Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-08-09


TO MAX. TROUBLE
small significance, in this age Of in
Inn telligent research, is attached TO the
AlNVks tudy Of the matter Of longevity. Few
AA subjects are more worthy the study
Sof q learned body than that to which
the Society OF Hygiene at Vienna seriously ad-
dresses itself-the art of attaining long life.
1t has sent letters to all the old men in Ger
many and Austria-Hungary inquiring about
their habits, occupations, recreations, clothing,
de-, hoping to gain light on the conditions
which prolong mans years. l find so many
ailing this summer, old and young, who were
hardy and careless hitherto. I find so many
active people retrenching their expenditure of
effort by instinct, that it seems in the way to
look up few of the causes which sap our
vitality, in town and out
The great matters OF drainage and clean
streets are enforcing themselves by malignant
lessons, but there are other causes. quite within
our reach. which may each cost a life or the
strength OF life SO great a gift is to be pre-
served at cost OF vigilance unceasiny and the
delightful wonder is that We live through and
past so many risks.
only physicians know how many diphtheritic
seizures, typhoid attacks and nervous compll-
catlohs come In the shape of patients Just off
| "ASit tltN nave Deen exposed TO all
the mseres of foul air heat and discomfort OF
every sort. There is 10 reason why travel
should not be altogether a benefit and pleas
ure IN itself. Change of scene is good the
rush through the country gives breeze and cir
culatlon OF air ii only provided for by large
windows and yentilators If there was less
tawdry upholstery and decorations. more clean
paint and linen, with the provision for pure air
ana water, which should be easier to obtain on
cars ana boats than anywhere in the world,
NJ
travel would be a rest an attraction, wherenow
it is unavoidable penance.
FAULTS on BOTH SIDES
The fault lies with travellers as much as with
the transporters. So long as people will pay
Tor comfort and safety and endure nearly every
Ill that nature can bear in silence. or confine
thelr protests to the bosom of their families
where they do no good. SO long the present
iauity state OF things will be permanent as the
walls OF Rhodes. The world has been eight
thousand years and more coming to a glimpse
OF the truth that comfort is the law of life and
discomfort, disturbance OF proper conditions
SIMPLY robs man OF health and shortens his
lie. You would think it indefensible for a
puDnc or private company to rob me of two
Weeks earnings and poison me in my sleeping
room hired OF them SO that the effects lasted a
month. But the same thing, done through
careiessness or ignorance, by wholesale. daily
passes without thought. l say ignorance, for
that Is the root OF the matter-dense. incredible
ignorance, which does not belong to one class
IN this world more than to another Asa speci-
men OF the ignorance of health which peryades
society take tue paragraph in several papers
ABOUT the trouble with rats dying in buildings.
landlord complains that there is hardly a
, month when tenants do not send to him to have
dead rat removed from the floor or the wall
ami II 1t isn't attended to they will be COM
pe!led to move out, tho smell making the place
uninhabitable
Now, admit" says the landlord .'that
dead rat is unpleasant, but it does not take
more than six weeks for it to become entirely
inonenslve through the ordinary process of
decomposition. l think tenants might exer-
else little patience rather than compel me to
so TO the trouble of tearing everything up.
olten at considerable cost, all for miserable
dead rat"
L wonder how many thousand people read
these lines without seeing their point This
man and many like him would have tenants
i've SIX weeks lnhaiing the fumes OF a decom-
posing rat till 1t dried up and the smell dis
persed, the penetrating and diffusiye odor'
he elsewhere speaks of. That is to say, he
would have them live in suffocation, with an
odor which will SO pervade house that he has
known two entire floors of dwelling to be
torn up to find its source inhaIng putrefac-
non IN every breath with all the danger attend
ing this most virulent poison, sooner than put
him to trouble and expense
THE RAT PROBLEM.
That Is the way great many, not to saw most
persons, feel about nuisances for which thew
are responsible Did that man know how he
was setting himself down when he made his
plalntlve lament to the reporter? One dead rat
has often enough made a whole family sick
with low fever just as any putrefaction would.
unless 1t created typhoid outright l don't
hesitate to mention so vulgar a trouble as
dead rat for rats die everywhere-in kings
palaces and uptown hotels
IL Is only a few weeks since the mistress of a
9Th avenue house deplored the necessity of
taking up her Turkey carpets and moving ali
her bric-a-brac for the second time in three
months for the obsequies of a miserable dead
rat There is no help for it. The rat holds
the winning hand every time, and it is a cues
ton whether he gets buried properly or YOU
do on bis account. You can kill a man quicker
by an evil smell than any other way in the
world if you know how to go about il. and ali
evlI smells are IN greater or less degree
poisonous and reduce vitality when they do
not destroy outright.
KILLED BY doors.
The London Lancet gave the case Of a gentle
man in railway car detained along side cars of
hogs in an offensive condition about Is minutes.
he was taken ill with symptoms of prostration.
though previously in health, and died shortly
after. poisoned by the intolerable odor. Down
in old Quincy, Mass, not SO very far from
ooHn hudius nay uelus OF the revolution. q
by road used to be, may be now, that distress
to neighborhood known as a pig farm If
you ever come within two miles of such an in
sttutlon with the wind your way you will re-
member and fee the vicinity ever after. l
think 1t was Capt. Adams wife living on the
straight road from the farm, a hard working
enduring New England woman, who began
sinking In health soon after the establishment
of the piggery and died in a decline. She pro-
tested over and over that the air from the pig
farm was killing her, and neighbor women be,
lieve to this day that she died of the effiuyia.
which undoubtedly was the cause of her death
10 quote the Yankee formula those most con-
cerned thought twas only nerves till she up
and died, and then they began to think some
thing was wrong" When the world is a good
deal more intelligent than it is men and women
OF acute sensibilities will not be counted dis
turbers OF the public peace as now, but valued
as Videttes, who are the first to warn of coming
danger.
GOOD SUMMER DIET.
More than the usual complaint comes this
year Of poor digestion, of stomachs enfeebled
after the grip last winter. Acute suffering
teaches people to let every active source of
ferment alone, especially yeast bread or cakes
and potatoes. 1t Is impossible to keep a good
complexion with digestive disturbance
In such a state the sun burns to angry sore
ness instead OF passing sunburn, the eyes
SWIM, the face is easily suffused by heat and
all the cosmetics and lotions known afford but
passing relief. The cause is weakened vitality
which tells first on digestion. Many systems
enfeebled by the unconscious struggle of last
season, need nothing SO much rest Of body