Drinking fountain

“ There should be at least one drinking fountain where the ever-thirsty public can be refreshed. Few people who have not been obliged to face this realize that not a day goes by without frequent requests for water. On each floor a mop closet should be provided with a slop sink and running water. ”

“ Among others, there is one very beautiful scene, wherein a thirsty man, in whom the desire for water is vividly seen, is drinking, bending [Pg 75] down on the ground by a fountain with very great and truly marvellous expression, in a manner that it seems almost a living person that is drinking. ”

“ She gave him a rope three hundred fathoms long and told him to bind it round his body. She also gave him some wine and a sponge. Then she said: “Not far from here there is a well. When you come to it, you must say that you will let yourself down into the well, if the other fellows will drink the fountain dry.”
When they got to the well, the captain and the lieutenant began to drink the fountain, but it was just as full as before. [133]
“If we kept on drinking this fountain till doomsday,” they said, “we could not drink it dry.” ”

“ The drinking fountains are a great boon to poor children, as water, and plenty of it, is one of the chief necessaries of their very existence; and, unfortunately, at their own homes they are not, oftentimes, able to obtain a sufficient supply. ”

“ The last statement is made on feminine authority.
The cause of water-drinking has lately received a considerable impulse from the erection of drinking-fountains in many of the principal towns. Might it not aid the good cause for which these have been built, if their foundation was commemorated by some ceremony as graceful and as harmless as the tap-dressing at Wirksworth. ”

“ But I wish they'd put in drinkin' fountains along th' road. I'm as thirsty as a salt cod—an' there's so precious little water left in th' keg that I'm afraid t' begin at it for fear of suckin' it all up."
"Drinking fountains?" Rayburn, who was a little in advance, called back to us. "Well, so they did. Come along and drink as much as you want to."
"Cut that, Rayburn," Young answered. "I'm too dead in earnest about my being thirsty to stand any foolin'." ”

“ A brawling mountain stream rushes by, in whose crystal waters bask the speckled trout to tempt the angler, while near the hotel is to be seen one of the most beautiful spectacles in the world—a magnificent fountain that throws its spray two hundred and eighty-six feet high, then like a bridal veil floats off in misty fragments. It is beautiful by day, but far more beautiful in the moonlight, as it throws its sparkling vapor high in the air, giving to the scene a weird enchantment. ”

“ This fountain has a sweet savor, as of all manner of spicery, and every hour of the day the water changes its savor and its smell. Whoever drinks of this well will be healed of whatever malady he has, and will seem always young. It is not reported that women and men who drink of this fountain will be always young, but that they will seem so, and probably to themselves, which simply means, in our modern accuracy of language, that they will feel young. ”

“ Greater peacefulness could not well be given to any artificial bit of water. Then from the centre of this dreaming pool there rises a fountain so rich in carving, so beautiful in design that it seems rather a great and splendid efflorescence than the work of men's hands. From its leaf-fringed lower basin there rises a second and much smaller one, not like another basin but like a corolla within a corolla, and the flower-like composition terminates in a beautifully wrought cup resembling the blossom of the campanula. ”

“ The octagonal basin which receives this copious stream is sunk into the ground and its shadowed waters have all the unobtrusive beauty of a quiet and sequestered pool There is no sculpture, no decoration. With unerring taste, the artist has made his appeal to the eye through fundamental and universal elements of beauty. Grace of line and of proportion, contrast of solid rock and flowing water, the impression of abundance and perpetuity, symmetry, contrast, suggestion these are the simple qualities out of which he composed his Fountain of the Brimming Bowl. ”

“ There is a fountain in the middle of the market-place, into which one stream of fresh water is continually flowing, while another drains off from it. Hither the women bring their clothes to be washed; not in the fountain itself, but in their own tubs, which they range round it ”

“ The surface of the fountain is black, an appearance produced by its depth, from the darkness of the rocks, and the obscurity of the cavern; for, on being brought to light, nothing can be clearer than its water. Though beautiful to the eye, it is harsh to the taste, but is excellent for tanning and dyeing ”

“ Somewhere amid those green copses or along those liquid streams, he had been told, a living fountain sprang up clear and sparkling from the earth, its waters of such a marvellous quality that whoever should bathe in them would feel new life coursing through his veins and the vigor of youth bounding along his limbs. ”

“ For a few minutes the fountain held its own, then all at once appeared to lose its ascending energy. The unstable waters faltered—drooped—fell, 'like a broken purpose,' back upon themselves, and were immediately sucked down into the recesses of their pipe.
'The spectacle was certainly magnificent; but no description can give an idea of its most striking features. The enormous wealth of water, its vitality, its hidden power, the illimitable breadth of sunlit vapor, rolling out in exhaustless profusion—all combined to make one feel the stupendous energy of nature's slightest movement. ”

“ Instead of running about here and there to have your cup filled at these little stagnant pools, dried up as they generally are by the continual rays of a constantly shining egoistic sun, go direct to the great fountain-head, and there drink of the water of life that is poured out freely to every one if he will but go there for it. ”

“ There came first the rustle of water through long unused channels, then the shallow splash against the empty basin. Little by little the sound became deeper and more musical, till the still morning vibrated faintly to the mellow leap and ripple of the fountain's jubilant voice. ”

“ But from the ugly chasm there burst forth a spring of water which ever afterward flowed a living fountain. From the ugly gashes which misfortunes and sorrows make in our hearts, perennial fountains of rich experience and new joys often spring. ”

“ In the centre of the hall springs an ornamental fountain, the water of which continually throws itself into new shapes and snatches the most diversified lines from the stained atmosphere around. It is impossible to conceive what a strange vivacity is imparted to the scene by the magic dance of this fountain, with its endless transformations, in which the imaginative beholder may discern what form he will. ”

“ The fountains in the Common and the Public Garden attract the eye of the stranger, some of them being very beautiful. The Brewer fountain on Flagstaff hill, presented to the city by the late Gardner Brewer, is very handsome. ”

“ Now thou art a fountain always full and overflowing: thou art a fire always burning, and never decaying. Wherefore if I cannot draw out of the fulness of the fountain, nor drink my fill, I will at least set my mouth to the orifice of this heavenly well, that so I may draw from thence, some small drop to refresh my thirst, to the end that I may not be wholly dried up. ”

“ Surely there is no greater gift to a man than that which turns all his aims into parching lips and all life into a fountain.And in this lies my honour and my reward,— That whenever I come to the fountain to drink I find the living water itself thirsty ”

“ The ascent is constant and rather steep; but the mountain air gave me fresh vigour, and I reached the fountain (three miles) without the slightest fatigue. It is prettily situated in a kind of pleasure-ground, with shaded walks and pleasant benches for promenade or repose, while taking the waters. The water itself did not convey to my olfactory nerves that decided odour of sulphuretted hydrogen which Dr. Dordonville maintains it does. It certainly tastes somewhat different from the Pouhon, and they urge you to swallow it quickly, lest the malodorous gas should escape. ”

“ I have watched you as you frolicked around that fountain,—so many young, bright faces, all looking so happy,—and I said to myself, When the time comes for us to gather around that fountain of living water which is before the throne of God, I wonder if one of these boys and girls will be missing—one of them? Oh, children, I pray God that you may all be there, every one. ”

“ Doing this, we shall find the mysterious stranger seated beside a clear sparkling fountain, situated a little way within the grove, that, first forming itself into a little pellucid lake in the midst of the greensward, afterwards glided away down a mossy channel bedecked with primroses.
All alone by this fountain sat the young lady, looking, in her surpassing features and the exquisite symmetry of her light and graceful form, the very nymph of the crystal waters of the spring—the goddess of the grove. ”

“ The most prodigious fact in connection with this wonderful fountain, when its legendary origin is contemplated, is its size, its abounding life, the great volume of its waters. A well which discharges twenty-one tons of water per minute, which feeds an artificial lake and runs a mill, and has cured unnumbered thousands of human beings of their ills for hundreds of years, is surely one of the wonders of the world, to which even mystic legend can only add one marvel more. ”

“ His fountain is not a fanciful conceit but a rich and peaceful artistic creation. An enchanter's wand has checked the horses in mid-career, and here they remain, motionless, for all their movement, under the shadow of the leafy basin, part of a beautiful whole that must never be broken. This is one of those rare compositions in which the artist has most happily achieved the second essential in a fountain, that it should be a thing of beauty, a source of delight to the eye and ear. ”

“ It has a fountain in the centre, and some effort at adornment has been made by fencing in the flower-plats. The pilgrimage of women and children to and from the fountain with their water-jars is an endless one. ”

“ There's a fountain in the Court of Fairy Tales:
Beauty thrones upon the Beast and water pours,
Down it slips and slides and shivers,
O'er the circling brim it quivers,
Thin as melting ice in spring,
Clear as sheets of elfin glass,
Drops in crystal filigree,
And flashes in the basin as you pass.
⁠Curving curbs the waters stay,
⁠Wrought with figures ashen-grey. ”

“ Here and there, I heard the murmur and tinkle of a fountain; and I passed by quiet ponds and lakelets, dark green in the shadow of overhanging trees. One of these sheets of water—or rather the streamlet into which it narrows at one end—is completely overgrown with white lotus flowers; and a sight more exquisitely beautiful cannot be imagined. It burst upon me suddenly, as I came out of a long, dark avenue; and, at first, I could not make out what that white splendour was. It seemed to float like a luminous summer cloud, like a snowy drift of morning mist. ”

“ In the small formal garden a fountain looks well at the intersection of the paths in the center of the quarters. It is not necessary to have an ornate fountain, for the real charm of a fountain consists in the upward plume of spray that glistens in the sunshine, that turns to pearls in the moonlight, and that always charms the eye of man and delights the neighboring flowers with its spray blown by the breeze. ”

“ I have seen the whole body of the wave rise in one white, vertical, broad fountain, eighty feet above the sea, half of it beaten so fine as to be borne away by the wind, the rest turning in the air when exhausted, and falling back with a weight and crash like that of an enormous waterfall. ”

“ But nothing is so welcome in a thirsty land as a fountain. Hence there is appropriateness in the many fountains of this Exposition, which reflects in its plan the walled cities of the Orient of the Mediterranean, where fountains play in the courts of palaces, in public squares and niches in the walls; and pools lie by the mosques, and in the gardens.
Here are many kinds of fountains, from huge masses of sculpture spouting forth many powerful streams in the sun to terraced basins where water murmurs in quiet alcoves, and simple jets tinkling in summery courts. ”

“ The figures supporting the basins and the creatures in the pools of each fountain are merely decorative. The play of water in these fountains is joyous and delightful. The purpose of a fountain is well and adequately fulfilled. ”

“ The fountains, like the shades in which they are embowered, are rapidly going to decay: the bronze Venus, at the fountain which takes its name from Don John of Austria, has lost her arm.
Notwithstanding the dreariness of the season with all its accompaniment of dry leaves and faded herbage, this historic garden had still charms; the air was mild, and the sunbeams played on the Tagus, and many a bird flitted from spray to spray. ”

“ The above named Gentleman did drinke the water of this Fountaine every yeare after all his life time, for helping his infirmities, and maintaining of his health, and would oftentimes say and averre, that it was much better, and did excell the tart fountaines beyond the seas, as being more quicke and lively, and fuller of minerall spirits; effecting his operation more speedily, and sooner passing through the body. ”