the river, from Stone-House Hill to the tides. In this all-absorbing ques- tion of ample and unfailing Water ; involving the very existence of communities and, as well, the paltry interests of, here and there, a Dam-owner; those who cannot swim with the current will be swept away. Each year that passes, with its occasional torrents and prolonged droughts, makes it more and more obvious that, even in New England, recourse must be had to an elaborate system of reservoirs and storage. Fortunate is it for Worcester that the trend and slope of the land is such as to meet her every requirement ! Doubly felicitous for her neighbors ! lower down,-that what Worcester is compelled to do, as a matter of vital importance, must also contribute in equal, if not greater, measure, to their own comfort and prosperity !
The iteration, and re-iteration, that are indispensable pre- requisites to the acceptance of what would appear self-evident truth, become vividly conspicuous in this matter of Water Supply and Effluence. Said the Writer, in his Report for the COMMIS- SIÒN, A. D., 1881,-
The theory that streams shall be arrested at their fountains, and compelled to serve human necessities, may not be acceptable to the few who have checked the current below, and constrained it to grind their private grist. But it is a theory based upon an absolute Public Want, and therefore of inevitable acceptance. Unless there are reasons of geographical convenience and prox- imity, that may better answer the demands of Millbury ; there
* But never in partnership with them : control must be absolute, to exclude, or prevent disputes ! E. W. L.
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can be no doubt that, ere long, that thriving town must become one of our suburban Wards ; if in no other way she can gain the right to draw from the Reservoirs that will constitute of Tatnuck Brook, a continuous and sufficient basin. The surveyors, of Worcester, find that the height of the Holden Reservoir, raised fifteen (15) feet above its present level, would be 735.30 feet above mean tide-water. That Reservoir, thus enlarged, is com- puted at a capacity of One Billion Gallons (1,000,000,000). It is also found that the overflow of the pond on the " privilege " of the Wire Mill at Quinsigamond Village, is 438.24 feet above the mean sea level. It will be seen that there is an almost precipi- tous fall, in a very few miles, through a valley that would appear to have been created for the precise purpose of retaining Water. If it would not answer to buy out and flood South, and New, Worcester, we might content ourselves with the level of the Loring Coes-Hardy pond, at 488.6 feet elevation : and the head, thus gained, would start the shingles from any roof in Millbury, if not from the scurf of its inhabitants.
In this matter of Water,-fons et origo,-is the source whence to derive it. The fountains, springs, living streams, are to be found, as they might have been years since, had not men been wilfully blind. And there are also, for miles, acclivities and declivities,-the slopes of the eternal hills,-strong enough to withhold an ocean and clean enough to ensure against pollution. The only doubt of the writer is, not that the wit of the Worcester County man cannot invent an adequate system of dams: but whether penuriousness in the shire-town, or elsewhere, may not prefer to scrimp rather than to secure. There are few who share his enthusiasm in reference to the infinite possibilities of Tatnuck Brook. But his faith is implicit, that, the work of man not fail- ing, nor falling short; the Valley of the Tatnuck, between the slopes of Asnebumskit and Stone-House Hill, and thence down- ward 247.24 feet can store up more than a sufficiency of water to supply the legitimate uses of a moiety of the Towns in Massa- chusetts along and adown the Blackstone.
It resolves itself, after all, into a mere sum in arithmetic. How much money shall be expended in building ample and sufficient dams ? Dams so built as to be trustworthy for all time ;- since woe to the Blackstone Valley should they ever give way ! How much more shall be paid for the right of flowage- to the possible extreme ! If Water must be had,-and must it not ? the supply should be adequate to the necessity that it is
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intended to meet. The whole work need not be of a day : even Omnipotence is reputed to have distributed the task of Creation over the major portion of a week. But the plan should be so comprehensive in its scope and flexible in execution, as to admit of addition or enlargement at any stage of progress. The writer has disclosed a vision of the entire Valley of the Tatnuck, from Stone-House Hill to the Coes-Hardy privilege, covered with water in continuous basins, setting back to the hill-sides, if needs must ; and, at any rate, so guarded, as to withhold all the Spring floods that would otherwise run out to sea. Kettle Brook resounds with the busy hum of industry. The Tatnuck lies com- paratively deserted and idle. The opportunity offers ; and man has but to seize it and turn it to his advantage.
Were that Valley utilized, as the writer has so often predicted and as, sooner or later, it must be ; certain changes become inevi- table. The highways will be carried along the hill-sides, where- ever they cannot be made to serve for embankments. The meadows being overflowed, farms would be withdrawn to the upland; some of which is now abandoned to wood, more devoted to pasture; and whereof the whole would be found susceptible of that improvement developed by the mother of invention. The inexhaustible fountains of a Lake, three miles long; from a few rods to a half mile in width; and varying in depth from one foot to fifty ; exist, if latent, in the clouds that annually shroud the slopes of Asnebumskit. It is not for the men who sit supinely and gaze upon the torrent rushing over their water- ways, to stay the enterprise which would arrest that torrent,- converting it into a perennial blessing. Nature indicates with plainness, and precision, what may be done. Those who are too indolent, or avaricious, to put forth a hand, or spend a dollar, to profit by her suggestions ; have no locus standi, whereon to com- plain of a people that are more sagacious and active. For long years has the Tatnuck Brook flowed idly to waste. Meanwhile Steam has supplanted the Waterfall as a motive-power; until now, except in very rare instances, it is recognized as incon- parably superior; and cheaper as well, because trustworthy always. It is only when Worcester would save what is every-
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body's extravagance ; when this City aims to secure for itself, as a vital necessity, that which nobody has hitherto valued ; that the clutch of the dam-owner fastens upon her throat, inexorably exacting the price of existence. With a probability of water enough to supply every homestead in the Valley ; with a cer- tainty of enough to maintain a constant current and scour the channel as well; and with the absolute knowledge that what Worcester is prevented from attempting will never be accom- plished otherwise; the sullen and monotonous response is- damages for that which you took in your hour of dire necessity ! Exemplary damages for what you store up, and save from the running stream ! Consequential damages for all that may descend upon your territory from the passing cloud !
The voice of John Hook, in the starving camp at Valley Forge, sharing in no sacrifice and suffering no privation, yet ever bemoaning-" Beef ! beef !"
" The horse-leech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give! There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough :
The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough ! "
The development of ELM PARK has been so closely watched, by the people, that there is but little occasion for describing, in detail, its continuous progress. That Park is becoming, by a gradual process of evolution, in some sense, a Public Garden. The COMMISSION challenge no invidious comparisons : but neither do they shrink from them. Confessing many mistakes ; per- ceiving errors that might have been avoided, perhaps, but which were timely rectified ; they claim to have pursued, consistently, the design proposed to themselves from the first, of securing and growing one specimen at least of every hardy Tree, Shrub, or Plant, that could be made to thrive away from its native habitat. Hardy ;- because the cost of starting and sustaining hot-houses would be a wasteful expenditure in their judgment; because the results to be obtained from the employment of such instru- mentalities could never be commensurate with the trouble and outlay, since everything desirable can be purchased of domestic
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or foreign growers to better advantage; and for this conclusive reason,-that what of charm, or fragrance, can not be found in vegetation that will endure our climate, is scarcely worth looking for in the tropics. The COMMISSION listen, with patient èqua- nimity, when they are told of the gorgeous display of Tulips that may be seen, for a few days of Spring, in some of the larger cities. They lend a pitying ear to the untaught wonder, that strives to narrate the mystery of this geometrical puzzle ; or denounces their deliberate omission to repeat, at home, that metropolitan coil of ribbon. They prefer the natural flower to the human conceit: and elect to employ the scanty means at their disposal for such purposes, in honest cultivation, rather than in the cunning or trickery of mere arrangement. Tulips are well enough in their way : and there are plenty and to spare in ELM PARK. Bedding plants may answer for those who overlook the floriage to go into raptures over distortion : and have not learned that everything is perverted which is wrested from its natural tendency. The COMMISSION have endeavored to create shrubberies of the improved Azalea and Rhododendron ; know- ing that the Swamp Pink can be traced throughout Worcester as a wildling, and that the first cousin of the latter,-Kalmia lati- folia,-(Spoonwood), is so common as to be deemed and treated. as a nuisance. In old times, the Rhododendron could be obtained from Leicester ;- the richest, until despoiled and deflow- ered, of all our Massachusetts towns in a rare and priceless flora. The COMMISSION, until they can get hold of our native species, propose to find out what are the insuperable obstacles, if any, to the growth and multiplication of those grander forms, in which the Belgian and English nurserymen have attained so great success by assiduous hybridizing and semination.
The Iris, in manifold variety, with the June Lily; the Pæony, and Lilium Speciosum ; the Gladiolus, and Phlox; the Hydrangea paniculata, and the Tigridia ; are all largely cultivated and, hitherto, appear to have found a congenial home. The soil is so new, and unworn, that growth and bloom seem to be indifferent to minor conditions of moisture, richness, or tilth. Lilium Candidum flourishes in a light loam, underlain by a
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sandy leach, in close proximity to the Pools : betraying no dimi- nution of vigor when planted in a heavy peat, alike humid and retentive. Lilium Japonicum is equally indicative of sound health ;- just as tenacious of life under the same conditions. The Chairman has formed a theory for himself, as to Lilium Auratum, based upon peculiar circumstances that were forced upon his observation. But he has lived long enough to know that while two swallows do not make a Summer thrice as many screeches have not disclosed a panther ! Lilium pardalinum ! may yet be discovered, among congenial haunts, in ELM PARK !
What has been achieved, in that Public Ground, under especial conditions, could not be repeated, elsewhere, were imitation as desirable as it generally proves insufferable. Each Common, or Park, should be sui generis :- unique, so to say, both in location and subsequent development ; and if with but little of the latter, so much the better. The Northwestern shore of Quinsigamond Lake, " with verdure clad," is doubtless clayey and adhesive. Upon the route of Lake Avenue,-protracted,-it is true that gravelly knolls obtrude themselves: but that occasional forma- tion presents the only visible break in an otherwise geological monotony. In ELM PARK, on the contrary, you discover, at one spot, a bed of peat that discloses no bottom though sounded for fifty feet. In immediate juxtaposition are acres of fine, almost impalpable, sand; and, super-imposed an unbroken stratum of the clearest yellow, or red, gravel. Beds of bog-iron ore, as firmly fixed as though fused into their position, are discovered by the advance of excavation; luckily, as it turns out, for the construction in a durable, yet economical, manner, of Foot-Walks throughout the PARK and COMMON alike. Had not one hand thus washed the other ! had not the Peat, and Gravel, the Sand and Ore, been thus handy, and so cheaply available; the COM- MISSION would have become insolvent, years since. But if, when you would construct Paths, a deposit of gravel confronts you, that must be removed, yet needs no screening ; if, when you are excavating a Pool for Ornamental Water, you come upon an almost fathomless bed of Peat; if, in shaping a tract of land, theretofore " without form, and void," you take soundings in a
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light loam above and a porous leach beneath ; you may felicitate yourself upon your lucky star ! rest assured that you are in ELM PARK ! and realize, to a blessed certainty, that all parties to the conveyance, thirty years ago, (an entire generation !) grantors and grantee alike, builded better and wiser than they knew.
Yet,-so long as anything further can be achieved, the COM- MISSION will continue dissatisfied : they are their own severest critics. They look upon the green lawns and gleaming water; the blossoming shrub and the fragrant flower; the Pools, the Waterfowl and the lone Fisher *; not to omit the boats for exercise or recreation ; the groves of natural Oaks, with those which were planted under their supervision; the broad land- scape, stretching in an unbroken curve and far perspective, from Lincoln to Coes Square ; with Schools and Hospitals, the tall chimnies of factories and the spires of Meeting-Houses, adding diversity to the fore; while the simple symmetry of Newton Hill completes the back-ground : but still their self-appointed stint falls short of perfection. They have been unable, as yet, to provide and maintain Skating in the open, out-door air, such as they, long since, established in imagination ; and of which, in actual accomplishment and use, they do not now and mean never to despair. Sporting, in boyhood, over the frozen overflow, from North of Highland Street down through the Flagg meadow, to the flume of Gov. Lincoln by the edge of the present Russell Street ; an enjoyment to share in which, with his pupils, when the writer reported the surface glairy, George Folsom used to dismiss school ; they positively long to perpetuate a stirring and healthy combination of exercise and pleasure ;- to which the wooden floor, the artificial light, the foul air, and the charge for admission, compare, as do the farthing rush-light to the luminous moon,-the limitations of the meagre purse to the unrestricted bounty of nature ! Some more length of pipe, which the COM- MISSION will try to scrimp from their appropriation, should they get what they have asked for the current year ; a little spray from the clouds, after their condensation by that relic of Mediæe- valism-the mill-owner; and their subsequent appropriation, to
* Ardea herodias.
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its own uses, by that hive of industry-the modern city ; a few casual jobs of employment for the faithful men whose sinewy hands have built ELM PARK; and the problem is solved. With nearer six than five superficial acres the Pools, even now, can scarcely accommodate the crowds that seek a temporary enjoy . ment. Thoroughly opened up, and with the ice kept clear, the test of another winter might indicate necessities constraining remedy .* If remedy, after all, should prove hopeless, the policy of a further enlargement of the water area could be considered ; there being somewhat more than an acre that the COMMISSION might ; were the want imperative, as they have trusted it would not become, excavate and transform. So long as Newton Hill rears itself, in immediate proximity, there can never be too great al. expanse of Water. Since the form and bulk of an eminence, thus uplifted towards the sky in a landscape otherwise monoto- nous, will ever supply the indispensable counterpoise and foil.
The COMMISSION have invited attention, in former Reports, to the numerous Squares and Spaces at the intersection of high- ways, that are left desolate, when they might be improved at a slight expenditure of money and labor. A long list of those gores and jags of land, varying in area as in prominence, was given quite recently ; which it ought not to be necessary to repeat, here. Such utter abandonment, surely, will not be tolerated, always. Take, for example, the extensive triangle where Cambridge, and Millbury, Streets, unite; a vicinity in which the speedy location of School, and Engine, Houses, is planned, if not already ordered. A noble shade-tree that ought to be made perfectly secure, but which cannot be properly
*But the children, even if of larger growth; the boys and girls,-should such old appellations be not wholly obsolete; must tag after, and not anticipate the COMMISSION. In this matter, especially, does haste make waste. Twice already, in this young Winter, the very eagerness of youth, without distinction of sex, to clear the surface of the pools, has over-reached itself. The slosh, shovelled into ridges, remains heaped up during thaw or rain ; forming, as frost supervenes, an ugly, almost insuperable barrier when, otherwise, the surface would be smooth and unbroken. The practice of the COMMISSION has shown, and its motto might well be, that
" Patient waiters are no losers !"
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guarded by this COMMISSION, so long as it is comprehended within the unrequired location of the roadway. They have not forgotten the wanton demolition, by the fast-trotting squad of the High- way Department, of that grand Elm, in Park Avenue, at its junction with Salisbury Street, felled before sunrise by those "six sharp axes!" At Whitney Space,-there should be a Kerb, a grass plat and a Jet d'Eau in the centre ; whose spray might nourish verdure, while its overflow supplied fountains wherefrom man, and his subject animals, could allay their thirst in the parching heats of Summer. There may be such a thing as the enforcement of a too-total abstinence.
The COMMISSION would not fail to declare, thus publicly, their gratification at the signal improvement in the appearance of Grant Square, which, though owned in private, is yet substan- tially dedicated and thrown open to public enjoyment and use. In planning the work of renovation, as well as in superintending the actual operations, the energy and good judgment of Council- man Harrington became markedly conspicuous. It furnishes a most striking illustration of what might be accomplished, in dozens of other places, throughout the city ; so that only the task be not postponed until the earth has been buried beneath brick and mortar, or is converted into pasturage for the golden calf.
Where shall the youth of Worcester, in future years, its young men and maidens, obtain and possess the right to outdoor exer- cise, and to the enjoyment of athletic sports, with the least possible restriction ? Without such enjoyment they are liable to grow up awkward and nerveless; and thereafter to crown the process of scholastic evolution by degeneration into intellectual eunuchs. They must not coast ! their sleds will collide with teams in transit, when there is not as there might be always, at some slight expense and trouble, an authorized and trusty out- look. They cannot skate! for snow falls; and the expenditure of money to keep clear and smooth the surface of the Pools, in ELM PARK, would be denounced as shiftless waste by Grad- grind, as he rakes in the profits from monopoly, spawned from the incestuous union of patent and protection.
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The COMMISSION OF PUBLIC GROUNDS might weary in well-doing, had they not enlisted for life; and were not the cause deserving of their every energy. Boys and girls appeal to them, inces- santly, for space wherein they may be allowed to play : but all through the city, their response must be, ever the same,-ungra- cious,-We have no room for you ! Long years ago the use of the loaded base-ball, within the Public Grounds, was sternly forbidden by Municipal Ordinance. There are no superfluous acres convenient, and unoccupied, for Foot-Ball, or Lacrosse. Perhaps, in some secluded nook, scant space and verge might be assigned for that unique but melancholy stag-game, which, at the intersection of Oread Place with Main Street, in ages long agone, nightly renewed during the rutting season of Croquet, appeared to develop for all,-alike player or spectator,-a grim sense of dolorous enjoyment.
Worcester continues to expand and thrive, as we all wish may be its fortune forever. But, all the while, the territory is built upon ; purchased for improvement in the near future ; or monop- olized for ultimate speculation. In the hurry and rush of busi- ness, who can stop to think of his own, or another's children, rigidly limited to the scrimped area of an ordinary house-lot; or cabined, cribbed, confined within the reeking walls of a crowded tenement-house ! Mammon pursues his march,-greedy, insa- tiable; now and then protruding feelers to test the public pulse, as he even seeks the right of transit across the COMMON ; cloak- ing the naked skeleton of his avarice beneath the transparent veil of an alleged imperative necessity. And no one pauses to reflect whither all this tends : to what it inevitably leads.
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