Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1914-02-05

cities roam,
Right on your own back lot, front walk
and garden plot
Start in and make things hot. Haste {!
get to work,
And do not slight the jobs you have in
sight
For fearsome agony lest others shirk.
The outworn rags of winter. piles of ash,
Tin cans, dead branches, and whatever
trash
You find about, go! gather with rake.
And neat pyramid, or dump pile make,
Yet do not on this dump, with careless
flirt or calculated thump
Project dead rats, nor mice, NOR late
lamented cats.
These should be buried deep, lest from
them creep
Ferocious odors, CHASTITY germs and such
Things as offend, and threaten with
touch
To bring disease, which, poisoning
+ while we sleep,
Make US depIore their presence all too
much
And Ger this pyramidal dump pile tops
your fence
Implore the garbage man to bear it
hence.
If he be deaf, the City Council seek.
If necessary call on them each week
And by your constant Importantly
The pile shall be removed e'er that you
die.
A garbage can procure-a shapely urn,
To hold such refuse as you cannot burn.
This should be tightly covered by a lid
BY which its contents and its germs
are hid,
Until the garbage man has emptied it
in turn,
So shall the rodent, seeking food,
Find none about your place, and grow
ing thin,
Shake angry whiskers at that urn of tin,
And HE him elsewhere and no more
intrude.
See that no germs unholy expectations
Become fulfilled through chance expec-
| torations,
To walk or toddle on, sidewalks We're
laid therefor
So let the flowing gutter be your Gus
pidor;
| Or else the center of the hoof-trod street
Far from the path of lightly tripping
Or swishing skirts or crawling babies
sweet,
Such as mosquitoes would desire to eat,
And speaking of the latter, if you care
! To free yourself and town from them,
beware
How stagnant pools of water shall
remain
designating on your pfemises--these
drain,
And the mosquitoes finding none to
nest in,
TO lay their eggs, and hatch their broods
and rest in,
Shall straight absent themselves from
our domain.
l mentioned babies-milk in sequence
flows
Before my intellect. which straightway
glows
With plans benefcent for strictly
shielding those
Small people from the ever deadly germ,
Bacillus, Bacteria, or whatever term
May be the proper one to designate the
infants foes,
Good milk procure for them, all tightly
sealed
With sanitary shoppers. as provided
BY Act of Council, which, by some de-
rided,
Looks good to me. since it appears
decided
That our chief end in life, as late
revealed,
Is interference with germaical pleasures
The sanitary stopper keeps them our,
The garbage can lid in-without doubt,
Hence both are salutary, scientific
measures.
The smoke that rises from our Chin
neypile,
And with it's sable smudge insults the
speckless blue
I'm told may be obliterated quite from
view,
Nor sooty rain shall line hung wash
! defile,
When you have learned to feed your
Y fires awhile
In scientific fashion. also you
Should ponder on this seeking of new
ways
Because it makes the coal much longer
last
And therefore cheaper heaEgainst icy
blast
Is added to our joy of stainless sky.
Where erst grew mullen stocks and
noisome weeds
On vacant lots, where circumabient
goats
Strove vainly to fulfill their vacancy s
dire needs
By lunching on the hats of yesteryear,
News items Of last month, and cast off
coats
Plant We garden, fenced gainst COWS