Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1875-01-06
Domestic Influence OF Modern
Discoveries.

Though not without bitter resistance
on the part of the clergy. men begar
to think that pestilences are not punish
ments inflicted by God on society fol
its religious shortcomings, but the
physical consequences of filth and
wretchedness that the proper mode oi
avoiding them is not by praying to the
saints, but by insuring personal and
municipal cleanliness. In the twelfth
century it was foura necessary to pave
the streets of Paris, the stencil in them
was 80 dreadful. At once dysenteries
and spotted fever diminished q sani-
tary condition approaching that of the
Moorish cities of Spain which had been
paved for centuries, was attained. In
that now beautiful metropolis it was
forbidden to keep swine. an ordinance
resented by the monks OF the abbey of
st. Anthony. who demanded that the
pigs of that saint should 60 where they
choose; the government was obliged
to compromise the matter by requiring
that bells should be fastened to the
animals necks. King Philip, the son
of Louis the Fat, had been killed by
his horse stumbling over SOW. Pro-
hibitions were published against throw
ing slops out Of the windows. In 1870
an eyewitness, at the close of the pom
ificial rule in Rome, found that, in
walking the ordure-defiled streets of
that city, it was more necessary to
inspect the earth than to contemplate
the heavens, in order to preserve per-
sonal purity. Until the beginning of
the seventeenth century, the streets of
Berlin were never swept. There was q
law that every countryman, who came
to market with q cart, should carry
back load of dirt!
Paving was followed by attempts,
often of an imperfect kind, at the con-
become obvious to all rejecting men
that these were necessary to the pre-
servation of health, not only in towns.
but in isolated houses. Then followed
the lighting of the public thorough
fares. At first houses facing the streets
were compelled to have candles or
lamps in their windows then the sys-
tenn that had been followed with so
much advantage in Cordova and Ora
nada-of having public lamps-was
tried, but this was not brought to per-
fection until the present century, when
lighting by gas was invented. Con-
temporaneously with public lamps we're
improved organizations for night
watchmen and police.
By the sixteenth century, mechanical
inventions and manufacturing improve
ments were exercising conspicuous
influence on domestic and social life.
There we're looking glasses and clocks
on the walls, ,mantels over the fireplaces.
Though in many districts the kitchen
fire was still supplied with turf, the use
of coal began to prevail The table in
the dining-room offered new delicacies
commerce was bringing to it foreign
products; the coarse drinks of the
North we're supplanted by the delicate
wines of the South. Ice houses were
constructed. The bolting of -four, in
troduced at the wind-mills, had given
winter and finer bread, By degrees
things that had been rarities became
common-Indian-corn, the potato, the
turkey, and, conspicuous in the long
list, tobacco. Forks, an Italian inven-
tion, displaced the filthy use of the
fingers. 1t may be said that the diet
of civilized men now underwent a radi-
cal change. Tea came from China,
coffee from Arabia, the use of sugar
from Spain, and these to no insignifi-
cant degree supplanted fermented
liquors. Carpets replaced on the
floors the layer of straw in the cham
bers there appeared better beds, in
the wardrobes cleaner and more fire.
quently changed clothing. In many
towns the aqueduct was substituted for
the public fountain and the street.
pump. Ceilings which in the old days
would have been dingy with SCOT and
dirt, are now decorated with ornamen-
tai frescoes, Baths were more COM
monty resorted to there was less need
to use perfumery for the concealment
of personal odors. An increasing taste
for the innocent pleasures of horticul-
ture was manifested, by the introduc-
ton of many foreign flowers in the
gardens-the tuberose, the auricula,
the crown imperial, the Persian lily,
the ranunculus, and African marigolds.
In the streets there appeared sedans,
then close crrriages, and at length
hackney-coaches.