The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-09-18
FOR MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS.

able most of us to spend more time
in the open, and thus, in sunshine
and fresh air, to lay that store of
good health which will be the surest
means of avoiding serious ills when
the colder months comes round again.
Last winter was so unusually damp
and trying that it should teach us to
value the all too short summer as
we'll as to avail ourselves of its OPP
portunities. Winter good health, in
deed, is as often as not the bottled
sunshine" that the system stored up
during the long bright days of sum-
mer when it was not only possible but
delightful to be in the open air from
early morning till bedtime.
'All very WE'LL" the busy housewife
remarks, but l just wonder how the
house would be run, the meals served
up to time, the laundry, needlework
and mending got through, If adopted
the outdoor habit, and kept trapessing
round from morn to night"
And yet, Madame Housewife, it is
for you that the above suggestion is
primarily intended. AS a general
rule no member of the family obtains
less fresh air than the house-mOther
who, perhaps, needs it as much as, If
not more than, those to whose COM
fort she ministers. The young peo-
pie, brought up in a generation ardent
ly devoted to the cult of the outdoor
life, are not very likely to spend their
leisure moping indoors and may be
left to take care of themselves. The
same applies to the master of the
house; he walks, cycles, or motors to
his Office or place of business. In the
evening he returns, care-free, let us
hope; if active exercise does not ap-
peal to him, he is wise enough to read
his evening paper out of doors sitting
in the cool freshness of garden or
lawn. What if he doze over the latest
news, what if he lay aside the paper
to listen to the vesper chanters in the
trees overhead and to breathe in the
air, dew-sweet with musk of rose and
carnation-it is a soothing and re-
building process for brain and nerve.
His clerk follows much the same
routine. He, too, has his morning and
evening walk or spin" to hearten him
through the working hours. BOSS"
and clerk alike enjoy an annual holt
day, lazy restful month or fortnight
in which to forget and lay aside bust
ness cares and worries.
But" somebody protests, "the
house-mother, as you call her, has her
holiday, too"
True, but what kind of holiday?
With all the boys and girls gathered
under the parental roof-tree-the lat
ter, for the nonce, more or less incon-
veniently represented by seaside
lodge or country cottage-are not
catering and other domestic concerns
trebled? Is not hospitality often
strained to almost breaking point to
accommodate the unexpected guest,
and this, mayhap, miles from shop or
market? And when, there are small
children in the family, are not the
mothers hands still fuller? If she
gets out into the air at all, she is
really too tired to benefit or appre-
ciate.
Instead, therefore, of depending on
her holiday CD for sunshine and
fresh air, the housewife should &C
custom herself to do as much as pos
sible of her work in the open air, and
this is practicable wherever there is
garden or lawn, however small. Not
only knitting, needlework, and letter
writing may thus be pleasantly got
through; such homely tasks as she'll
ing peas, slicing beans, hulling and
preparing fruit for tart or jam, may
also be done in the open with the
comforting certainty that sunshine is
being bottled while household duties
are in progress.
Another fresh air habit worth &C.
quiring is to keep the bedroom win
dows open at night; if this practice is
begun now it will have become Sec
ond nature by winter time to the great
betterment of health and energy 1t
is extraordinary how careless people
are with regard to the night ventila-
ton of sleeping rooms, whereas
both common sense and fastidiousness
point to it's necessity. Now, bed
room may be as dainty and spotless
as hands can make it, yet, if the win
dows are closed during the night, the
air must become vitiated and impure
and therefore hurtful to the sleeper
One has only to go straight from the
fresh morning air into such a room
to discover how absolutely stuffy and
unbreathable is it's atmosphere. 1t is
we'll to remember also that well-ven-
tilated bedrooms are the very best
safeguards against colds of all kinds.
Furthermore, this nightly dose of
fresh air insures sound and refresh
ing sleep, a brisk getting-up feel in
the morning, and gradually produces
a marked and beneficial effect on the
general health. Old-fashioned per-
sons had a prejudice against night
air''-pray, what other air can one
breathe during the night, and how,
dew-laden and dustless as it is, can it
be so much more deleterious than that
of day time when traffic sets the
whole army of germs in motion?
=