The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1895-10-04
THE HOUSEHOLD.
Give the Children Air.

How many mothers, Scrupulous
in the personal cleanliness of their
children, are shocked when the
doctor or good nurse tells them
that they are careless and neglect
full of the first principles of health.
Delicate children die of blood
poisoning, for lack of good air.
How carefully the little bodies are
bathed; plenty of soap and water;
wrapped in linen soft and lovely:
and yet allowed to sleep in close
rooms, filled with exhausted or de-
filed air. Children forbidden to
wash their hands in water unfit for
use are kept on cool or chilly days
closely shut in rooms loaded with
poisonous gases or eXhalations,
with air a thousand times more
impure for their delicate lungs
than mud could be for the white
fingers. People make no protest
against the atmosphere because it
is beautifully "shutn in with soft
laces, hangings, tints lovely to the
eye and pleasing to ones artistic
sense.
A physician at the national
capital said to a mother this past
year, 81 can promise nothing for
this boy, unless you give me a
chance.n
GA chance! Why, Dr., you
are crazy! What more can | do. !"
Gust open the windows as
direct. Cease to forbid the nurse
to air this beautiful room, for
declare to you, madam, not the
poorest tenement house can have
so ill ventilated rooms, for they
have neither gas from furnace nor
burner.n
Children's rooms should always
be flushed from air outside. Little
Tom and Mary and the baby in the
nursery waken half refreshed,
petulane and nervous, "cry- ee," all
for lack of rest and pure refresh
ment. For the same reason Deacon
Jones and Uncle Sam nod and look
dull of a Sunday morning when the
church is stuffy and close and their
lungs are furnishing for fresh air.
DIR. Mitchell says: at is almost
impossible for me to teach mothers
the philosophy of ventilation. -
The GOODNESS of a room and the
purity of the air are two things
Warmth and GOODNESS have nothing
to do with atmospheric purity.
Everybody knows the ill effects of
drafts and the Importance of keep
ing body from the outside air too
cold or damp. MBut so soon as
windows have been opened from
both top and bottom the bad air
escapes and the new air taken its
place; then shut away the currents
and only admit a tiny bit from out
OF doors, no matter what the
weather may be! Nowadays there
is little excuse for intelligent
mothers to forget that upon simple
laws hang the health and happiness
of their households. Swing ham
mocks on the porches; no matter
how small the home, there will be
some nook for baby. Buy a wicker
basket and suspend by four srtong
ropes the pretty bed to the trees or
piazza, or indoors if need be, when
the wind and sun will feed and
nourish the little growing, kicking
baby.
| know babies who after the
morning bath were tucked into
their carriages and wheeled ont
under the vines and trees, there to
sleep three and four hours, like
cherubS! One delicate baby girl,
whose tataer was a farmer in the
west, and whose tired little mother
did all her own work (and that tells
a long story, was sent every bright
day to the corn field, where each
worker took a turn pushing the
basket wagon. fhe tall ruStling
stalks SHELTERED and sang her to
sleep; and the springs of life grew
radiant and bounding in the little
veins. The doctor said, ""you have
saved the baby and taught all
mothers a rich lesson.n
Close to my own Washington
home, all the warm mornings / see
city mothers and nurses come early