Bismarck weekly tribune., 1888-09-28
THE DANGEROUS wAsAERwomAN.
How Disease Germs Arc Distributed-A
Timely Hint to City Peonle.

How Disease Germs Arc Distributed-A
Timely Hint to City People.
To the average American housekeeper tho
weekly wash day is a constantly recurring
trial Of patience. Every domestic arrange
ment must give way to it. OF course in those
families where several servants are employed
and there are conveniences for laundry pur-
poses the day is one of less hardship The
great majority Of the middle classes, how
ever, are forced to be content with one SER
want girl, who is generally assisted by
washerwoman That humble and very use
full individual deserves greater consideration
than is usually given her. Where she comes
from is, as general thing, matter of alb
solute indifference to the housekeeper, aslong
as her charges are as low as possible. That
she is very poor all know, for no one would
s'do washing" unless in needy circumstances
Very probably she lives in cheap tenement
or in the cellar of some rookery in the slums
Of the city. Now. it is these very places
which are the hotbeds Of contagious and in
fictitious diseases, and consequently the center
of distribution of disease germs.
An instance of the truth Of this statement
will be given, one which will also show how
such diseases may be attributed to the wrong
source. At the south end, on SWEET street,
there is a row Of ramshackle houses, called by
the neighbors "Buttermilk block" The in
habitants are mostly ragpickers, who ply
their vocation on the neighboring dump"
where the ashes and refuse collected by the
city wagons are deposited. The health au-
thorities have condemned the block time and
time again as unfit to live in. Somehow or
other, however, it is still occupied. Some
four years ago family living on West New
ff,v, ctr r1v
woman who lived in this Buttermi]k block.
The eldest daughter was first attacked with
typhoid fever and died Then the second
daughter had it and died. The father also
fell victim to the fever, but fortunately re-
covered. The physician in attendance as
cribed the trouble to defective drainage, and,
although the work had been done by COM
petent plumber, all the piping in the house
was torn out and replaced at On expense of
several hundred dollars.
In the worry incident to the sickness in the
house, the fact that the washerwoman had
stopped coming every week, as was her won't,
was not noticed; some months later it was
learned that she had died of typhoid fever.
Further inquiries developed the fact that
while she was washing for the unfortunate
family there were three cases of fever in the
house where she lived, and two Of them
proved fatal Now there is no doubt but that
she was in the early stage of the disease when
she came to her employers house for the last
time, and that she left there the germs from
which sprung the fever that cost two lives in
his family. This is but one instance of the
danger which is incurred by hiring washer
women indiscriminately. It is safe to say
that if the housekeeper in question had gone
to the place where the woman lived, and had
seen the filth and squalor with which she was
surrounded, she would not have employed
her. All these possibilities of danger are
calmly overlooked by the majority who
patromze these people, and still, by paying
them starvation wages for their work, they
compel them to live in wretched places, and
so, almost from necessity, become the bear
ers of disease The whole thing is wrong.
For very little more than is paid to the wash
erwoman the heavy family washing can be
done alta steam laundry, and only the smaller.
and delicate pieces need be washed and
ironed in the house.-Boston Herald.