Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-09-13
THE DANGEROUS WAsHeRWOMAN.
How Disease Germs Are Distributed-A
Timely Hint to City People.

How Disease Germs Are Distributed-A
Timely Hint to City People.
To the average American housekeeper the
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, a matter of alb
solute Indifference to the housekeeper as long
as her charges are as low as possible. That
she is very poor all know, for no one would
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
fectious 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 "Buttermik 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
TO lita in,
other, however, it is still occupied Some
four years ago family living on West New
ton street regularly employed washer
| woman who lived in this Buttermilk block
The eldest daughter was first attacked with
| typhoid fever and died. Then the second
daughter had it and died The father also
| fell a 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 a COM
petent plumber, all the piping in the house
| was torn out and replased at an expense OF
several hundred dollars
| In tho worry incident to the sickness in the
house, the fact that the washerwoman had
stopped coming every week, as was her wont
was not noticed; some months later it was
| ledfntu ludt sut hdu uieu VI INpnOlu lever,
Further inquiries developed the fact that
while she was washing for the unfortunate
family there were three cases of fever in th'
house where she lived, and two Of then
proved fatal Now there is no doubt but tina
she was in the early stage of the disease wheI
she came to her employers house for the las
time, and that she left there the germs from
which sprung tho fever that cost two lives il
his family. This is but one instance of tn
danger which is incurred by hiring washer
women indiscriminately. 1t is safe 10 sa,
that if the housekeeper in question had gon
to the place where the woman lived, and ha
seen the filth and squalor with which she wa
surrounded, she would not have employe
her Ali these possibilities of danger ar
calmly overlooked by the majority VIII
patronze these people, and still, by payin
them starvation wages for their work, the
compel them to live in wretched places, an
so, almost from necessity, become the beal
ers of disease. The whole thing is wrong
For very little more than is paid to the wasi
erwoman the heavy family washing can /
done at "a steam laundry, and only the smalle
and delicate pieces need be washed an
ironed in the house. Herald.