When the canal de l'Ourcq was first opened, the work was carried out
by a company to which was granted the right of navigation on the new
channel, connected with the Seine by the canals Saint-Martin and
Saint-Denis, but in 1876 the city of Paris repurchased this concession
from the canal company. A supply is also drawn from several important
artesian wells in different localities,--that of Grenelle, in the Place
de Breteuil, driven between 1833 and 1852, draws the water from a depth
of five hundred and forty-nine mètres and elevates it to a height of
seventy-five. This supply is turned into that of the Ourcq. The artesian
well of the Butte aux Cailles, begun in 1863, was resumed in 1892 and is
just being terminated; the depth attained is some six hundred mètres.
That of Passy, 1855-1860, somewhat less deep, supplies the lakes of the
Bois de Boulogne; that of the Place Hébert, 1863-1893, seven hundred and
eighteen mètres in depth, furnishes some large ponds in the
neighborhood.
Among the great reservoirs, the most noticeable is that of Montmartre,
rising high by the side of the church of the Sacré-Coeur, and containing
within its gray walls no less than three lakes, one above another. The
largest of all these storage basins in the city is that of the Vanne, at
the side of the principal entrance to the Parc Montsouris; in its vast,
vaulted enclosure, covered with turf, may be stored two hundred and
fifty thousand cubic mètres of water. Visitors are admitted to the under
vault, where, by the light of torches, the enormous walls and the
innumerable columns that sustain this weight are dimly visible. The
water of the Avre, drawn from the two sources of the Vigne and Verneuil,
is to be stored in the still larger reservoir on the heights of
Saint-Cloud, similar in construction and now nearly completed. Each of
the three sections in which it is built will contain a hundred thousand
cubic mètres.
The ancient mediæval methods have all been put away, the inevitable
little open gutter running down the middle of the street--celebrated by
Boileau and Mme. de Staël, and many others--has long since disappeared,
but the water-supply is not yet entirely adequate, and the citizens may
still suffer for the lack of a pure liquid to drink,--as they did
through so many centuries. It not infrequently happens, as it did in the
early autumn of 1898, that several quarters of the city are
simultaneously deprived of eau de source, and compelled to use the
river-water alone. Every effort is made to avert this--as it is rightly
considered--calamity, the streets are placarded with official notices
warning the inhabitants of the approaching curtailment of their supply,
and they are notified in a similar manner when the scarcity is over. Two
solutions have been proposed for this insufficiency, both of them
involving such heavy expense that the municipality shrinks from adopting
either;--the first, to supply every dwelling with a double set of pipes,
one carrying the pure water of the aqueducts, and the other the
river-water, forced up into the upper stories; the second is to go as
far as the lakes Neuchâtel, or Geneva, for an uncontaminated supply. The
complete application of the _tout à l'égout_ system has been delayed by
the want of the greatly-increased volume of water necessary for its
application, and strong petitions have been presented demanding the
postponement of the application of the law of 1894. The present supply
is about a hundred and twenty-four litres of eau de source and
ninety-six of eau de rivière daily for each inhabitant, but in summer
this amount may become greatly diminished. Paris thus stands second in
the amount of daily water-supply in the European capitals,--the figures
ranging from Rome with four hundred and fourteen litres per capita,
daily, to Constantinople with fifteen. London has only a hundred and
seventy-three for each inhabitant daily; and Berlin, seventy-three, next
to the Turkish capital. The figures for American cities are very much
higher,--New York, three hundred and fifty-nine; Boston, three hundred
and sixty-three; Philadelphia, six hundred; Chicago, six hundred and
thirty-six, and Buffalo, eight hundred and forty-five (September, 1898).
* * * * *
Another grave evil produced by an insufficient water-supply is the lack
of pressure in the pipes in case of fire, and the possible lack of water
itself. The number of _bouches d'incendie_, or fire-plugs, which it is
proposed to raise to eight thousand, placed a hundred mètres apart, in
all the streets of the city, is as yet far from attaining that figure.
The infrequency of serious fires in the capital is, however, very
noticeable when compared with the losses of American cities. Various
causes contribute to this result: the solid character of the
dwelling-houses generally, especially in the older quarters of the
city--the handsome, new apartment-houses that have been put up in such
numbers of recent years in the neighborhood of the Arc de l'Étoile are,
very many of them, much less well built; the general absence of furnaces
and of those overwrought fires to which the severity of his climate
incites the American citizen; the total absence of buildings of an
inordinate height, and, in modern times, the much more restricted use of
electricity and the consequent diminution of that too frequent danger of
the present day, "defective insulation." The fire service is, also, very
efficient; the brass helmets of the _pompiers_ are as inseparable from
any public performance, theatrical or musical, as the uniforms of the
Garde Républicaine; these faithful sentinels are on duty behind the
scenes as well as before them, and even up in the "flies," where, before
the introduction of electricity, they were obliged to pass several
hours in a temperature of, frequently, thirty-five degrees Centigrade,
ninety-six Fahrenheit. At present, the fire department of Paris has
adopted most of the modern improvements common to other civilized
capitals, and the details of its service differ from those with which we
are familiar principally in the military character given it.
The regiment of Sapeurs-Pompiers is, in fact, a regiment of infantry,
lent to the city of Paris by the Minister of War. It is paid out of the
municipal budget, with the exception of the pensions of the Legion of
Honor, the military medal, and the retired list, which are the charge of
the State. The regiment is composed of two battalions, of six companies
each, with a total strength of seventeen hundred men. The pay of the men
and their indemnities are the same as for the regiments of infantry in
garrison in Paris, there are special privileges for the officers, and
the quality of the recruits, especially with regard to their physique,
is maintained at a very high standard. Their bravery, their efficiency,
and their devotion are equal to those which are displayed so frequently
by this well-organized service in other large cities, and are equally
appreciated by the public; when, at the annual review at Longchamps on
the day of the national fête, the regiment of sapeurs-pompiers defiles
before the reviewing-stand, the great wave of applause and recognition
which envelops it, drowning the other cheers in its roar, betokens the
intimate appreciation of the Parisian, of high and low degree, of these
unpretentious heroes.
By the new organization of this service, now in process of completion,
the city is divided into twenty-four "zones," in the centre of each of
which is a post of men and material, known as a _centre de secours_. The
smaller posts, scattered through the city, in case of fire, notify by
telephone these central stations and the état-major of the regiment,
adjoining the Préfecture de Police; if the fire is of sufficient
importance, the centre de secours sends a reinforcement and the steam
fire-engine, the _pompe à vapeur_, but in very many cases the service of
the latter is not needed. Its appearance in the streets is comparatively
rare, and it is seldom driven at the mad gallop of the American
machines. Moreover, its whistle is the curious thin treble so common in
European motor engines, railroad and other. The old-fashioned hand-pumps
have almost completely disappeared, with the exception of some
localities like the Butte Montmartre, too steep to be approached by
horses. In the central stations, the arrangements are those generally
adopted nowadays to secure the quickest possible service,--even to the
harness suspended from hooks in the ceilings to be dropped on the
horses' backs, and the metal pole down which the men slide from their
sleeping-rooms above.
[Illustration: SAPEUR-POMPIER AT A FIRE-PLUG.