Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-09-04
ABOUT HOME HEALTH.
THE LOCATION OF DWELLING
HOUSES IS OFTEN VERY BAD.

HOUSES 10 Or EN- NChf bRp.
Build Your Home on High Ground-Ad-
init the Morning Sunshine. but Don't
Be Afraid Of Trees and vines-Bewars
Of the Deadly Cellar.
People are running all over the land for
health. Every mans home should be, for
him, the healthiest spot on earth. II it be
not so, he should make it so; and il that he
cannot do, let him remove to a spot he can
render sanitary. OF course advice of this
sort is to those who can control their sur
roundings The location of half the houses
in the country is as bad as can be, and the
location of half the rest good deal worse
than need be- Will you note, as you drive
along the highways, what you see. Choose
suburban road The houses almost invari-
ably occupy from one-fourth of an acre to
more than an acre; yet they all stand close
fronted to the street The result is that
cloud of dust is, half the time, b owing over
and into such houses carrying the vile dung
and refuse of the street, Not many worse
things find their way into our nostrils and
mouths than the street dust 1t is a mixture
of filth and poison.
A house should be set back as far as posi-
bic from the street, and not be inaccessible.
know few that are approached by ele-
| CANT drives, and stand in the middle of eight
| or ten acres consider the middle of lot
| the ideal spot OF course, this is TO be mod-
| fed by the law of the land-a bluff to be pre-
| ferred always. Besides escaping dust, We
| should aim to get as far as possible above the
low lying logs and damp spots, where miasms
| collect. Yet these long rows of homes are,
as n rule, not on the higher knobs, but on
the fatteSt, lowest spots Apart from the
charm of outlook and landscape advantages
of high points, place that OF health incom-
parably as most important. There is fire.
quently all the difference between healthy
homes and unhealthy homes, dependent on
three or four rods of removal. The Subsoil
is to be looked after, and the drainage, and,
above all, good wells. These are secured at
the higher points as a rule.
But what next do you observe as you ride
about2 A large share of the houses, perhaps
not half, are unsheltered by trees. Trees
make house damp" That is the worst
of nonsense do not understand why people
of common sense should be blind to the fact
|
crate it into the air. They are above all,
sanitary in their tendency to equalze temper
allure and moisture You will make no mis-
take if you plant trees all about your house,
only admitting the morning sunshine, and
by no means darkening your rooms The
morning sun | consider invaluable, both for
vegetable and animal life, But do not be
afraid of clean vines, such as grape vines
honeysuckles, ampelopsis, clematis, and lei
them run freely over your verandas and
sides of the house. | have tested the VALUE
of trees and vines in cooling the atmosphere
and know that it makes difference of many
degrees in your rooms When you have
dampneSs 1t is owing to excess of moisture
in the air. in spite of the trees, not because o.
the trees, Drain your land well, and tn,
foliage will then tend to equallze tempera
ture and moisture.
You will wonder, on examination, to finC
how few houses, in spite of all that is writer
on the subject, are free from foul drains
Stop holes, bad sewerage and widowed Gel
lars. There seems to be an alliance between
the common builder and typhus fever ans
diphtheria, for if conditions were sought &
be established favorably for the development
OF such diseases, nothing better could be de
vised than the partly modernized countr,
, house. City houses are death traps from tn
escape or back-set of sewer gases, and tn
reckless complication of modern CONVEX
iences,n that soon fill the finest palaces wit
an atmosphere of death. But the countr
house, standing apart from others, might
easily rendered sanitary. Invariably el
anime the cellar, for that hole under til
: house is always to be found The time wi
come when cellars Will be abolished
If underground rooms are required, Il
them be in the side of hill, OF otherwis
separated from the house. 1t is nearly III
: possible TO furnish the two things necessar
]. for good cellar, that is, thorough ventili
ton summer and winter. and common sen:
on the art of the owners to prevent it frol
! containing nildews and foul odors. II
\ cellar is not sweet enough 10 be inhabitabl
it is unfit to he under habitation. l kno
; scores of these terrible dens that are ami
! ally flooded This is better than that the
be never cleansed at all But cellar
!, very far from being the necessity that it
supposed to be. A store room above Il
= ground, built without windows, will ket
fruit and many vegetables better than
= cellar. Other vegetables may better
stoEel IN u pit apart iipin inc uouse, VI a.
Z, jacent TO it, but not under it.
: entered one recently in which there we
q score of old butter jars each one ranci
and most of them more or less filed wit
soap grease OF indefinite admixtures. ABB
. ish cellars and build store rooms abo'
:, ground, and then let them he kept clean
u barrel OF potatoes that enits bad odor hob
70 death, and had best be at once got rid c
: Vegetables not entirely fresh are dangero
VI at ell seasons. Few people know how to ke-
many vegetables free from decay. 1t is
poor plan to store them in quantity. Pota
: rot has not only caused the loss of millio
o of bushels of that csculent, but it has caus
!, the loss of thousands of human lives fro
y the storage in cellars Not one should
y tolerated about house.-M. Maurice, NJ |
~ in Globe-Democrat