Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1874 — Kitchen-Poisoning. [ARTICLE]

Kitchen-Poisoning.

Thf, recent poisoning in TfewYnilc,caused by the reckless use of vermin “ exterminator,’’- deserves the earnest attention of housekeepers. Three persons died and several others were seriously prostrated from the effects of this preposterous blunder. The developments at the inquest give a startling exhibition of the ignorance and carelessness of servants, and show how liable families are to fatal accident in the kitchen when constant supervision is not exercised by the mistress of the house. The particular exterminator used in this case was Paris green, one of the deadliest ot mineral poisons, and the testimony shows that it was employed in entire ignorance of the danger incurred. Enough of the substance was, scattered about the kitchen to kill a regiment—the only excuse for such an invitation to disaster being a desire to rid the premises of roaches. Very likely the roaches were killed-by sraeft vigorous treatment, hilt, it is a miracle that the whole family was not as summarily disposed of. As it was, t]ie consequences were sufficiently dreadful. The poison was found scattered everywhere —among the dishes, among the knives and forks and on win-dow-sills, where a breath of air might scatter it into articles under process of cooking. Such foolhardiness is almost incredible, and the carelessness of the head of the family in permitting such practices equally so. The travail of “looking after” servants is often a serious one, but experience constantly shows that it cannot, either in safety or coiaifort, he relaxed.— Chicago Tribune.