Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-12-08
Farmhouse Cellars.

So long has cellar under the farm,
house been considered prime neces-
sity that he who would venture to de-
clare that time-honored institution a
nuisance which should no longer be toll
Grated would be assaulted by sharp criti-
cism, If he was not. indeed, set down as
unworthy of notice because of the I'M
reasonable nature of his assertion. Yet
it is easy to show that the average farm
cellar is costly, inconveDient, and
above all a dangerous addition to the
dwelling.
Those who have given to sanitary
science the most painstaking and thor
ough study agree that to insure health
fulnesS there should be under every
dwelling free circulation, and soil
perfectly drained, by art or naturally.
This is impossible where there are eel
lars as usually constructed. In the bet
ter class of houses an attempt at drain
ing is usually made, even when the soil
is gravelly or sandy. although in such
soil drains are not infrequently consid-
cred unnecessary. Yet sandy soils oft
en- rest on impervious beds of clay, and
are at times saturated with water
Usually drain made of plank serves
the double purpose of conducting water
away from the cellar, and to it air foul
with the OdOrs of decaying wood, and
perhaps of rats or mice which, with a
true inwardness troubled by dose gen.
orally furnished by the housewife, have
crawled into the drain to mingle their
dust with the rotting wood.
Sometimes through the waste-pipe
from the kitchen-sink outlet to the eel
lar-drain is given to all the refuse which
can be made to pass through the pipe,
to be in time followed by the water of
the weekly washing. in which is the eff
fete matter left in their clothing by peo-
pie in health, or mayhap the living
germs of scarlet fever. diphtheria or dis
eases, if possible, even more deadly than
these. Lodging in the drain. these wait
to be drawn again into and through the
house by the currents created by the
household fires. In the even tempera-
ture of the drain and cellar the process
of decay and termination of disease will
scarcely be checked even in severe win
ter, but their emanations must rise
through and permeate the living-rooms
above, for in winter the cellar will be
tightly closed.
Built upon the surface of well-drained
earth, store-house for vegetables and
the many things which are now stored
in the cellar would cost little if any
more than would a cellar of like capaci-
ty. Proper precautions would make its
walls almost proof against the heaviest
frosts, and an inexpensive and easily
managed stove would insure against
freezing. Placed near the kitchen and
connected by an inclosed passage, the
outdoor cellar would be more easily |
accessible and in many ways more con-
venient than the cellar can be. The
women would no longer be compelled
to carefully kick their skirts aside as
they toll step by step up the dark and
narrow stairs with their arms filled |
with pans. plates, jars and lamps. lug
ging up piecemeal the stores the farm |
er rugged manfully to carry down |
through the farmore convenient outside |
entrance.
Light. ventilation. warmth in winter |
and GOODNESS in summer, convenience |
and comfort for the housewife, and |
comparative immunity from disease
all these may be secured by making the |
cellar separate from, yet near. the |
house. The extra cost, if any there be, i
will be repaid an hundredfold by the |
relief from toll which bears most hardly |
upon the weary housewife. but heavily |
enough upon all. The cellar is a relic |
of the underground dungeons of an
cient DAYS and a dangerous nuisance
which should be forever abolished
Chicago Tribune