The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1883-08-02
Are You Ready for Summer

At this season OF the year housekeep-
ers must all make ready for summer by
clearing out all closets and store rooms
and looking over baskets, bags and
boxes and cast-off clothing, papers and
magazines, and making regular clear
ance of everything that will attract or
harbor moths, spiders, carpet bugs, and
all insect pests. Whatever old stuff is
| worth using for rag carpets, knitted or
woven rugs, should be placed ready for
use at the earliest opportunity. And
whatever is worthless should be sold to
therag peddler, or burned. 1t is con-
sidered proper to wash off the shelves
and floors of dark closts or store-rooms
but that is open to question. 1t all de-
ponds upon whether there is light or
air enough in the place 20 dry the
dampness thoroughly. If not, it is far
better to sweep out all the dust, brush
down the walls and rub off the shelves
with dampened, but not wet, cloth,
and to sweep out the floor with damp
ened tea leaves. These will take up all
the dirt, and not introduce the. danger
GUS element of moisture. Store rooms
should he rather dark, but if they are
also damp, everything will mould. In
sect powder can be scattered along the
crevices of the shelves and the cracks
of the floor, and it will destroy the moth
as well as the carpet bug. Powdered
alum and borax are also excellent for
this purpose. If bugs are found in bed
rooms, make a strong solution of alum
in boiling water and apply it with a
paint-brush in all the crevices of the
bed and around the mop boards. 1t
has been recommended to scatter Paris
green mixed with flourinto crevices and
corners of bed-steads, and it certainly
is an effieacious remedy; yet it might
not be SO conducive to health as the less
| noxious alum.
Dirt in the wrong place, it has beer
said. means disease, suffering and death;
in the right place, it represents i'm
proved health, growing wealth and in
'creasing growth of plants. Every field
and garden should be a sanitarium-
the natural extinguisher of all that en-
dangers our health; for the earth is fed
with our waste, and the point of most
Importance is, to get it into the earth
as quickly as possible. There are those
who fully understand this, and arrange
their affairs so that the refuse of the
kitchen is properly applied. This can
be done in an easy way if the garden
lies close to the kitchen, by digging a
large hole three feet square and several
feet deep, in which all the waste and
Stops of the kitchen and bed rooms can
be placed and covered with earth, daily
When that is filed up. have another
hole dug, and in this manner in one
year small garden can be kept well
fortified and house well cleaned and
freed from sewer gas and its noxious
Vapors.
Our vitality is Slapped by the pollu-
tons of the sewer, while our gardens
lack its nourishment. Out of blacklist
decay the rarest roses bloom. Out of
Wretched uncleanliness the loyeliest
human flowers fade away and die. Our
danger and difficulty is the gardens
chief need. They crave what kills us.
They ask for the liquids which flow in
to our sewers, and if they dc not re-
ceiye them, they fail in luxuriance.
Plant few morningglories or scarlet
beans over the drain that lies at your
kitchen door, and see how they will
grow and thrive, and in return for the
sewer gas which breeds death in the
shape of typhoid fevers and diphtheria
and erysipelas and neuralgia in your
midst, they viii give you lovely flowers
and delicious shade. Wherever trees
and shrubs grow and sweet flowers
bloom in rich profusion there is little
danger Of these dread diseases. Vines
growing on damp house will make it
dry, and this has been well proved in
spite of those croakers who declare
that they increase the dampness of
stone walls. Wherever the sunfower
blows, malaria is banished by the charm
of its green and gold
Clean your cellars. Dissolve two or
three pounds of copperas in boiling hot
water, and turn it into all the corners
and rat-holes in the place. Buy
bushel of air-slacked lime and scatter it
in every damp place. Use lime AID
copperas in your drains and cesspools.
Whitewash every room in your house
and every closet, and make lime white
wash yellow with copperas, and apply
it to the cellar walls and ceiling. Not
a rat will remain in place that is
thoroughly covered with a copperas and
imewash. This know by ten years
experience.
Do. not let dirt accumulate In arv
spot IN your house, or let dust clog up
the pores of your skin. Battle yourself
and children daily, and if you do not
wear flannel under-vests, wear band
age of flannel around the loins, ald
change it weekly.
Clean your cisterns, for the water in
them is often badly contaminated with
lead and dust. At least every three
months the waste pipe should be taken
out, and with soft brush, all the sur
face OF the cistern should be washed of
carefully, not seraping it hard. The
sediment which viii form at the bottom
of eistern often becomes mingled with
particles of lead, and may create fatal
illness in the household if not attended
to.
Cleanliness is the best physician we
can employ, and his charges are the
lowest, for no medicine is required.
With fresh air and pure water, you can
largely exercise the demon of disease.
and faka onpofort IN 1;x,;,o T4a.xa.t...