Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1893 — Comforts and Dangers. [ARTICLE]

Comforts and Dangers.

Many of the comforts of moderr life can only be enjoyed at the risk of serious accidents. Leaking gaspipes cause explosions,and the deathroll for which that new agent, electricity, is responsible is already considerable. Each severe frost brings its crop of boiler accidents. Paraffine lamps continue to explode. Every day or every night there are fires, many of which lead to frightful accidents and often death. The large masses of people gathered together in a huge city like this are exposed to constant attacks from those insidious enemies, the bacteria. The dust and soot and fog foster these enemies of haman life. The ground under London Is honeycombed with drainage pipes, large and small, measuring thousands of miles. Each mile of drain is charged, sometimes at high pressure, with poisons sufficient to kill hundreds of the healthiest men. It Is enough to make us shudder to think that only a few feet divide us from a gigantic deathdealing octopus. So that it appears if we give up traveling we run an almost equal peril in staying at home. —Suffering London—Hake.