“What shall we do then?”
“The simplest thing would be to put in a pumping plant and pump up the river water.”
“But it is infected water, full of impurities.”
“It can be purified by filtering. That’s not difficult.”
Cæsar laid this plan before the Municipality, and it was decided to carry it out, as the most practical and practicable. A company was formed to pump up the water, and work was begun.
The stockholders were almost all rich people of Castro, and the company drew up its constitution in such a manner that the town got scarcely any benefit out of it. They were not going to instal more than two public fountains inside the city limits, and those were to run only a few hours. Cæsar tried to convince them that this was absurd, but nobody paid any attention to him.
THE LIBRARY
A bit disappointed, he left the “Water Pumping Company” to go its way, and devoted himself entirely to things that he could carry out alone.
The first one he tried was establishing a circulating library of technical books on trades and agriculture, and of polite and scientific literature, in the Workmen’s Club.
“They will sell the books,” everybody said; “they will get them all soiled, and tear out the leaves....”