p. 7 | Drinking Water

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 27, 1910

Drinking Water

Not long ago the writer was on an interurban car, when the conductor, who had just finished collecting the fares of a carful of people, left the car at one of the stops, and returned with a large piece of ice in his hands, which he placed in the water-cooler. He carried the ice in his hands, which were black with dirt, and when the ice stuck in the top of the cooler, he pounded it with his fist until it went in. Hardly had he left the cooler, when a nicely dressed woman with a little child walked up to the faucet, and both took a drink, others soon following their example. Scientists tell us that money contains millions of bacteria, many of them the disease-producing kind. This conductor by handling money had many of these bacteria on his hands; and when he handled the ice, these were washed off into the water-cooler, together with the other dirt. This being true, think of the danger to those drinking the water.

Then, too, the public drinking cup is a spreader of bacteria. Sit in a railroad car, and watch the different people who drink from the same cup. Some of them show unmistakable signs of disease, often of the worst nature, and when they drink from the cup, they are apt to leave germs on it that will contaminate the next person who drinks. So great a source of danger is this, that many States have passed laws abolishing the public drinking cup. All States should have such laws. But even with individual cups, if the water in the cooler is contaminated, there is danger of contracting disease. It is better not to drink water on trains. One can afford to deprive oneself of water and suffer a little thirst, rather than drink foul water, and run the risk of disease.—Farmer's Guide.