The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1889-03-23
MR.. AND MRS. BOWSER.
The Former Scents Danger and Takes
Precautions.

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family if any efort OF his can pre-
vent, and he is always doing tn
!, right thing in the nick of time. On,
, day he came home an hour ahead O
time, his countenance wearing very
important look, and the first thine
he did was to bolt upstairs to oul
bedroom and lower the window, al
though | had just closed it after air.
ing the room for two hours. He ther
came Gathering down to ask me for
pan.
What on earth do you want with a
pan? | asked.
To save all our lives, he answered.
How?
Your bedroom is full of poisonous
gases, which must be absorbed by an
open vessel of water.
Nonsense!
l expected it. That's the weapon
OF the ignorant! Mrs. Bowser, if you
want to die by poisonous gases poi
soning the blood l have nothing to
say, but | shall save the life of our
child if possible. l have felt strange
lassitude for several days, and SAN
ltary plumber tells me that we have
poisoned air in the room.
Your lassitude couldn't have come
from being out to club and lodge
four successive nights until clock
could it,
He seized the pan and hurried up
stairs, and he had filled it at the law
atory he sat it in the middle of the
floor and came down with a relieved
look on his face, to say:
See if you don't feel better to-
morrow than you have for a month.
It's wonder we are not all dead.
Did the anc ents know about these
poisonous gases? l asked.
Not a thing. They never gave
them a thought.
And yet the average OF health was
seventeen per cent. above that of to-
day, the average Of mortality that
much lower! How do you account
for it?
Oh, well, if you want to die go
ahead. I'll even buy a rope and help
you to hang yourself. | expected
this course, but ridicule never moves
me, Mrs. Bowser-never!
Two hours later he went upstairs
in his slippers to look for a paper in
another coat, and, of course, ne sat
his foot plump down in that pan OF
water. There was yell and Jump
and over went the pan, and when |
got up there he stood holding up one
leg, as you have seen hen do on
wet day. What said on that occa-
sion kept Mr.. Bowser very quiet for
a whole week. Then he began to
grow restless again, and one night he
brought home a suspiclous-looking
package and sneaked it upstairs
After supper he suddenly disappeared
and when | looked for him up, stairs
he had something in a basin and was
about to hold it over a gas burner.
Mr.. Bowser, have you got a new
theory, | asked.
Look here, Mrs. Bowser, he re-
piled, as he put down the basin, you
have heard of bacteria, l presumed
Yes, sir.
They are the germs of disease
floating about. They are alive. If
inhaled, cholera, yellow fever and
other dread diseases are the result.
Fum1gatlon kills them.
And you are going to fumigate
this room?
| am. | am going to kill off the
dreaded bacteria.
Well, you'll drive us out of the
house or kill US.
went downstairs and he burned a
compound of tar and sulphur. In
ten minutes we had to open doors
and windows, and the cook came
running in to ask:
1t is cremation Mr.. Bowser is try
ing on us?
l am simply driving out the bacte-
ria, he replied, coming down stairs
at that moment.
And there's bacteria in the house?
I'm afraid so.
And I've worked here four weeks
under the noses of the dreadful crea-
lures? Mr.. Bowser, l quits | quits
now!
And quit she did. We had to
sleep on the sitting room floor last
rght, and three weeks later every
caller could still detect that odor. 1t
was hardly gone. however, when Mr..
Bowser began to sniff around again.
Any more bacteria? l asked.
Mr.. Bowser, if you want to sit
here and die have no objections,
but don't propose to neglect COM
mon sense precautions to preserve
my own health.
Is anything wrong now?
think so. think | can detect
an odor OF sewer gas in the house.
Impossible! l shan't have no more
stuff burned until | know it is neces-
sary!
Won't you? If there is sewer gas
here it must be eradicated at once.
For the next week the entire house
smelled of chloride OF lime until one
could hardly draw a long breath, but
Mr.. Bowser was not satisfied.
have been thinking, ne said to me
one evening, that l may bring the