354 MEMOIR OF DANIEL TREADWELL. 



in this form. Can it be shown that a saving in money would result from the construction of 

 ■water-works for the sui)ply of the city ? 



" Let us inquire what is paid for the insufficient and uncertain supply of water now obtained 

 by the inhabitants. This is from three sources, — wells, cisterns holding rain-water as 

 collected from tlie roofs of houses, and the old aqueduct from Jamaica Pond. There are in 

 Boston 7,000 inhabited houses, or very nearly that number, and it may be taken that there 

 are 2,400 wells, or a well to every three houses, each well having upon the average two 

 pumps. The average cost of these wells with their pumps, taking their average depth at 

 forty feet, will be $160 each, amounting in all to $384,000. The number of cisterns may be 

 taken at 1,800, or one for every four dwelling-houses, and with their pumps they may be 

 taken to cost $70 each, making an aggregate cost of $120,000. Thus the cost of wells, pumps, 

 and cisterns amounts to $510,000. As this sum has already been expended, it cannot now 

 be redeemed or taken from tiicm, and it is arrayed in this form merely to show that the 

 amount estimated for the cost of waterworks does not much exceed that already expended 

 for the wells and cisterns, and that the capital required to furnish water in this way for 

 every new house erected, being not less than $150, any one would prefer paying $9 yearly 

 for a sui)ply of water rather than to form a well and cistern for himself. The yearly cost 

 of keeping a pump in working order may be considered as 50 cents, or $2,400 for the pumps 

 of Boston. But a pump will decay, and must be replaced in twenty years. We have then 

 4,800 pumps at $40 each, or $192,000, to be expended every twenty years, giving $9,600 a 

 vear. The yearly cost of the repair of cistern pumps, and the sum expended in rebuilding 

 those which decay, may be taken at half that expended on the pumiis of wells, which we have 

 seen above is $2,400 + $9,600 = $12,000. Add for yearly expense of cisterns $6,000, and 

 we have $18,000 for the yearly cost of maintaining the pumps and cisterns of Boston. Let us 

 next examine the saving in the premium of fire insurance. The official valuation of the real 

 estate of Boston is 40 millions. Deduct from this one third for the value uf land not subject to 

 destruction, and it leaves $20,660,000. The personal estate is valued at 28 millions, but as tliis 

 includes property vested in banks and other stocks, vessels, and a variety of other property 

 not subject to ordinary fire risks, we may consider the personal property subject to insurance 

 against fire at half the above sum, or 14 millions. "We have then a property of at least 

 40 millions on which insurance is actually paid or assumed to themselves by the owners. 

 The average rate of premium on this property is not less than 40 cents on $100 ; consequently 

 it amounts to $100,000 a year. It will, I believe, be admitted, by most persons acquainted 

 with the subject, that, if the city were abundantly supplied with water, the rate of insurance 

 ■would be reduced one quarter part ; consequently, there would from this be a saving annually 

 to the citizens of the sum of $40,000. This, added to the $18,000 before enumerated as the 

 yearly cost of pumps and cisterns, gives $58,000 annually which would be saved to the city by 

 sufficient public water-works. I have not taken into the preceding account the amount paid 

 by the portion of the citizens who receive water from the aqueduct from Jamaica Pond. 

 Neither have I considered the saving which would result from the diminution of the expendi- 

 tures of the fire department. These and perhaps other considerations may be neglected, as 

 the $58,000 already specified is sufficient to pay the interest on the cost of almost any plan 

 of water-works which may be adopted, together with the cost of keeping them in operation. 

 Is there then any reason for delaying a work of this kind ? Will it be said that the expendi- 

 ture of a million is beyond the means of the city, or that the health and comfort produced by 

 such an expenditure will not be an equivalent for it? What is the amount of health and 



