Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1884 — Hints Towards Healthy Homes. [ARTICLE]

Hints Towards Healthy Homes.

Swill-tubs should not be pear doors or windows. ——- —*— House-eaves should be guttered and spouted. Outside channel Should be in good ord\r, and be regularly cleaned. Garden plants should, of course, be in order, and be properly cultivated. The ground floor of a house should not be below the level of the land, street or road outside. The subsoil beneath a house should be naturally dry, or it should be made dry by land draining. —-Qepsrpuols, cess-pits, sink-holes or drains should not be formed nor be retained within house basements. The subsoil within every basement should have a layer of concrete over it, and there should be full ventilation. The ground around dwelling houses should be paved, flagged, asphalted, covered with concrete or be graveled. A bed of concrete over the site of cottages will vastly modify an otherwise objectionable position; but, indeed, a bed. of concrete should be used in all cases. Schools, as a rule, are very defectively ventilated. Ordinarily flat-ceil-inged rooms are totally unfit for public schools. The space should be open up to roof-ridge, and this should be covered. Do not build on heaps of rubbish, fillings in with cesspool rhfuse, chemical waste, or on swampy ground white h pannot be drained. Thousands of houses have been so placed, and are now being so placed in the suburbs of our towns. Pigsties should ever be kept at a distance; and, where pigs are kept, there should should 'be rigid cleanliness. Improperly keeping pigs has caused much more human sickness and destroyed more life than all the battles the country has been engaged in. Nurseries and children’s rooms should be permanently ventilated. Dormitories for children should have ample ventilation; clothe the children warmly, cover the beds warmly, prevent direct draughts, and the cold air will not injure. A site excavated on the side of a hill or steep bank is liable to be dangerous, as external ventilation may be defective, and the subsoil water from above may soak toward and beneath -suchhouses. Middens, ash-pits and cesspools, if at the back, must also taint such basements. Avoid flue ventilation of every sort; let the fresh air come in direct as possible. Night air is the only air you can have at night, so do not fear it. Dread foul, because tainted, air manufactured witlrn the rooms. Any outside fresh air is better than lung and skin tainted inside air.

Houses are unwholesome from ac cumulated dirt, carelessness and per sonal neglect, as when.: Rooms are not sufficiently cleansed; carpets are left down too"long and never swept; windows are seldom opened; water closets are dirty, neglected and without ventilation; dirty beds are unmade and shrouded by dirty hangings; dirty wardrobes and dity clothes closets; nooks, corners and shelves which are never dusted. Many houses, from the mansion to the cottage, are also unwholesome for some of the following reasons: Damp and unventilated basins; cesspools and foul drains within the basement; rotten timbers in floors and skirtings, and tainted wall-papers; kitchen sinks in improper places, and unventilated; uu improper-phteesi-iKnd unventilated; rooms without adequate means of ventilation; wate i ' cist er n s and pumps in improper places, supplying’contaminated water. To ventilate stairsand passages, open the staircase or passage window, or both, by drawing down the top sash several*inches in summer, one or more inches in winter, and in some cases Screw the sash fast, so that these windows must be open all the year round; if there is a skylight above the staircase, let there be ventilation here which cannot be closed. The result will be improved health to the family. Pay no attention to any casual remarks, “How cold your staircase is!” Let the ladies put on an extra shawl. But the remark will seldom be made.