WATER BY THE BOTTLE.

Thames Star, Volume XXX, Issue 9112, 5 July 1898, Page 2

WATER BY THE BOTTLE.

The weakness of Key West as a naval station has always been the scarcity of water, which was mentioned in a recent cable as being severely felt The "hallow wells in town are all more or less brackish and under suspicion of surface drainage. The town lives by oisterns andrraitn t barrels, and the latter are only a shade less injurious than the wells. The oisterns filled during the rainy season usually run very low by the close of the dry season, which is now due. This year, in addition to the rains coming very late, the town has had its population doubled by the presence of troops, ships, and war vessels, and the army of newspaper correspondents, and their tugs, which vessels take water by the thousand gallons, not only for themselves, but for their boilers. All who can afford it (that is to say, the newspaper correspondents and the officers) drink bottled water, but a dearth of this supply is approaching. Most of the unpretentious brands of bottled water are Idol a gallon, and " live " water is 15 cents a pint by the hundred bottles. To make matters worse, the drug stores let their supply of water run out before telegraphing for more, and there is a corner in water.