Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-09-24
THE CELLAR.
Light and Air Are Nature's Own and
 Best Sanitary Agents.


 Light and Air Are Nature's Own and Best Sanitary Agents.
 Malaria, low levers Or kindred dis. eases thrive in bad air, even if they are not induced by it, and the sense of smell is a 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 one
 more unwelcome care the warning of
 a close, damp smell is not needed until
 some member of the family succumbs
 to illness and the house or nefghbor- hood is abandoned and condemned as
 unhealthy. A prompt inspection will often reveal a simple cause for the dis will easily remedy it.
 Light and air are natures own and best sanitary agents, and 1t is highly desirable that the cellar should have the services of both. A 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 or street. making a pocket for dirty pa pers, rags and trash of every descrip- tion. Unless these sills are kept per fectly clear, so that the window can be opened without dropping the trash in the cellar or squeezing it 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 it accumulates, as there is no sense in cleaning out the pocket and leaving the trash in pile above the ledge, where gust of wind or the next rain will bring it back o 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- sents a crust of soot and dirt that is fairly disgusting and quite sufficient to obstruct the benefcent ray of light.
 It is not uncommon to find the walls under and around the easement streak ed with greenish, more or less slin1y 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, reeking with surfelt for sew eral 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 fill ed in with a generous supply of mor- tar. Attention to this one detail will often change damp cellar to dry one. The only other cause for damp ness is a dirt floor, and when house is built on made ground the sooner the floor is cemcnted 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 fair, dry day, and whitewash composed of lime and finely sifted wood ashes Gone quart of wood ashes to a large bucket of lime) will be found to be an excel lent disinfectant. Lumps of unslaked lime, if left in the cellar until they crumble, wifi also purify the air, but 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 is called to the fact that the ceiling as well as the walls should be whitewash- ed Where the ceiling of the cellar forms the floor of the first story this is doubly important, as it preserves the wood and destroys the lairs of spiders and other household pests that would otherwise come up through the cracks of the floor into the living rooms. More over, when the walls and ceiling are dazzling white the least spot of damp or mildew becomes conspicuous, dusty festoons of cobwebs become an eye sore and the deadly microbe, with his pestilential breath, will flee from them. Table Talk