Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1904-02-26
Constituted Homes.

"The best thing that could happen to
the average home is to be rid of about
half the stuff it contains" says Medical
Talk, of Columbus, Ohio. "a home,
like a person, is apt to become consti-
pated. People keep buying new stuff,
bringing it into the house, showing the
old stuff aside, allowing corners and
cupboards, attic and basement, to be-
come congested with lot of old clutter
that is of no use to any one, but forms
hiding place for vermin and breeding
place for all sorts of germs.
"Constipated-tha is what is the
matter with such homes. What they
need is dose of physic. If the right
sort of burglar could enter such a
house, back up a two-horse wagon in
| front, and haul off a few wagon loads of
this useless stuff, the people in the house
would not be the losers, but the
gamers.
at is very easy to buy something and
bring it.home, but it is not quite so easy
to get rid of it afterward. So the stuff
keeps accommodating. Boxes and half
filled bottles, chests stuffed full of
half-worn clothing, old rags, shelves
piled up with miscellaneous matter
hardly fit for use and yet too good to
throw away, closets hung full of this and
that.
"And so it is from basement to attic,
wads of worthless rubbish, piles of paltry
belongings, that attract dirt, that hold
dirt, that vegetate dirt, and finally de-
generate and crumble away into the
dirtiest kind of dirt.
"What such homes need is a thorough
physic, drastic cathartic, If some
gang of pilagersl or horde of marauders
would only come and pull out, kick
loose, tear down, all this superfluous
trash, then all might go well for a
time.
"But no such relief will come. We
must look in some other direction for
help.
"Constipated homes ought to be treated
on the same rational principles that we
recommend for a constipated person.
A quick purgative only palliates the
case. If the constipating habits remain
the constip alton will return. What is
the use of giving physic to man who
has sluggish bowels? If he continues
right along to eat too much or to ea
improper food, and continues the othel
habits that have provoked the consti
patton, his disease is sure to return. OF
course, one is tempted always to thinl
of physic, just as one is tempted to e
into cluttered-up home and kick abou
two-thirds of the old junk out into the
street, but this, like physic, will not cure
the complaint.
THE habits of the home should guarC
against household constipation. TIT
first move should be made by the wife
to whom the following advice is sub
mitted:
"Call the junk man to your hom
: tomorrow. Persuade your husband t.
stay with you all day. Go over thu
house from top to bottom. Take ava.
all superfluous stuf-chairs, benches
boxes, bottles, papers, old magazines
old clothing, worthless books, everything
, that is not needed.
Trim it down close. The more yo,
. get rid of the better you will be off
, Make clean every vacant place that i
left by the absence of these things. Pu
, on coat of paint or varnish or white
wash. Something or other to take tn
place of the confusion"
There is a whole lot of truth in tn
above. Think it over and see if you
cannot make your home brighter, bette
and healthier as Medical Talk has indi
Gated.