Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1896-11-08

less past and could but wonder at the
widespread ignorance Of the contents Of
almost any innocent-looking glass of
water which no doubt contained germs
of disease. poisonous vegetable matter and
animals-oh, such frightful looking
things!
But, my dear ventured. you know
our filter is the latest and most highly rec
commended kind
She shook her head. Utterly worth
less. she replied. In fact, it is proposed
that instead of freeing the water from
these germs and growths, it merely
stores them up. fosters their harmful
properties and sends them forth doubly
injurious
Well. then, let's have 1t boiled said,
impatiently.
Even that Hortense returned, is but
a partial benefit; there are properties
which even boiling fails to eradicate. 1t
is one of the gravest questions of the day.
this consideration of the untold impurities
in our water supply
Let them remain untold then 1 pro-
tested. Susan, another glass OF water,
and put in some ice
"IoDI Oh, how can you ask for ice?
my better half exclaimed.
And then learned that, fatal though
the water might be in It's effects. ice was
probably a hundredfold more deadly,
and contained the pent-up poison Of the
infected marsh land and other frozen
evils: moreover, what awaited our efforts
TO purify the water if we afterward drop
ped into It insidious, communicating ice2
This was the beginning. Next came
our milk supply. Who would have
dreamed, judging from the appearance Of
those inoffensive looking cans which
daily were deposited at our kitchen door,
what an analysis of their interiors might
reveal?
mot only was It likely that the cans
when 1 went to town I carried in my
pockets little bottles OF the. questionable
fluid which the milkman had left with US,
and begged the milk inspector TO tell me
the truth about it.
Commonplace cans were soon tabooed,
but even immaculate glass jars failed TO
give perfect satisfaction; we found, in
fact, that sterllized milk alone was fitted
for our delectation.
THE plumbing was next attacked. Here
I felt sure, we were invulnerable for had
l not, a short time since, squandered half
my years income upon our friend the
plumber
Pickle hope that sanitary lecture was
one to make the heart Of every plumber
leap with JOY. Twas proved the pipes
were this, instead of that, while all the
traps were thus. instead of so; my poor
wife marveled, when she knew the truth,
that we were still alive.
In vain l argued that up 10 date our
health had certainly been unimpaired, for
she replied that in the face Of such a mir
acle it i'll behooved us not to do our part
to ward off further danger. Oh, the value
of that lecture for the plumber!
Then we learned more OF microbes.
How we passed so many happy years un-
conscious Of their sovereign sway? Every
where they lurked ready to sieze upon
their helpless prey.
"All the draperies were filled with
them; yes, and the carpets and the rugs.
All, those wicked microbes How poor
Hortense shuddered when she thought of
the years that these old furniture cover
ings had sheltered them.
so we were brushed and scrubbed and
disinfected and naphtha cleansed. and
house cleaned twenty times a week.