Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 180, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1911 — State of Kansas Bars Public Towels [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

State of Kansas Bars Public Towels

TOPEKA, Kan.—Kansas was the I first state to abolish the common drinking cup in hotels, railroad trains and stations, and In the common schools. It has gone one step farther, and the common towel will soon disappear from all public places. After an exhaustive investigation the chemists and bacteriologists of the Kansas board of health recommended that the common roller towel be forbidden as dangerous tq the people of the state and the board adopted the order that tha stiffly starched boarding house tovel be cut up into individual towels, and everyone have a clean face wipe whenever the exigencies of the occasion demanded a facial bath. At a meeting of the board an investigation of the roller towel was ordered. Towels were collected ln.the hotels and public schools of several cities of the state. Railroad trains were boarded in different lines, and the roller towels In the wash rooms confiscated. These were takes to the state’s health laboratories at the state university and examined.

In some instances, the bacterial count ran as high as 1,333.000 bacteria to a square centimeter of the towel. The teste showed that 25 per cent of the towels examined baccullus coll was found, thousands of skin scales were found on each towel, showing how the skin rube off in minute particles whenever the face and hands are wiped thoroughly. The order means that all the schools will furnish paper towels for the children. These come in rolls and are' about as cheap for 100 towels as laundering one towel. The railroads probably will put In paper towels or have individual towels for rent, and the hotels are expected to put individual towels into the washrooms.