From the Richmond Examiner, 6/30/1864

THE BASIN. - It is three months and more since the water was drawn off from the basin, and the presumption is that several rare cases for coroners' inquests are submerged beneath its placid waters. Dead cats, dead dogs float upon the surface, and if it was only for purification's sake, the water should be drawn off and the Augean pool cleaned. Who knows what bloody deeds of darkness may not be revealed by such an operation. - A faint shriek, stifled by a blow, a gutteral call for help, a struggle for life, a new born babe cries, and all may have been quenched in that basin of water.

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