Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1912-02-02

1
ing place Of dirt and disease. They al
lege that 1t Is a common custom ito
wad up the dishcloth after use and lay
it dripping with greasy water on the
needed for anothering welding and
insist that two days service for dish
cloth is the limit
| Now what do you know about that
Tuberculosis and typhoid in the milk,
pellagra in the corn meal mush, pto-
maines in the meat, gravel in the sugar
and all the germs that grippe US in
mothers dishcloth. Fierce isn't it?
Say, it's wonder that any Of us ever
grew up!
The funny thing about it all is that
the dirtiest families never seem to
have anything the matter with them.
! You remember that family which lived
next door when you were a boy. All
the kind went barefoo, and none OF
them ever washed their feet. II was
common belief that they had to skin
| their feet III the faii in urGvr - st
them clean enough to pull cowhide
| boots over. They went into the fall
with the mud of the old swiulmin' hole
on their backs and used water only
when they were thirsty thru the long
and weary winter. They wore the same
overalls all winter long and offered nc
evidence Of changing any other apparel
: DRY shirts. They ate anything and ev-
erything any time and everywhere
| they could get it They used to eat
raw ham with utter ignorance of
| trichina which they would have con-
| temptuously disregarded if they had
ever heard of it. There was ten or
slept on the floor in front of the fire.
place and sometimes Went to bed in
bed that might have been made" once
a week The house was horrifyingiy
dirty and the cooking was worse, what
there was of II. But none of them ever
had a cold or any other eilment, none
Of them ever had any use Tor a doctor
except to throw stones at, and they are
all alive and husky and dirty and
chewing 10 cents worth of plug to-
bacco in day right now. Say. how do
YOU account for it?
There was that other family, the
Perkins Mrs Perkins dishcloth was
white as snow. You could eat off her
shining kitchen floor. Her stove shone
forever with Rising Sun, rubbed on and
polished by always active hands. Her
cooking was a dream She washed a.
the overalls every week until they lost
their rich indigo hue and faded to an
apologize gray None of her kids left
the house for school any morning be-
tween Monday and FRIDAY without his
neck and ears washed. She had pas
sion for cleanliness. Her house should
have been as aseDtic as an operating
room Her youngones simply shone
But some OF these Perkins kids were
sick all the time In their early youth
they all had worms. If they went in
swimming on the Fourth Of July they
| had Group twenty minutes after they
! went to bed and the doctor was running
! his horses TO save their lives They
introduced every contagious disease
| into the school. pioneers of measles
and chickenpox and lnumps and all the
rest Of it. II was a red letter day wh-n
! one of the Perkins didn't begin 70
/ baxl about the time the A arithmetic
| class was reciting and have to be sent
home sick in charge of an older brother
or sister. If one of them got a stone
! bruise it developed into an ulcer Most
/ Of these Perkins boys and girls have
gone over to the majority. Strange. too.
| for Old Perkins came from Indiana,
weighed over 200, was conceded to be
a good man to let alone when he got
excited and lived to be over 80 Did
| Mrs. Perkins is still alive finding fault
with the slack way the daughter in law
she lives with does her housew"rk
/, How do you account for it?
! Science is sure right all of Us e,7u-
Gated people viii admit that and there
must be need OF reform in the "a, of
dishcloths; but then, how do y,u ac-
count for those Pages living forever
fat and sassy in the midst Of dirt and
squalor and the Perkins going the way
they did?