The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-12-11
Household Affairs.
HOW TO CONQUER DUST.

That dust is unavoidable is truism
as thoroughly settled in the belief of
most housekeepers as thatit is disagree
able; is to be scientifically known from
the very different sensations one expe.
riences in room before and after it has
been swept and cIeansed, in the light
ness and buoyancy ard pleasant scent
of the air there.
Every room in modern houses has
more or lesss coal dust, more or less
wood dust, dust from the surfaces of
wallpaper and ceilings, dust from the
wear and tear Of carpets and rugs, a
certain amount of fine, almost imper-
ceptible earth dust, and vast amount
of half-decomposed vegetable dust
from the roadways, from flower-boxes,
from gardens, from clothing, from ev-
erywhere.
At all times unwholesome, when
dampness gets hold of this dust it fer
ments, decays and becomes positively
poisonous ; and this must needs hap
pen on any rainy day, on foggy morn
.ings, on dewy nights and at that season
of the year when the dampness seems
to penetrate the house and it is not yet
time to light the fires that might dry
it.
The rooms of q dwelling-house, then,
cannot be kept too thoroughly well
swept and busted off, in order that the
least possible deposit of dust may be
left in them. The usual sweeping of a
room with closed doors and windows,
so that the rest of the house shall not
be disturbed, is not SO effective as it is
desired to be. The broom cannot reach
much of the dust; powerful draught
of air must help it out by looseing and
carrying away a great deal of it that is
beyond the broom, such as that about
the walls, the shelves, the mirrors, that
dust which is the finest and the light
est, which rises while the heavier
mineral dust sinks, and so proclaims
itself the dust of organic decay, and
infinitely more injurious to the lungs
and other vital organs than any other
dust.
Many wives think that the less the
dust is stirred -ip- sweeping the better
the work is done, and tea-leaves and
wet grass and moistened meal are
thrown about the floor in order to
gather the dust and prevent it from
rising. But people giving the matter
philosophical attention have come to
the conclusion that precsely the oppo-
site course is the fit and proper one;
that good stirring up and then a good
blowing out is what the dust needs,
and that with blowing unobstructedly
through the room as thoroughly as a
wind can be made to blow, so that it is
doubtful if at some time huge patent
bellows shall not be invented, to be ap-
piled every time the broom goes to work,
and scatter all the slumbering dust to
the four winds of outside.
But till this is done, or something
like it, it becomes the interest of the
indwellers of q house to see that, after
the sweeping is over, the dusting shall
be sufficiently thorough to remove so
much of the dust as is left, and merely
to send it flying and let it settle again
The feather duster may have its use
before sweeping in wiping down the
walls and dislodging the all but invisl'
BILE particles behind pictures and book
cases and in inaccessible corners, and
setting that dust so free that the draught
may sweep it out of the room farther
than the broom can. But when the
broom is laid aside, then clean cloth
busters should come into requisition,
and they, frequently and remotely
shaken, are the only things that by
any possibility remove dust so as to
make the removal satisfactory until the
time when more dust have accumulat-