Some 260 miles above Warsaw, a surly workman was discharged from a chemical factory last week. In revenge he broke a petcock, emptied a 3,500-gal. tank of carbolic acid into the river Czarna. Warsaw blanched, for the Czarna flows into the Pilika, and the Pilika flows into the Vistula, and the Vistula flows past Warsaw, and from it the city gets its water supply, filtering it at a great reservoir outside Warsaw. Officials at the Warsaw waterworks endeavored to calm apprehensions, pointed out that after floating 75 miles, 3,500 gal. of carbolic acid would purify rather than pollute the Vistula. But housewives were unconvinced, for down the Czarna, down the Pilika, down the Vistula floated thousands of dead fish: pickled pike, acid burnt bream, carbolated carp. Polish soldiers, ever fearful of water as a beverage, demanded larger wine rations.
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