The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-11-08

box cars, over-heated boats. They are
all monstrous evils. Abroad and at home
men and women suffer for lack of proper
ventilation.
Patient s~alamanders are we. Look at
US, how docile we are as we travel on land
and sea, not uttering a single protest
against the whiting heat that radiates
from steam pipes and stove pipes.
We sit in our bakeoven homes and
breathe deep sighs OF WEAKNESS. We are
as torpid as a tropical snake and as lit
tie inclined to healthy activity.
Our fats and our hotels are heated
seventy times seven: so are places Of
sement and the shops where we spend
long hours each week.
ITndeveloped men and women are pro-
ducts of concentrating schemes attached
to home and hosiery, to all travelling
coaches to every boat from a ferrled craft
to q floating palace.
Hours and hours we suffer for an out
and-out breath of oxygen In the very
midst of parlor car elegance. Only last
week week I tried to rise a porter to some
thing akin to common sense in the mat
ter OF fresh air.
We are spinning over one Of the best
III IOdQS III Liz CCAtAAA
pany on this line knows how to do every
thing In ship shape style, excepting to
ventilate its cars. When l had succeeded
in getting an inch of window raised |
heard a growl back Of me. and one of the
Initiated products of nineteenth century
ventilation rolled himself like a cigar In
to his travelling rug.
Down in Virginia a certain ferrybeat
brings up memories of an atmosphere so
dreadful that I marvel I eyer stood It as
l did in my many trips to and fro from
town to town. I never heard any passen-
ger complain of the crushing heat OF the
saloon and the darkies were suited right
down to dots. They used to basil in a
temperature that was a good ninety. This
kept at a temperature that Is death to
comfort or health.
Shops are appalling in their over heat
ed condition. Women in heavy clothing
gasp like fish out of water when obliged
to stay inside of them any length Of time.
Wraps might be removed and more COM
fort secured, but the shopper argue she
will soon be through and on the street
again, so she is bathed, consciously or I'M
consciously, in perspiration, which the
first chance draught catches n then
there Is the mischief to pay.
Young women with every need for life
giving oxygen sit from nine in the MORN
ing until six at night In offices where the
thermometer climbs and climbs until the
heat is sitting. No wonder these poor
things leave home at night more dead
At the noon hour these young ladies
lunch In cafes that are regular hot boxes,
- 49, -f11 11-rz 90 -tC1f In ronKnd
than alive.
trolleys which have every ventilator
closed. :
Heat, heat. heat. 1t steals way every
ounce of our vitality and leaves the
strongest as limp as rag. The hottest
rays poured upon US from a summer sun
are life-given compared with the artifi-
ciality Of indoor temperatures during cold
weather, and indeed, until the spring has
gone.
No wonder we round up at the end Of
a winters season applicants for admission
to sanitariums and hospitals; that we
make straight for shore, mountain or lake
as soon as we can cut town.
I am mighty pleased with the article
published by the Criterion and am go
INK 10 quote liOl1 IL WOtAf
the writer knows just what he is talking
about. I only wish had space to print it
all. Every line is as true as the blessed
Gospels. The writer heads his article
with the pertinent question: Shall We
S~alamander?" then goes on saying.
Now comes in the season of cold, of
pneumonia and of quick death. There Is
no reason why the late autumn and the
early winter should be so uncomfortable
and so dangerous. That this season OF
the year should be as it is because there
is no reason in the administration OF our
affairs, but a deadly system that is OPP
posed to all reason. Some time in Octo-
Der the edict goes forth that the steam
be turned on; and 1t is turned on in all
the large buildings in town-turned on at
the same rate that would be half Justified
in Christmas week. Begin turned on, 1t
is so kept until the first of May, then 1t
is turned off, no matter how cold 1t may
be on that particular day. They have put
the servants of the great buildings in uni
form. and we require them to act like sol
~diers-theirs not to reason why. 1t Is all
the veriest nonsense and the Health Board
should take cognizance and action.
linen lOOk at II shOp7, SSPSStNH1 eHS
great department stores. They are hot
beyond need, almost beyond endurance.
Why they should be kept that way is
more thai I can understand. I have had
several reasons assigned. One was this:
A woman when she goes shopping is more
intent on bargains han on comfort. She
knows the bargain and crowds go together,
and that In crowds there is great dis
comfort. Therefore, where there is great
discomfort there are great bar
gains. @. e. D. But this Is not satisfactory
to me. 1 think better of the understanding
of women than any cynical wit who ever
mako a joke at their expense. They do not
like this oppressive heat. They put up
with it-that is all; they put up with it
as they put up with a thousand and one
things because they are SO accustomed to
being done tina 1t makes little difference
to them whether they are cooked a little
more or less when in the shops. But I
have thought of another reason. The mer-
chant princes mean no harm. They do not
know that their shops are uncomfortable
If they did they would see quickly enough
that a change was made for your mer-
chant princes know that they continue 70
reign by reason of popular favor, and not
by divine right.
sI eft ne have a middle course In this