The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1864-06-02
A Plea for Pure Air.

Have architects and builders no regard
for the essential needs Of fun loving,
or an intellectual people? Have the pro-
prietors of our large halls and places Of
amusement no sense of compassion for
the multitudes who throng them? Have
the great and all powerful people them
selves neither pride nor strength enough
to insist upon their rights in the matter
of the air they are justly entitled to-?
Such were the queries in our mind, a
few evenings since, while listening to a
popular speaker at one of the large Halls
in Chicago. Were 1t an uncommon case,
the evil II ight be remedied by warniu 9
the people against place reeking with
pestiferous effiuencc, but it is, most ua.
fortunately for the people, tho rule, and
not the exception. The temperature
Yi.bin vas sufficiently high before the
human HOOD came pouring through the
,h,n,dS sds dSo1s ,ss and each at least four
score br;,,:.ut Jets of gas, and the full
two thousand human beings present. -
Long ere the lecture was half concluded,
over coats and furs became oppressive,
and many we're removed; and before its
close, faces became red, and eyes looked
congested, and visible perspiration be.
dewed the forehead Of many, respiration
seemed moro hurried, while the orertax-
ed aud laboriug heart was putting forth
desperate efforts!
Yet who, of the vast assemblage, real
ICED that danger and death !urked in the
atmosphere, and with every breath they
were poisoning the very fountain of life?
A dry, husky cough, starting up in front,
behind, on the right, and on the left,
now one, then one, all bore the same tes-
timony, and seemed like the despairisg
cry Of outraged nature for relief! We
looked about US for some means of escape,
yet none appeared. The windows were
generally closed, as if in fear that with
the pure and freshening air from without
should enter monsters and demons. A
few small apcrtures above and below in
the walls seemed to be doing duty as cs-
cape valves for the foulness within, but
it we're a mockery to say that they were
sufficient for proper ventilation.
Think of it, reader. The large hall,
with its red hot stoves, its many blazing
burners, and its thousands of human be-
ings, all vitiating the air, and with very
inadequate means of publication, the life
without almost completely shut of, be-
comes little else than a pest house! All
about you sit men who, incon,inently,
perhaps, are poisoning themselves with
tobacco, and the fumes therefrom are de-
cdedly perccptible; more or less of ac-
tive disease, in its protean forms, is stamp
ed upon the majority of those present;
their exhalations offend your senses aud
attack your life, yet you sit calmly on,
though suffering. Pride keeps you from
boldly leaving, as you would flee from a
pestience, aud when the crowd departs,
you leave with them, and then possibly
are paid for your outrage upon nature by
suddenly finding that an ineipient bron
chitis, or some other throat ailmcnt, has
become fixed fact, or severe cold in
the head, or upon the lungs, is the penal
ty for your attempt to run counter to the
law of life sas4s#
Yet what cure can we do7 Churches,
school houses, public halls, and places Of
amusement are generally open to the
same criticism, and we must starve for
mental ailment, and deprive ourselves Of
harmless recreation, or else to submit to
this outrage upon our human nature, al
though it may be with rather an i'll grace.
Messrs. Architects and Builders, while
we humbly acknowledge the great advance
you have already made upon the "good
old times" when it might lave been
deemed all right to be poisoned and
.mothered by human exhslations, do,
pray, consider what man is made of, and
10 your careful plans and beautiful fin
gers give US, who love good things, o
chance to enjoy them without the risks
which nov attend them. Give us the
opportunity Of breathing pure sir within
doors, while We are having or hearts