San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-11-23
zed into standing committee Un TINS SUD
iect-Frances L. Wizards Address
Guardian Of the Homo.

The assertion has become almost q oon-
monplace that woman is the natural guardian
of the home. The more she is prohibited
from all external spheres the more she Is
recognized in her aspect of home keeper If,
then, she is responsible for the home, she
should look at it in all its aspects. The hus-
band usually spends there but few hours of
his waking day, while the wife spends but
few hours away from il. II is she, therefore,
who should study the material side of the
home, and all the constant changes brought
to it by the changing customs of society and
by new mechanical appliances. 1t is there
fore quite proper that it should be a woman
who, like DR.. Lucy Hall, has spent a large
part of the summer vacation in inspecting
the farm houses of the New England, the
middle and the western states with refer
enoe to their sanitary condition. What she
has done is only beginning, for she ex-
amined only sixty-ffve farm houses In all,
but she tried to select what might be re-
garded as ordinary and typical in each
region, and she carefully tabulated her re-
suits. More than half these houses. she re-
ports arc built ON vet ebay soils; most of the
cellars arc damp or wea and more than half
65 per oeut) arc too closely shaded and
the sunlight excluded
In New England and the middle States the
sleeping rooms are almost wholly ON the first
aoor, and this h very largely the case in the
western ststes also. In New England barns
and stables averaged not more than fifty feet
from the house In the osses examined. In n
per cent Of the Kew England farm houses
examined the siops were thrown from the
back door, and this also In % per cent of
those Of the middle states. II Is TO be re-
mambred-though ] am not sure that DR..
Hall spoke Of this-that many Of the New
England farm houses examined may very
probably have been on hilkAdes, where what
ever was thrown from The door may have
been deposited further from the house than
if the same thing had been done on q level
surface There Is perilous temptation In a
declfvity. At any rate % per cent of the
New England farm houses had furnished
cases Of lung disease and diphtheria and 65
per cent of typhoid fever. No one can say
what proportion of this illness could have
been averted by better sanitary conditions,
but 1t Is certain that port Of It could, and
the person who has the best opportunity to
consider it closely is the mistress Of the home
l knew a case in a western town where
there were repeated cases OF fever In house.
Physician, health officers and plumbers had
all made careful examination, and could find
nothing to explain the source Of the trouble.
At last the mistress Of the house, driven 30
despair, carried lantern down into the Gel
lar, resolving 30 examine for herself every
square inch Of the wall, and satisfy herself
that all was right After long, unavailing
search she came upon a very few drops of
foul water oozing between two bricks. Caus-
ing the wall to be opened at that point, she
found broken pipe which the plumbers had
failed to detect, and which was enough to
account for everything. This being repaired
the fever disappeared, and the health Of the
family was restored by the energy and thor
oughness of a mother.-T. W. Higginson in
Harper's Bazaar