Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-07-26

french wars wnen England plOckadeQ al the
seaports of Europe the first Napoleon obtained
saltpeter for gunpowder from the cesspits of
Paris" The almost universal modes of viii
lage life mean the presence OF large and In
creasing masses Of putrefying matter IN the
soil, a condition which III India is the origin of
cholera or the terrible Delhi ulcer, and in our
own climate is responsible for at least one
third the death rate. From first to last the
water supply should be under the care OF the
head Of the household and not trusted to SER
wants. They will not take the trouble to draw
on the water the first thing in the morning
that has been standing in pipes all night to
corrode lead pipes or absorb sewer gas from
adjacent waste pipes, which have the usual
pinholes eaten through them. LEAD pipes
will be eaten away by water containing free
oxygen without carbonic acid; therefore pure
water Injuries lead pipes" said Capt. Cation,
is quite enough to give the babies collie and re-
new the symptoms Of the grip in the elders Of
the family unless the stream is allowed to run
until 1t is cofd and clear. This water need not
run to waste, but may be saved in frkin for
washing uses. A supply OF fresh drinking
wator for the day should then be boiled in q
bright tin-lined or enamel kettle, for the cop
per-llned tea kettles are only another of the
deadly devices which abound in housekeeping.
Tea made from water boiled in u copper-lined
kettle is a corrosive infusion equal to upset.
ting the digestion in time, IL it does not ruin
the vital economy altogether, like SO much
arsenic.
AN INEXPENSIVE PURIFIER.
After boiling ten minutes the water should
be poured into wooden or stone Jar, covered
with cloth and left an hour to cool, when it
may be put into the filter. For a filter a new
clean flower pot of ungazed clay, filled
monthly, or rather changed for one freshly
charged. is better than most OF the patents in
the market. First cut disk Of cotton flannel
to fit the bottom Of the pot inside. put on this
layer OF clean white sand an inch thick, then
three inches OF charcoal in very coarse powder,
three inches OF sand above this and clean,
washed gravel over all. and you have as good a
as working goes The water must run through
this twelve bours before the charcoal dust
washes out SO that the fluid runs clear The
pot should 1T into the top Of a long stone Jar
with faucet attached, and the ice be hung in it.
tied in o piece OF cotton flannel for primitive
mode OF keeping the ice worms out and max
ing the ice last longer. The only trouble with
water so prepared is that it tastes fat from
want OF air, which DIR. Currier proposes to
supply by clean bellows kept for the purpose
but 1t is more conveniently done by pouring
water from one pitcher to another several
times as foaming drinks are mixed Or one of
the patent egg and cake heaters could be used
In the water for few minutes, and the most
discriminating palate could hardly fail to ap-
prove water SO refined.
COOLING THE WATER.
Last comes the question Of cooling the water,
q matter which has its economical side. and
from personal experience am very willing to
impart the method of checkmating ice monop-
olies. 1t should be distinctly understood that
the idea that ice water is injurious is a mis-
taken notion, imported with other English
fads, like the docking of horses names and
tails, drawing the novels and the '.stony Brit
ish stare" Spinsters with chronic indigestion,
stout women with their interiors in a state Of
constant Inflammation, men whose stomachs
are infamed with regular whisky or wine
drinking and people getting over the grip, with
Intervals weak, tevered and irritable to an in
credible degree rightly find ice water injurious,
as cold well water would be poured over a pa
tent In high fever or rather like throwing
cold water on a red hot boiler. Cold water is in
toierabie to an infamed eye, which finds warm
water soothing, and infamed stomachs rebel
against sudden chilling draughts in the same
way, but nobody feels that cold water is unsafe
for healthy eyes or healthy throats.
COLD WATER HEALTHY.
Who over thought Of refusing to drink of
pure mountain streams flowing from melting
snows2 Not even the infallibls Britons, who
set down the drinking of ''iced water" as
trait Of American depravities. race OF
brandy drinkers would always find ice water
dangerous to the raw membrane with which
they are lined from brain to base But ice.
like water, needs to be clean before it is fit for
drinking, and glance at the sediment
in the ice pitchers is enough to raise grave
doubts of the source of the Ice supply.
One must admire the thrift of the house keep
ers in central New York town who, finding
the ice crop scant or having no way to harvest
it, on cold nights filed all possible pots and
pans with well water and froZe their own ice,
freezing the cakes together next day till the
blocks were thick enough to store away. Thev
at least had pure ice for the summer, and
doubt il they ever found injury from using it.
But the blood that threw off the yoke of a
crown for tax Of shilling rebels against
paying dollar hundredweight for ice at the
bidding Of a monopoly when ice is dear at 25
cents a hundred. In the revised republic ice
will never be allowed over that sum. Why
should it be when a mandatory at the foot of
14th street, New York, turns out ice machines
which are capable Of making seven tons of ice
day any weather? Made ice from filtered
water would be an ideal cooling substance.
But machine or no machine, the honest citizen
may be Independent of ice dealers by simple
expedients. He can take a leaf from the ex-
perience and practice of three fourths of the
globe, who cool their drinks in the natural
way.
BY EVAPORATION IN CURRENT OF AIR.
housekeeper, not wishing to be bothered
with the care Of ice and leo box in addition to
her own work, kept water and food cool all one
not summer by this method: She bought large
porous flower pots, soaked them over night In
water tall the clay was saturated, set her Jars of
butter and other food in pans of water on a
broad shelf outside the kitchen window and
covered each with an inverted fowerpot
throwing q wet flannel over the whole. In the
shaded window, with the breeze playing ON the
covers, constantly wet from the water in the
pans, the food kept in as good or better con-
dtion than 1t did on lce The butter was
waxen firm and the fruit fresher than il Is
from Q stagnant ice box. Water SO cooled was
like fresh well water, and nobody grumbled
about the lack of ice. Fur ice cream she had
whips and mousses of jelly beaten up with raw
eggs and lemon, which l advise anybody to
try before they sheer at the idea. Blanc mango
or custard for ice cream, beaten ND with fruit
or without and chilled. vies with ice creams 10
any discriminating taste, and mashed fruit
beaten with geletine and sugar, chilled lust to
the freezing point, has a fulness of flavor
which 10 lost in freezing outright Try this
before you SCOT and you will hardly 20 back TO
the slavery CT stirring the freezer for ice
creams or the tame havors Of CONFECTIONERY
ices.
GOOD NATURE AND DRINK.
The picturesque method Of keeping water
once boiled filtered and aerated Is in the Port
uguese or Moorish water cooler Of burnt clay.
in graceful flask or cruise, with slender neck
clasped by vine tendrils and LEAKAGE, swung
from blue or crimson cords in the window cur-
rent The water soaks the clay, the breeze
chills it and the draft of such wise il a yelvetv
decoction, surprising raw water as Lachryma
Christi excels last years claret II soothes tha
trritated membranes of throat and the internal