The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-03-22
OvERCROWDING IN CITIES
Dangers to Health Which Lurk in Swarm
ing TeEements.

One of the most threatening tenden
denotes of modern times in matters OF
health is that of overcrowding in cit
les, and the great element of danger
from this overcrowding is not only the
insufiiciency of air in living rooms and
the lack of ready means for its renew
al, but the accumulation in this air OF
infectious germs floating with the dust.
Abundant water supply and good sew
erage have rendered possible and meas
urably safe, so far as the ordinary
waste of life is concerned, the bniloing
of vast tenemepts which swarm with
people. But the cans of getting pure
air, and especially of disposing CT IN
fectious material often floating in it
when it is confined, have not at all
kept pace with the demands of health
and cleanliness.
But when we turn to the larger and
more literally furnished dwellings of
the well-to-do classes, we do not find
everything reassuring from the stand
point of hygiene, for in some respects
the rich are sadly handicapped by the
tyranny of things Of course long
and thick piled carpets afford persist
ent lurking places for infectious as
well as other dust. Certainly heavy
hangings in measure hinder the de-
tergent action of the sunlight, shut
the used air in and the fresh air out,
and shelter floating matter which
might otherwise escape. Without
doubt complex upholstery with rough
ened fabrics increases the difficulties
in the maintenance of cleanliness. But
the usage of the householder in these
matters will, after all, depend upon
whether his practical devotion be most
at Fashions or Hygeia's shrine, and
it may not without temerity be very
urgently criticised. And yet we all
may long for the coming of time
when clean, clear, airy, simply fur
nished hving-rooms shall replace the
stutfy, fabric-strown apartments in
which the fashionable citizen so much
delights to-day.
In one particular, however, the devo-
tee to cleanliness may be unreservedly
insistent, and that is that in the clean
ing of living-rooms, whether occupied
by the sick or the well, the distinct and
recognized purpose of the operation
shall be to remove, and not simply to
stir up the strengthening dust. The
past few years so beneficently signal
lied by the exploitation of the new
germ lore, have seen marked depart
ures from the traditional sweepings
and dustings of a past era; and the
emancipa ton of the housekeeper, and
incidentally of the household, from the
thrall of the pestiferous feather buster
seems fairly under way. Still, some of
the old barbarous travesties upon clean
ing widely persist. The dry broom still
seeks out in the deep recesses of the
carpets not the coarser particles of dust
alone, but the hordes of living germs
which were for the time safely en-
sconced; and among these what malig-
nant forms the chances of the day may
have mingled. These are all set awhirl
in the air; some gather on salient
poiets of the fittings and furnishings;
many stay with the operator, to vo@r
for hovrs the delicate breathing pas
sages or the deeper recesses of the
lungs. Then in the lull which follows
gravity reasserts its sway, and the
myriad particles, both the living and
the dead, slowly settle to the horizon
tai surfaces, especially to the carpets
Then the feather buster comes upon
the scene, and another cyclone befalls.
The result of it all is that the dust has
finally been forced to more or less
completely abandon the smooth and
shining surfaces where it would be
visible, and is largely caught in the
surface roughnesses of the carpets or
upholstery or hangings, ready at the
lightest football or the chariest touch
to dance into the air again, and be
taken into the lungs of the victims of
the prevailing delusion-the delusion
that the way to care for always nox-
ious and offensive and often dangerous
dust is not to get it out of the house,
but to keep it stirring in the air until
at last it has settled where it does not
vex the eye.-T. Mitchell Prudden,
NJ. d., in lIarpers Magazine.