Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1918 — The Family Market Basket [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Family Market Basket

By Dr. Samuel G. Dixon

Commissioner of Health of Pennsylvania

On a Saturday morning a poor woman, with her baby in arms, was re-

turning from the town to her home in the suburbs with a well-filled market basket In the electric train were two extravagantly dressed gentlemen sitting together, across the aisle from the woman and child. One was evidently suffering with a

bad cold, a serious infection, which the extremely changeable weather had made very prevalent. The sick individual was ignorant of sanitary laws, as well as police laws, for he was spitting the poisonous contents of the cough on the floor of the car. Directly the two well dressed individuals left the train at a way-station and the woman, being somewhat crowded with baby and basket in the seat divided with another passenger, moved to the place made vacant by the two men. She carelessly placed her basket on the floor in such a manner that it took up a portion of the poisonous sputum. The rest of the story is easily told. The basket was carried home and placed on the kitchen table, where the food to be eaten raw would be prepared for the family. The sickness of the baby in arms, and maybe other members of the family, can be left to the imagination. To keep well, our foodstuffs must be .kept clean.