The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-07-07
Are You Ready for Summer

AL JHlS season Oh tHe year HOuSeheep-
ers must all make ready for summer by
clearing out all closets and store rooms
and looking over baskets, bags and
boxes and cast-of clothing, papers and
magazines, and making a regular clear
ance of everything that wiz 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
the rag 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 to 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 a 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 fourin crevices and
| corners of bed-steads, and it certainly
is an etficacious remedy; yet it might
not be so conducive to health as the less
noXious alum.
Dirt in the wrong place, it has been
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 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 filled 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-
| tions of the sewer, while our gardens
lack its nourishment. Out of blacklist
| decay the rarest roses bloom. Out of
| wretched uncleanliness the loveliest
| 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 do not re-
ceive them, they fail in luXuriance.
| Plant a few morning-glories 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 will 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 banshed by the charm
of its green and gold.
Clean your cellars. Dissolve two OF
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 ii
in every damp place. Use lime and
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
rat will remain in place thai Is
( thoroughly covered with a copper nd
! limewash This | know by ten lrs'
| experience.
Do not let dirt accumulate il qnr
! SpOJ Ill your uOuSt, OF let ultSU cl'g ND
the pores of your skin. Battle you-eil
and children daily, and if you O. not
wear flannel under-vests, wear a hud-
age of flannel around the loins aud
change it weekly.
Clean your cisterns, for the wa.ar in
them is often badly contaminated With
lead and dust. At least every three
months the waste pipe should be 1ken
out, and with soft brush, all tn ur-
face of the cistern should be wash oh
carefully, not scraping it hard ,'e
sediment which will form at the fom
of cistern often becomes mingled with
particles of lead, and may create .4.st
illness in the household if not att Htie8
| to.
Cleanliness is the best physici; we
can employ, and his charges al The
lowest, for no medicine is req ned.
With fresh air and pure water yc can
largely exercise the demon of di lse,
and take comfort in living. CO atyy