Bisbee daily review., 1903-10-21
THE CELLAR.
Light and air Arc Naturc's Own m.
 Best Sanitary Agents

Best Sanitary Agents.
 Malaria, low levers or kindred dis eases thrive in bad air. even if the! are not induced by it. and the senEe of smell is gift bestowed upon man to warn him Of unseen dangers in the air he breathes Because the cellar is dark and drafty and is looked upon by the indifferent housekeeper as 0nsl more unwelcomc care the warning o. close. damp smell is not needed until some member of the family succumbs to illness and the house or neighhor- hood is abandoned and condemned as unhealthy A prompt inspection will often reveal simple cause for the dis turbance, and little common sense will easily remedy il.
 Light and air are natures own and best sanitary agents. and Il Is highly desirable that the cellar shoud have the services of both. 4 direct draft through it will save doctors bills. but in most houses the cellars are com pletely underground. inaccessible to either light or air. The windows are sunk below the surface of the yard oI street, making a pocket for dirty pa pers. rags and trash of every descrii'- ton. Unless these sjlls are kept per fectly clear. so that the window can be opened without dropping the trash in the cellar or squeezing 1t back on itself, every breath of air supplied to the house through the cellar or furnace is polluted. Such matter should be burned or destroyed as 1t accumulates. as there is no sense in cleaning out the pocket and leaving the trash in pile above the ledge, where a gust of wind or the next rain will bring it back.
 No one would dream of fitting his windows with smoked glass. yet in many houses the cellar windows are not washed from one years end to an other. and the surface of the glass pre- seuts a crust of soot and dirt that Is fairly disgusting and quite sufficient to obstruct the beneficent ray of light
 It is not uncommon to find the walls under and around the easement streak ed with greenish, more or less slimy stains. The prevailing superstition seems to be that this dampness trickles down the wall and is absorbed some how by the earth-a poor overworked standby. rocking with surfeit for sev. aral feet below the level. Usually the fault is not in the wall. but in the set ting of the easement. and can be cor rected by having all the cracks be- tween the framework and the wall fili- cd in with a generous supply of nor tar. Attention to this one detail will often change a damp cellar to dry one. The only other cause for damp ness Is dirt floor, and when house is built on made ground the sooner the floor is cemented the better for the health of the house dwellers.
 Another remedy lies in the white washing of the walls and ceiling. This should be done in the autumn on a fair dry day. and a whitewash composed oi lime and finely sifted wood ashes (ons quart of wood ashes to large bucke1 of lime) will be found to be an excel lent disinfectant. Lumps of unslakei lime, if left In the cellar until they crumble, will also purify the air, bu they must be removed after they have crumbled. as their usefulness is over and if they remain they merely con tribute fine white dust to that already in the cellar. Especial attention il called to the fact that the ceiling al well as the walls should be whitewash ed. Where the ceiling of the cellal forms the floor of the first story this i doubly important. as it preserves tn wood and destroys the lairs of spider and other household pests that wonlt otherwise come up through the crack of the floor into the living rooms More over, when the walls and ceiling are ; dazzling white the least spot of daml or mildew becomes conspicuous. dust, festoons of cobwebs become an eye sore and the deadly microbe, with hi presidential breath. will flee from them
 Table Talk.