Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-01-17
rha senerInr Of Country Towns.

EslL CAOuA ACeAACA1 nv - 1---e%--
cities on in large villages to make it
appropriate for US to call attention to
a question that is more important Tor
ali communities than any other that
affects their material welfare.
We refer to the much neglected but
all important question Of domestic
wastes perhaps we shall be more
clearly comprehended if we say do
,ylestic tflth.n 1t is not necessary for
us to specify the sources Of this aH-
peryading enemy. Everything OF an
organic character that we heedlessly
throw away, or that we try, with
more or less care, to hide from our
sipbt and 10 remove from our smell,
to0ether with the soIled water OF our
kitchens and of the household geneT-
rlly-aIl these combine to surround
us with danger, and to deal death in
our midst.
Our domestic habits are generally
formed on the model of the last centu-
tury they are only covered with the
tinsel OF the present, and made to
COMPASS more of superficial luxury.
OF course. even our domestic habits
are improying. We mean this when
we say that they are fully up with the
civilization of hundred years ago.
We no longer carpet our banqueting
halls with fresh layer of clean straw,
covering the old when that has be-
come too full of the crumbs that have
fallen from our tables, and with the
WeII-lickeb bones that our dogs have
rejected we change our linen often
er than our erandfather's grandfather
did we use another means OF clean
illness than the burning ofincense and
the application Of perfumes, trying to
avoid rather than to overcome Otfen-
siye odors and we have regard for
personal deeency that did not aetuate
our ancestors Of the middle ages.
How generally we have advanced
beyond this point let those answer
who know the secret Of our domestic
life, outside of the few large cities In
which a copions water supply and
thorough sewerage make it easier to
be clean than to be filthy. Take the
case of the richest man in a city Of
ten thousand inhabitants. with his
fine house, his plate glass, his
lace-curtains, carpets, gas, hot water,
and furnace, exquisite furniture. and
manifold luxury (; how does he dis
pose of his kitchen-wastes and his up
stairs slops, and where do the flush
ings of his bathroom aud closet dis
charge themselves i? Within the mar
row limits Of his quarter-acre lot,
which contains his drinking water
well, and which is near 70 the wells
of his neighbors, all this abOminable
filth is stored, out of sight and smell;
in a hole in the ground, but leaking
its LIQUID poison into the springy
strata of the soil, and sending its gra-
gaseous poison through the waste
pipes and drain-pipes into the house
itself. If this is the condition Of the
rich mans house, in the fashionable
quarter of the town, what is that Of
the poorer classes, living in the poor
ly-built houses that are crowded into
the lower street and the back-alleys ?
We all know how the town is suffius-
ed with the odors of pig-sties, slaugh-
and offensive manufacto-
ries.
1t is In this way that rich and poor
alike create and foster typhoid fever
and other fatal diseases that owe their
deadly power entirely to our old time
neglect of the now well-known laws
of that cleanliness which Is next
to godliness, and which alone in
cludes the providence that save US
from the disease and death that have
been set up TO warn US of the danger
of poisoning Gods pure air with the
foul emanations of our wastes, and OF
pouring their fatal essences into the
crystal springs He hath so bountifully
supplied for our use.
Let us all consider whether 1t
would not be well, if need be, to melt
down some of our silver plate, and to
pawn our Jewels and velvet carpets,
70 provide, forthwith, for the adoption
Of the most perfect means of cleanli-
ness that we can now induce our COM
munities to accept. Sewers coupled
with an abundant water-supplY), if
thew are well arranged and we'll ven
tilated, although shamefully wasteful,
are at least cleanly. They may be
made to remove the sources Of our
greatest danger beyond the unsafe
limits of our towns, and their con-
struction should keep pace with the
of water, and these
in ali cases, take precedence
Of gas, paving. curbing, public parks.
new eourt-houses, handsome churches
and handsome residences. First
pure, then comfortable, should be
our motto.
But while we farmers are thus criti-
nising the whited sepulchers OF our
urban cousins, let us not forget the
pool of slops at our own back-doors,
nor the pestiferOus "eonVenienees" at
the bottom of our gardens, and let US
not fail to compare our own beam
with onr neighbours mOte.-Hedrth
and Home.