Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-09-09
ABOUT HOME HEALTH.
THE LOCATION OF DWELLING
HOUSES is OFTEN VERY BAD.

Build Your Home on High Ground-Ad-
NIT the sIorn;n: Sunshine, but Cont
Be Afraid of Trees and vines-Beware
| of the Deadly Cellar.
| People are running all over the land for
health Every mans home should be, for
| hin, the healthiest spot on earth. If it be
lot SO, he should make it SO; and if that he
cannot do, let him remove to 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. Viii you note, as you drive
| along the highways, what you see. Choose q
| suburban road The houses almost invari-
! ably occupy from one-fourth of an acre to
/ moro than an acre; yet they all stand close
! fronted to the street The result is that q
/ cloud of dust is, half the time, blowing 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 q 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 modi-
fed by the lay 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 ere,
as a rule, not on the higher knobs, but on
the --LATEST, 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 OF.
three or four rods of removal. The subsOil
is to be looked after, and the drainage, and,
above ali, good wells. These are secured at
the higher points as rule.
But what next do you observe as you ride
abouts A large share of the houses, perhaps
not half, are unsheltered by trees. ''Trees
make a house damp" That is the worst
of nonsense. I do not understand why people
of common sense should be blind to the fact
trees drink water out of the soil and evap-
crate it into the air. They are. above all,
sanitary in their tendency to equalize temper
ature and moisture. You viii 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 let
them run freely over your verandas and
sides of the house 1 have tested the value
,f
and know that it makes difference of many
degrees in your rooms. When you have
daInpness it is owing to excess of moisture
in the air, in spite Of the trees, not because Of
the trees. Drain your land well, end the
foliage will then tend to eQualize te1npera-
ture and moisture.
You will wonder, on examination, to find
how few houses in spite of all that is written
on the subject, are free from foul drains,
Stop holes, bad sewerage and widowed eel
lars. There seems to be an alliance between
the common builder and typhus fever and
diphtheria, for if conditions We're sought to
be established favorably for the development
of such diseases, nothing better could be de-
vised than the partly modernized country
house. City houses are death traps from the
escape or back-set of sewer gases, and the
reckless complication of modern conven-
fences" that soon FIJI the finest palaces with
an atmosphere of death. But the country
house, standing apart from others. might be
easily rendered sanitary. Invariably ex-
anime the cellar, for that hole under the
house is always to be found. The time will
come when cellars will be abolished.
If underground rooms are required, let
them be in the side of a hill, or otherwise
separated from the house. 1t is nearly i'm
possible to furnish the two things necessary
for Z good cellar, that is, thorough ventila-
ton. summer and winter, and common sense
on the Part Of the owners to prevent it from
containing mildews and foul odors If
cellar is not sweet enough to be inhabitable,
ii is unfit to be under habitation. [ know
SORES Of these terrible dens that are annu-
ally flooded This is better than that they
be never cleansed at all But cellar is
very far from being the necessity that it is
supposed to be. A store room above tho
ground, built without windows, will keep
fruit and many vegetables better than a
cellar. Other vegetables may better be
stored in pit apart from the house, or adj
jacent to it, but not under it.
1 entered one recently in which there were
q score of old butter jars, each one rancid,
and most of them more or less filled with
soap grease of indefinite admixtures. Abol-
ISL cellars and build store rooms above
ground, and then let them be kept clean. A
barrel of potatoes that emits a bad odor holds
death, and had best be at once got rid of.
Vegetables not entirely fresh are dangerous
at all seasons Few people know how to keep
many vegetables free from decay. 1t is
poor plan to store them in quantity. Fotato
rot has not only caused the loss Of millions
of bushels Of that esculent, but it has caused
the loss of thousands of human lives from
the storage in cellars. Not one should be-