Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-23

sides. A large white beth of enameled
metal showed in the room next it, where
jet of perfumed water played softly from
vaporizer. 1t was delightful to lay aside
outer wraps and put oneself in trim without
going upstairs, and found that houses paid
great attention to these lower dressing
rooms, so that it was no penance to make
use of them often.
ovERCHARGEs AND TAXES ABOLISHED.
"How can you afford these lovely decora-
tions?" 1 asked my friend one day alter
ward. I'VE always thought ourselves for
tunate to have ornaments of these beautiful
wares, and you line the walls of dressing
rooms with them"
On which she pointed out to me all unne-
cessary expense, waste and overcharging
had been abolished, from taxes to plumbers
bills and the price of sugar, so that people
could afford luxuries of taste they never
thought of having before. But the charm
of all houses was the absence of unmeanlng,
unnecessary ornament. You found the
walls bare at first after our modern surfeit
of color and pattern, but the colors we're soft
and satisfying in the plain spaces, and wher-
ever the eye needed little relief, it was
there in some delicious corner OF border
uabuLoAAotiOS &AAo
besque, as it might be, harmonious enough
to stimulate, never to weary the sight. Those
enameled walls wore the surface of
Doulton falence. in their tintings of fawn
and silver, tea-rose and rose-crimson, Ap-
ril blues, turquoise, and grays of Vapory
distance shot with rich mellow color, ever
a delight, so we'll fancied, so correctly and
suavely drawn we're all the scrolly and Wig
nettes, the far reaching flowers or pine
feathered branches, airy shafts of cane or
sedge or palm, the drifts of birds plumes
or falling flower petals. With these pic
tured walls one hardly noticed the simpli-
city of the floors, with beautiful borders
and centerS of wood fiber, treated to be
elastic and noiseleSs as rubber yet pat
termed like Persian carpet. But the ex-
quisite and pervading purity of the houses
charmed and mystifed me till my friend
told me how it was secured.
COMPRESSED AIR INSTEAD OF BRooMs.
''No more sweeping, shaking and clean
ing in the old way" she said. "You shall
see how it is done 2"
The knicknacks were taken out, one
window opened, and the maid fixed hose
in position and turned on a jet of COM
pressed air, which, with the force of
hydraulic pressure, swept walls and floors,
so that a microscope could hardly find q
speck of dust behind. The jet of air was so
controlled that it could be directed to the
corners of window frames, clearing them of
dust as with the point of a steel pencil.
Playing on a parquet floor with a waxed
rubber, it brought the wood to a mirror
polish in a few minutes, and turned on a
carpet not only took up all dust, but drove
that before it, to the window, SO that the
room was swept and busted, at once remov-
ing one great cause Of disease. By the way,
all the public buildings and streets were
swept in this way, the dust of the city going
via the pneumatic underground out to the
Jersey barrens to feed the State timber grow
ing there.
The soft equable temperature all over the
house as night came on chill and sharp,
was pleasurable surprise. Never to know
chill or ache is almost as blessed as to reach
that land where never wind blows loudly" "
ALMOST AS GOOD AS NATURAL GAS.
The houses In the block all used the old
fashioned furnace for kerosene and water
the oil being fed through fine pipe to q
frebox of porous brick, into and through
whose walls it filtered from the outside, fill
ing the box with flame alone. Into this
played a jet of vapor Of water, which COM
bining with the kerosene, raised a fierce
heat, which could be controlled easily as a
gas jet. Turned down to the least flame
when the house was warm, it kept the tenn
perature through the "a hours without
fuctuation and without care, the oil feeding
itself from reservoir outside the furnace
room. The same frc heated ample supplies
of water for baths and house uses, and kept
pretty conservatory warm all winter.
A peculiar brightness and purity of the
air struck me as singular in city house;
moreover, no transfer of ashes or garbage
took place at any hour of the day or night,
all going from kitchen or bathroom in tight
screw-capped metal cans by the pneumatic
shaft in the cellar wall to the city grounds
out in New Jersey sandhills.
EMPTIED, SECURED AND RETURNED.
There the contents were emptied by air.
blasts, which returned every can clean and
secured, as by a sand blast. and they were
ready to be whisked back again, flying into
place with the precision OF the little cash
cylinders in shops by the air tubes. Sew
age and wastes were compOsted for the State
forests and the immense fields of espart
grass grown for a thousand uses. For in
place of timber, much use was made of COM
pTesSeu pulpI oI which Gne railway ties,
rails and wheels were made, and houses and
furniture made. The old sloppy, danger
Gus sewage system was done away, the city
drains having no other office than to carry
off the rains and bath water, which was
filtered with alum and used to sprinkle
streets, being clear and inodorous as the
Croton reservoir. One must have seen the
of this new system to imagine its
comforts and capabilities. But 1 have not
told half my dream. SHIRLEY DARE.