Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-06-01
! MlisffIlarrtolns


Drainage is for the rich." cores
pondent wrote the other day. 81 They can
submit to plumbing extortions calmly;
but how about the people with small in
comes and equally strong desires tor per-
lection? Are there any rules that will
help them out, supposing that water is
suspected and the drain Of the present es-
adjustment a surface one and near the
well?n
The inclination is to answer such cor
respondent in some old words, very appli-
cable to many conditions in the homes of
to-day: sFlee to the mountains; look not
ehind you'' But even on the mountain.
unless one selects the very top, there Is
still danger that the drain of the neighbor
just above will undo all of ones own pre-
cautions. There must be some general
rules for all, and these are very few and
simple, requiring no great expenditure Of
either time or money.
In the first place. all suspected water
can be boiled, though neither boiled water
nor billed germs are very fascinating
drink.
In the second place, il one is too poor
70 have a drain made long enough and
tight enough to carry every drop OF refuse
water a safe distance from the house,
there il another plan. Have large tub
barrel standing on a wheelbarrow or small
cart. and into this pour every drop Of dir
ty water, wheeling it when full to orchard
or garden, where it will enrich the soil
and make return, not in disease and
death, but in sound fruit and vegetables.
If there is well, let it have certainly
roof, and, if possible a lattice-work around
it to keep out flying leaves, dust, etc.
door can be cut in the side OF such lattice,
which will admit air fully, though not
stray mice, kittens and frogs, the essence
and tincture of which we sometimes
drink.
In the third place. allow no open cess
pool or surface drain to poison either air
or water about the house. Sink it at the
right distance from the house. and connect
ed with it BY drain so tight that the
contents cannot escape. And for all such
pools, whether in town or country, one
rule is absolute. Let every drain enter
ing it be thoroughly trapped. and a
ventilating shalt be added. so that none Of
the gas, always forming, can find its way
back into the house. This shaft is of
vital importance, as such gas when form
ed, il it cannot at once escape, cOndenses
and becomes cold, creeping. intense
poison, slower in action but no less fatal
than prussc acid or strychnine.
II the cesspool cannot be an elaborate
brick. lined cistern, then it can be an old
hogshead, thoroughly tarred within and
without, and sunk in the ground, and in
either case 1t is, in country lite, one of the
most essential adjuncts to a fine garden.
No richer fertilizer is known, and there
are great neutrality-suspicious. near London
treated with sewage and yielding enor-
nous crops, which but a few years ago
were barren and unproductive wastes.
To use such pool to best advantage, it
is worth while to make pile of all decay
ing vegetable matter, leaves, weeds, etc.
- give burial-place in it to all dead cats
or hens, and wet it at intervals with
liquid from the cesspool.
Having been mistress of such pile,
know it to be less unpleasant task than
it sounds, and in the use of all waste ma
terial in this manner. we fulfil the great
agricultural duty of mankind-to return
to the soil as fertilizers all the salts pro-
duced by the combustion OF food in the
human body.
For those who live in cities the water
supply, OF course, comes from common
reservoir, and over that we have no con-
troll But we can see that, once in the
house, every water and waste-pipe is in
the most perfect condition; that the best
and most scientific traps and other methods
of preventing the escape of sewers gas
into our houses are provided; that every
stationary washstand or basin has the plug
always in it. and at night. when infection
is most insiduous, a little water left stand
ing in each. Every water-closet should
also have ventilatng pipe or shaft, high
enough to carry off all gases. Add to all
this the frequent use, especially in sum-
mer. OF simple disinfectants. chloride Of
lime. carbolic acid or solution of cop
peras.
Absolute cleanliness for all seasons
completes the list of rules. \.And if any
thought has entered that much of this is a
mans work. it being his business alone to
attend to callers and cesSpools and all the
other "horrid things no lady should touch"
dismiss it at once. for only Il lady can
do such work thoroughly. Men are much
more willing to pay doctors bills than to
spare any time from business toward over
looking drains. Moreover, in many men.
the sense of smell is blunted or half des-
troyed by the combination of tobacco
smoke and stale air in which many seem
entirely confetti 10 speuu tHe WorkluS-
hours of the day, and thus only woman's
more sensitive nose can test truly the
presence of objectionable odors. Smell
alone, however, is not to be trusted, fur
naces doing their work toward vitiating
the air as thoroughly as tobacco not be-
cause they are furnaces. but because no
suitable arrangement for free ventilation
accompany them.
For every woman who has or expects to
have home is the duty of learning the
simple laws of both ventilation and drain
age Let the location of every drain in
the establishment be marked out, and then
insist upon its being kept. relatively, as
clean as the china in daily use. And il it
seem disagreeable, even detestable,
necessity, be sure that nothing which can
make life better can be either common or
unclean. Before either literature or art,
or any pursuit or study meaning or Great
ing love of the beautiful and noble in
either, must come the knowledge which
alone has power to make life itself beauti-
full and noble-the knowledge of every
law that must govern body and SOUL