Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-11-07

The assertion has become almost a COM
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. II,
then, she is responsible for the home, she
should look at it in all its aspects. The hus-
band usually spends there but a few hours of
his waking day, while the wife spends but a
few hours away from it. It 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 he 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
ence to their sanitary condition. What she
has done is only beginning, for she ex-
amined only sixty-ive farm houses in all,
but she tried to select what might Re re-
garded q ordinary and typical in each
region, and she carefully tabulated her re-
suits. More than half thess houses, she re-
ports, are built on wet clay soils; most Of the
| cellars are damp or wet, and more than half
| 55 per cent? are too closely shaded and
| the sunlight excluded.
In New England and the middle States the
| sleeping rooms are almost wholly on the first
floor, and this is very largely the case in the
| western states also In New England barns
4 and stables averaged not more than fifty feet
| from the house in the cases examined In q
| Der cent. of the New England farm houses
| examined the Stops were thrown from the
back door, and this also In 40 per cent. Of
those of the middle states. 1t is to be re
membered-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 hillsides, where what
ever was thrown from the door may hav,
been deposited further from the house thai
if the same thing had been done on leve
surface. There is perilous temptation in
declivity At any rate % per cent of th
New England farm houses had furnishe
cases of lung disease and diphtheria and 5
per cent of typhoid fever No one can sa
what proportion OF this illness could hav
been averted by better sanitary conditions
but it is certain that part OF 1t could, an
the person who has the best opportunity I
consider it closely is the mistress of the hom'
| / knew a case in western town wher
there were repeated cases of fever in hous'
Physician, health officers and plumbers ha
all made careful examination, and could I'm
nothing to explain the source Of the troubl
At last the mistress of the house, driven
despair, carried q lantern down into the &c
lar, resolving to examine for herself ever
square inch of tho wall, and satisfy heI'se
3 that all was right After long, unavaili1
search she came upon very few drops I
D foul water oozing between two bricks. eau
ing the wall to he opened at that point, 81
A found a broken pipe which the plumbers ha
failed to detect, and which was enough
account for everything. This being repair
the fever disappeared, and the health Of {
family WIS restored by the energy and the
4 oughness of mother.-T. W. Higginson
| Haruer's Bazaar