St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-10-18
Autumnal Duties.

Autumnal Duties.
The inspection of the cellar is mat
ter of vital Importance that housekeep-
ers are too slowly coming to realize. In
the best of houses, and with exceeding
care, there will always accumulate some
slight debris from the summer, which,
however slight, is hurtful !; potato will
have been dropped, and will have gath
cred its coat of mould about it; IA wa
ter-pipe will have leaked and made
dampness to be remedied bit of meat,
or fish, or butter will have fallen, or
milk may have been spilled, or vinegar,
or ale, or yeast the cider barrel may
have sprung a-leak and deposited Il
huge fungus all about its neighborhood !;
cats and mice and rats may have
wrought unsupported havoc; cooks and
house maids may have hidden away
their misdemeanOrs with the choicest
of servants the brine tubs are to be
looked into, the pickles and jams to be
taken account of, the years errors to be
noted. And failure to do this involves
IL penalty that March and April will ex-
act, and give most probably good rea-
son for melancholy when September
and October come round again.
Except in cases of direct poisoning
from foul drinking water, we doubt if
there ever was Il case of typhoid ten
dency that did not originate in IL foul
cellar, one neglected in the fall and
spring; and even when diseases have
been communicated by Others, and from
a distance, their fatality and malignity
have been largely determined by the
condition of the air sent through the
house from its foundation and base, ris-
ing in every crack and chink to attack
the weakest and most sensitive-;l fact
which can not b" stated too often until
it has been drilled into the ears OF the
most negligent and stupid, and in some
way fastened to their brains if they
have any, and until they cease to call
that visitation of Providence which is
the result ct their own Incidence and
SlovenlineSs.
When every thing has been picked up
i'll the cellar and ''set to rights" scraped
and secured, where that is desirable, Il
bucketful of whitewash will not cost IL
half-dOllar, and will sweeten the whole
winter and spring; and as it does not
need to he done artistically. any boy
can put it ON, III the rough way that
answers, in IL half-holiday, for he will
consider it fine amusement, while if
he does not so consider it, slight re-
ward will stimulate his ardOr and ac-
cOmplish all that is necessary.
The satisfaction of knowing that all
this is done, and well done, is as good
to the conscientious housekeepeI who is
aware of the responsibility upon her
the life and health of those
under her roof, even if very different
flOm that of summer days
flowers and birds, in hammocks and
Doubtless if every house
keeper throughout the land had always
in the fall to the sanitary CON
dition of house and cellar and yard,
some of the worst epidemics that afflict
us would long ago have disappeared
and every householder, humble or
stately, who attends to these duties
now, us the days of picking
and preserving are over, is, by that
of effort, contributing to the
great work of overcoming the evils that
assault humanity in the shape of the dis
eases caused by receiving poisonous
germs from the air. In comparison to
the pleasure Arising from the concious-
ness of the performance of such duties,
all the mild melancholy ofautumn days
seems but preposterous sentimentality,
aud one who thinks deeply of it, feels
that they who prate and poetic much
over the sadness of the season are like
those who cry over novels when real
sits at their elbows unnoticed.
-Haper'S Basar.