rounding population. The water of New York City is derived from the watershed of the Croton River and is led into reservoirs in New York City (q. v.) through an aqueduct 29.6 miles long. This aqueduct has an average diameter of over 13 feet. (See The Century Magazine for December, 1889.) Chicago and Cleveland pump their water from the neighboring lakes, a tunnel of several miles being bored out under the lakes in each case so as to secure water free from shore refuse. Where the water for public supply is taken from wells, the wells are always sunk or driven several hundred feet into the lower strata, where the supply is more constant and is freed from surface impurities. Two systems of distribution are in use: the reservoir and the pumping system. In the reservoir system the water is collected by natural flow or by pumping into reservoirs and then distributed by gravity to the houses. In the direct-pumping system the water is pumped into the mains by pumps which are kept working day and night. The latter system is cheaper to install, but more expensive to operate. Where there is no natural elevation for a reservoir, it is common to erect a large, steel stand-pipe, which will have sufficient capacity to furnish part of a day's supply. The daily consumption of water in American cities is about 106 gallons per person. This is from two to three times the amount used in European cities. To check the waste of water, it is common now to supply water by meter, so that each user pays according to the amount consumed by himself.
Wat′son, Rev. John (nom de plume Ian Maclaren), one of the
IAN MACLAREN
most popular of the Scotch school of story-writers and a prominent figure in English religious life, was born of Scottish parents at Manningtree, Essex, Nov. 3, 1850, and educated at Edinburg University land at Tubingen. Ordained a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, he had his first important charge at Free St. Matthew's, Glasgow, and afterward was transferred to the Sefton Park Presbyterian Church, Liverpool. Till 1893 Dr. Watson was known as an able and popular preacher; but in that year he acquired greater distinction and a wider fame by a series of Scottish prose idyls, written for The British Weekly and afterwards published under the title of Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush. This work won deserved praise for the fidelity with which he has portrayed humble and reverent Scottish life and scenes, and was deservedly dramatized. The volume was followed by The Days of Auld Lang Syne, Kate Carnegie, A Doctor of the Old School, Rabbi Saunderson and Afterwards and Other Stories. His religious writings embrace The Upper Room, The Mind of the Master, The Cure of Souls, The Homely Virtues, The Inspiration of Our Faith, The Potter's Wheel and Companions of the Sorrowful Way. In 1896 and again in 1899 he visited the United States on lecturing tours, and delivered the Lyman Beecher lectures at Yale University on practical theology. He also visited the United States in 1907, where he died at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, May 6.
Watson, John Crittenden, American naval officer (rear-admiral in command of the Asiatic station, with pennant on United States battleship Oregon), was born at Frankfort, Ky., Aug. 24, 1842, entered the United States Naval Academy in 1856, and graduated in 1860. From 1862 to 1864 he acted as aid to Admiral Farragut on the Hartford, and took part in forcing the Mississippi River and capturing New Orleans; he was wounded at the battle of Mobile Bay. From 1865 to 1867 he served on the Colorado in the European squadron, and was promoted to commander in 1874, to captain in 1887, and to commodore in 1897. In the war with Spain he commanded the blockading squadron on the northern Cuban coast on the Newark. In June, 1898, he was given command of a squadron designed to operate against the coasts of Spain, but the collapse of the war rendered the project unnecessary. In June, 1898, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the eastern squadron.
Watson, Thomas (1557-1592), was one of the English lyrical poets who inaugurated the great outburst of Elizabethan literature. He is known to have attended Oxford University and to have studied law in London. He was an elegant and celebrated Latinist. His Latin translation of the Antigone of Sophocles appeared in 1581. He also translated Tasso's Aminta into Latin pastoral form. His English works include the Tears of Fancy, a beautiful collection consisting of 60 sonnets, some of which appear to have been utilized by Shakespeare. Watson also wrote a book of 100 professed sonnets, which had 18 lines each instead of 14; this he called The Passionate Century of Love. His themes are largely from the French and Italian. His English verse is published in Arber's English Reprints.
Watson, William, an English poet, born at Burley, Yorkshire, on Aug. 2, 1859, his writings have given him prominence of recent years. Epigrams of Art, 1884, was his first book to attract attention. In The National Review, 1885, he published a series of sonnets entitled Ver Tenebrosum, in which
