USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1885 > Part 23
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CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 40.
making a grand harvest out of it, while contractors are laughing in their sleeves and pocketing the plunder."
The writer, to whom almost alone in this latter day it has been left to preach the gospel of Gravitation ! has advised that the whole trouble be solved by ceasing to contravene the ordinance of God,-letting the river flow and fret unimpeded. Take down the Dams! for they are an anachronism ; or pierce them with sluice-ways wherethrough they may be flushed at will. Water in motion is pure and sparkling ; or if roiled from any cause, will soon clarify itself. Why is it not in rapid motion throughout the whole course of the Blackstone ? First, because some pre- emptors of " Privilege !" chose to nullify this Divine Law in order that they might grind, and saw, and-put money in their purse ! And next, their heirs or assigns, well-aware of the inferiority and incertitude of Water-Power, yet bent upon levying a contri- bution from the community at large ; by way of an exaction from their natural necessities ; aim to get indemnity for a substitution which they were so thoroughly persuaded is essential that they have already provided for it! Two years have elapsed since, according to the local correspondence of the Gazette :-
" MILLBURY :- C. D. Morse, who, among others in town, has been very much troubled by lack of Water-Power, this season, has put in a steam-engine. The work of building a new engine-house 37 by 25 feet ; a boiler-house 34 by 17 feet; an ell at the north end of the shop 27 by 17 feet; and setting up the en- gine and boiler, which has been progressing some weeks, is now nearly com- pleted." *
And so with them all! Not one of those Dam-Owners who arrests the current but knows that Water-Power a-down the Blackstone is comparatively worthless for inadequacy or incerti- tude ; not one of them but has supplied himself (perhaps, as some Privileges! to impede the natural course of the stream are cor- porate, the phrase should be It-self !), with powerful and adequate steam motors. "Hinc illæ lachrymæ !"
" They mourned for those who perished in the cutter,
But most they mourned the biscuits, and the butter."
*The equipment, with steam engines and boilers, of the other mills along the Blackstone, was noted in the report of the COMMISSION OF PUBLIC GROUNDS, A. D. 1881 .- E. W. L.
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The current has been destroyed by our Dams ; and of course our mill-ponds, become settling-basins, foul with sediment from our back-houses, refuse, and the very stagnation, from the neces- sity of the case more than of nature, stink: and therefore we will create a public sentiment to complain of the sewage from Worcester, six miles off.
Our Dams are worthless, as such,-insomuch as we prudently substituted steam for a motor. Yet we will retain them, to per- petuate that rot, render the offence inveterate, and possibly in the long run extort stink-money from Worcester.
Since now we will assert that our sole dependence, for water to feed our boilers, is upon the river ; and that the impurities held in solution are so many and great that it can be used no longer. We surrender the stream, but are unable to use its water to make steam because Worcester has so loaded it with impurities.
Is that allegation any truer than others from the same quarter ? Non constat ! Local correspondents of the Gazette, and Spy, offer the subjoined contemporaneous record :-
" MILLBURY :- A well has recently been dug under the direction of Mr. John Gegenheimer, agent for the Cordis Mills Co., 22 feet in diameter and 8 feet deep, which has been planked all around it and has 62 feet of water in it, or about 17,000 gallons. A three-inch iron pipe has been laid 1,300 feet to the mills, and the steam pump from the boiler is connected with the well to supply the boiler. When the well was dug a steam pump was set at work to keep the water down, and for six hours they pumped 150 gallons a minute and just kept the water down. This water will, in time, be used in the mill and tenements."
" SUTTON :- Tompkins Brothers, who have sunk a number of driven wells in Millbury, have to-day completed one for Mrs. Rich, in this town, from which an abundance of pure water flows."
And all through that River-Plain, as along the intervales by Mill and Tatnuck Brooks, may be found that same superficial foot of half-decayed loam; that same foot and a half of coarse to fine gravel ; and, for a subsoil everywhere, and characteristic of the whole geological formation, the same bed of quicksand, shifty yet tenacious, saturated with pure water as Gegenheimer and a score of others found at need ; but which, first a Board of Health, good Lord ! and now a Drainage Commission from State
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Street, good Devil! would have the General Court compel Wor- cester to transmute into a filthy leach ! Fragrant and mighty Cloacina ! What gospel in thy name will not Beacon Hill next belch forth and eruct !
If water for boilers must be had from the Blackstone, it can be filtered and clarified, as it should be if its sole use is to minis- ter to private greed. But it should be done at the cost and ex- pense of those who located themselves at the base of the decliv- ity, electing to receive the detritus, the rotten logs, back-houses, decayed animals,-stroking their sleek paunches in unctuous com- placency as they gather in the shekels-net profit of tariff mo- nopoly hybridized with mill-"privilege !" and exclaiming in the pithy phrase of Vespasian,-" Does it smell ? oh, my son !"
The " Drainage Commission " assert that the " rapid growth (of Worcester) must soon make some change absolutely impera- tive, unless the Blackstone River is to be permanently con- demned for a common sewer." But, bless their little, innocent souls ! why not ? For what else is it now, or can it ever be made, so useful ? Suppose you stop the in-flow of sewage which it has received, to a greater or less degree, since the first pioneer settled upon its banks ! The refuse from Factories continues a worse offense ;- in most cases, all that can be detected. But grant that it has been rendered clear and pellucid ! Cui bono ? That the people of Millbury may adore the liquid element in humble imitation of the Fire-Worshippers ! That it may be per- mitted Gegenheimer, Morse, and Simpson, to arise with the sun and, falling prone upon the escarpment of each dam, gaze in blended rapture and reverence upon the several rills as they mingle in a common flood from the Ramshorn, Leicester and Asnebumskit !
Says a naturalist who, building no dams, could afford to ob- serve natural processes :-
" A very slight declivity suffices to give the running inotion to water. Three inches a mile, in a smooth, straight channel, gives a velocity of about three miles an hour."
Well! is it nigher sixty or eighty feet that the Blackstone falls in the first eight miles below Worcester ? And how much of that in a single half-mile within the town of Millbury !
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Is it our fluid sewage,-with that of Leicester from Kettle Brook, which stinks ? Or the stagnant waters of Dam-burgh. How long since those settling-basins were cleansed, which nature, if let alone, would have long since washed pure ! How many years since those pools were vexed by man ! When,-ever, since the Blackstone Canal had to be abandoned because the manufacturers stole its waters, has the cheek of a Dam-Owner crimsoned with shame at the knowledge that flume and flash- board were alike tight and fast, no matter how high the freshet ! At what time were the corks ever drawn and those bottles allowed to blow off their sediment ! No ! rather let water run to waste, than that those pet cess-pools be clarified and sweet- ened ! Better and more gainful to make a case against Worces- ter (the "Golden Rule," you see ?), than suffer the channel of the River to be purged from their own offence by the floods accumulating above ! Says the Evening Gazette of Feb. 14, 1884 :-
" MILLBURY .- The water in the Blackstone River, this morning, is the highest that it has been for several years."
Says the Spy of March 20, 1884 :-
"At the request of the Blackstone valley mill-owners, the water in the Holden Reservoir* has been drawn down two and one-half feet. It was feared that with a sudden thaw more water would run through the Blackstone River than could be handled. Partially drawing off the water in the Reser- voir will allow the holding back of quite a quantity, which would otherwise trouble the mill-owners."
And at about the same time,-
"MILLBURY .- The Sash and Blind shop of C. D. Morse & Co. was obliged to stop most of the machinery, Thursday and Friday, on account of back water."
And so,-forever and aye. At what time, since last Autumn, could not. these settling-basins, in Dam-burgh, have been filled as fast as they were emptied, and their contents clarified at will,- had the will been as facile as the way ? But no ! the Christ-like Dam-Owners who have choked the current, and would now
* Not then safe : nor yet in possession of the City.
Not safe,-the mill-owners being too penurious to build a secure dam !
E. W. L.
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" corner " the Golden Rule, fear that "more water may run through the Blackstone than could be handled !" Well,-why should it be "handled "? Why not let it flow and fret unim- peded, purifying itself as it courses along, precisely as the good God intended when He stored up its fountains ! The unobstruct- ed flow and rush of the River are essential to the very existence of the valley, through its entire length. Sash and blinds can be made elsewhere as well as at a mill-dam.
Were the Dams removed, or pierced, as they should be ; water for a motor in this day and generation being as much of an anachronism as the Stage-Coach for a conveyance; the problem is solved for all who have not worthless "privileges" that they would fain unload upon the tax-payers. The stream resumes its. natural course and flow. Obsolete canals,-long since aban- doned for their original purpose,-cease to be used for mill-races, by the side of the highway, to deceive Drainage Commissioners who cannot distinguish for themselves, and are not told by the Dam-Owners, the difference and wide distance between such races and the river itself. The ordinary flow of the stream bears with it sediment, sewage, factory refuse, in manageable volume ; depositing it everywhere in infinitesimal quantity, harming no- body and causing no offence. The floods of Spring and late Autumn overspread the broad water-plains, dispersing whatever elements of fertility are held in suspense ; nourishing vegetation of all kinds as does simple irrigation everywhere ; and the whole operation without damage to communities or so much as a pre- tence of injury to individual comfort or health. The special pleaders for Dam-burgh aver that God failed in His work of creation ! and that without their recent puny obstructions of plank and stone, for which they tremble at each unusual freshet, there would be no River ! Yet, how was it before there was any Millbury ? One of those "leaders of the blind," whose knowledge may be duly estimated from his statement that poor little " Lynde Brook is one of the sources of the Blackstone " River ! ejects the " gall " that Worcester having taken possession of Lynde and Tatnuck Brooks for a water-supply ; " and Mill Brook for a Sewer; there is left only the scanty stream from Ram's Horn Pond to supply a river that has ceased to exist " !
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PUBLIC GROUNDS.
How has the river " ceased to exist," except in the lively fancy of a Dam-Owner ? What became of Kettle Brook,-the while,- whereof possibly this local geographer never heard ! Or mayhap did C. A. D. from Leicester, advise that its mention and perfume should be suppressed, alike ? That tireless statesman who mean- dered in wild effusion through Worcester South last November, conferring his benediction upon Senators and Representatives, Elect ; enlightening each Town how well it had run a-muck against Worcester ; and promising that the Blackstone should be forthwith transmuted, by Act of the General Court ! into a new Pharpar and Abana,-if not a modern sanitary Jordan ! But, has anybody drank or dried up the water that Worcester took from Lynde Run and Tatnuck Brook? and which, if not so taken, would have been dissipated in the expanse of Narragansett Bay as soon as it could get by the countless Dams. Sewage is a solu- tion, not a solid. Its solvent is this precise water that the " lead- ers of the blind" would "deceive the very elect," at the State House, into supposing is never returned when once diverted ! Worcester stores away, in her Reservoir, at Leicester, nigh upon 700,000,000 gallons of water that without such storage, would run out in a few days and be wasted. Similar is the case at the Holden Reservoir, with its 400,000,000 gallons now, and basins of a possible ultimate enlargement to the capacity of 2,000,000,000 gallons. From those Reservoirs the supply to the River is steady, unintermittent ; where otherwise, in a dry season, there would be none. And this, Oh learned geographer of Damborough ! whose Blackstone has " ceased to exist !" at all times supplement- ing the volume of Kettle and Ram's Horn Brooks, bearing through Worcester, as they do, every manner of filth and refuse from Leicester and Millbury.
But, -- now come the apostles of a newer dispensation, -- a lat- ter-day gospel of Pure Water with less than thirteen parts solids ! pew-fillers, to whom is preached a. Christ known to Mary but never to His Father, whose affectation it is to prefer a so-styled " Golden Rule " to the fundamental Law established by God at the very Creation. These religious dilettanti,-sciolists of a genteel parlor skepticism,-to whom it is all one whether that
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Rule was imposed by Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, or -- the Mar- quis of Queensberry ! so long as it is not base metal ;-- feel their bowels yearn as they hearken, with mouths in the dust, to a con- centrated and concerted cry from the owners of mill-"privileges!" a-down the Blackstone. To such Cherubim that "Golden Rule " is the one inflexible monitor, guiding their every immaculate ac- tion and thought. To them each day is accounted lost, wherein they have not foregone some private or partisan advantage ;- promoted in part at least the schemes of their personal or polit- ical opponents. What, to such consummate intuition and sublime self-poise, can the Law of Gravitation appear but " a stumbling block, and foolishness,"-with its inexorable corollaries of trituration, comminution, absorption, or evaporation ! A few active men, prompted by self-interest, excite a neighboring com- munity to a suspicion of injury. Can anything be more natural or excusable ? continually do cry the Cherubim. But, simulta- neously with the accusation, a tenfold larger population is con- demned, out of hand, as guilty of a " grievous wrong !" Grant that neither nest is as clean as it might be. What nobler or better rule than this, ancient as Jurisprudence itself ? " They who would seek Equity must ensue Equity."
And so Worcester is to be " wounded in the house of its friends" by a concurrence of ambition, priestcraft, and greed,- the "Better Element !" (Christ's name for it was-Pharisaism !) such as proved fatal to every city in history that had " pros- pects," or was worth saving,-from Athens, and Rome, down through the centuries. Such oligarchies of intense politics, cant, or avarice, invariably ruin when they are impotent to rule.
The City of Worcester has shown, heretofore, in what liberal manner she could deal with those whom she had unwittingly harmed : expending, of her own accord, more than Three Hun- dred Thousand Dollars to remedy and repair the effects of a neg- ligence whereof the Courts of the Commonwealth have since de- clared her innocent, and therefore not answerable in law. The expenditure of even so large a sum as a Half-Million Dollars, at the arbitrary behest of the General Court, in itself causes no terrors to the people of this City. Jealous rivals of our prosper-
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ity,-if such exist, " need lay no such flattering unction to their souls." In a just cause,-just because it commends itself to our own conscience,-we have shown how lightly we could as- sume, and as well endure, burdens grievous to be borne.
But we do object to unthrift or waste. We do contend against the arbitrary and irrational constraint which would compel us to divert our savings from legitimate employment, to test schemes which, if not wholly empirical, have no other ostensible merits than that they have not yet been proved a complete failure under the moister skies and milder climate of England.
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
IN THE YEAR ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-SIX. AN ACT
To Restore Comity and Clear Water Along The Upper Blackstone.
Be it Enacted by the Senate, and House of Representatives, in General Court Assembled :--
SECTION 1. The Town of Millbury is hereby annexed to the City of Wor- cester, of which City, for the better peace of the Commonwealth and the pur- poses of this Act, Millbury shall henceforth constitute and remain a compo- nent parcel and part.
SECTION 2. The City of Worcester is hereby authorized and directed, within - years, to take at the sworn valuation returned to the assessors of Millbury, A. D. 1885, all the easements or privileges of any name or nature whatsoever (factory-buildings excepted) within that Town, that tend to ob- struct or impede the natural flow of the Blackstone River; to remove all dams or other artificial hindrances to the current, or to pierce them with sufficient sluice-ways; that the stream may once more be free and unvexed and its channel open.
SECTION 3. In any suit for damages under this Act it shall not be lawful to set forth the value of a mill privilege, or dam, under its original unim- paired grant or prescription : but the measure of injury shall be taken to be the absolute loss of power exclusive of its disuse during periods of drought, excessive flood, or substitution of steam.
SECTION 4. The Mayor and Aldermen of said City shall have the same power to determine the value of and assess upon Real Estate the amount of betterments accruing to said Real Estate by the removal or remedy of such obstructions, and by the clarifying of said Blackstone River, that is conferred
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by Chapter 51, of the Public Statutes upon Boards of City or Town Officers authorized to lay out streets or ways. Provided, however, that no assess- ment shall be laid upon Real Estate except such as shall be shown, by the oath of its owner, to be affected or depreciated by the smell from the River.
SECTION 5. For the purpose of defraying the expenses incurred under the provisions of the Act, the City Council of the City of Worcester shall have authority to issue, from time to time, and to an amount not exceeding the sum actually expended for the taking of such easements or mill-privileges, in Millbury along the River, bonds, or certificates of debt to be denominated on the face thereof,-"GOLDEN RULE LOAN;"-and to bear interest at such rates and to be payable at such times as said City Council may determine. For the redemption of such loan said City Council shall establish a Sinking Fund sufficient, with the accumulating interest, to pay such loan at its maturity. All amounts received from betterments shall be paid into such Sinking Fund, until such fund shall suffice, with its accretions, to pay the matured bonds for whose security the fund was originated.
SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its passage.
" Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ !"
All which is respectfully submitted, by
EDWARD WINSLOW LINCOLN,
Chairman.
Worcester, Massachusetts,
March 8th, A. D. 1886.
1
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APPENDIX A.
[CHAPTER 163.]
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
IN THE YEAR ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FIVE.
AN ACT
Relating to Public Parks and Shade Trees in the City of Worcester.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by authority of the same, as follows :-
SECTION 1. The Board of Park Commissioners of the City of Worcester, in addition to the powers conferred by the one hundred and fifty-fourth Chap- ter of the Acts of the year Eighteen Hundred and Eighty-two, shall have and exercise all the powers, and be subject to all the duties, heretofore pertaining to the Board of Commissioners of Public Grounds and Shade-Trees provided for in Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-nine of the Acts of the year Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-six, except as herein otherwise provided.
SECTION 2. The powers and duties of said Board of Park Commissioners, enumerated in the Acts of Eighteen Hundred and Eighty-two, Chapter One Hundred Fifty-four, shall extend and apply to all Public Grounds and Parks of said City, acquired before this Act takes effect, except that said Board of Park Commissioners shall have no authority to assess betterments in respect to any Parks or Public Grounds acquired before this Act takes effect.
SECTION 3. Said Board of Park Commissioners may be organized by the choice of a Chairman and Secretary from their own number, and a major part of said Board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.
SECTION 4. The annual report provided for in the twelfth section of Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-four of the Acts of Eighteen Hundred and Eighty-two, and in the twenty-first section of Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-nine of the Acts of Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-six, shall be made in the month of March.
SECTION 5. Section twenty-one of Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-nine of the Acts of Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-six is hereby repealed.
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SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect on the first day of May, Eighteen Hundred and Eighty-five.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, April 10, 1885.
Passed to be enacted.
J. Q. A. BRACKETT, Speaker. IN SENATE, April 13, 1885.
Passed to be enacted.
A. E. PILLSBURY, President.
APRIL 14, 1885. Approved.
GEO. D. ROBINSON.
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PUBLIC GROUNDS.
APPENDIX B.
[CHAPTER 154.] LAWS AND RESOLVES, A. D. 1882.
SECTION 3. Such Boards of Park-Commissioners shall have power to make Rules for the use and government of the Public Parks within the limits of their respective cities ; and for breaches of such Rules to affix penalties not exceeding Twenty Dollars ($20.00) for one offence, to be imposed by any court of competent jurisdiction.
RULES OF THE PARKS-COMMISSION.
OF THE
CITY OF WORCESTER.
1. Dogs are prohibited in Elm Park, unless under the direct control and restraint of their owner; otherwise, they will be regarded and treated as outlaws. Owners of Dogs will be held personally responsible for any damage done by their animals.
2. No persons shall be suffered to affix, in any manner whatsoever, adver- tisements, handbills, placards, posters, or written or printed notices, or aught else that shall tend to their injury, to any of the Shade Trees of the City.
3. All persons are hereby forbidden -
To place any erection or obstruction on the Commons or Parks of the City.
To catch, trap or shoot Birds or take Birds' nests.
To injure, damage, destroy or dig up any turf, shrubs, trees, or plants, or break up or destroy the surface of the Commons or Parks of the City, or light any fire upon them.
To deposit any rubbish, manure, cinders, road sweepings, bricks, tim- ber, building materials, or other substances, upon the Commons or Parks of the City, or in any pond or basin of a fountain in said Com- mons or Parks, or in any manner to fill up, defile, or pollute the same.
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To place any carriage, cart, or other vehicle upon the Commons or Parks of the City, or upon the foot-paths over the same.
To fire any gun or other fire-arm (except of the Militia of the Common- wealth), or throw any stick, stone, or other missile.
Or generally, to act in a disorderly manner, or to commit any nui- sance, or do any act tending to disfigure or injure the Commons or Parks or annoy or hurt any person frequenting them for the purpose of exercise, recreation, or transit.
Under a penalty of not exceeding Twenty Dollars ($20.00) for each of- fence; of which one-half shall be paid to the person by whose testimony a conviction may be secured.
TO THE HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL :
The undersigned, a member of the Park-Commission of the City of Worces- ter, respectfully begs leave to disavow all responsibility for a document sub- mitted to the Honorable Council at its last meeting signed by Edward W. Lincoln, and purporting to be the annual report of said Commission; the said report having been prepared and submitted by the chairman of said Commis- sion, without consultation with or notice to any other member of it, and without the knowledge of any of them.
And the undersigned respectfully asks that, if the said document shall be printed with the City Document as the annual report of the said Commission, this disavowal may also be printed therewith.
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