Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-02-18
THE LUXURY OF
BEING CLEAN
The Cleanliness That Is Next to
Goodness Comes High-An.ln-
teresting Discussion Of the Cosi
That Just Ordinary Soap and
Water Decency Entails.


ways clean-to turn up your nose
at the tenement house smell"
But did you ever try to figure out what
it costs to keep clean, to keep your
house just barely over the line be-
tween health and d%iphtheria? Did you
ever visualize yourself carrying up
three flights of stairs every drop of wa
ter that you used for every domestic
purpose or try to imagine how often
you would battle the children, to say
nothing of yourself, if you had to do it
in a washtub in the middle of the
kitchen?
Did you know that to keep "just
above the diphtheria level" takes one
quarter as much as is paid for rent and
that for really sanitary cleanliness
there Is required a sum equal to near
ly or quite One-half as much as is paid
for rent, or 121a per cent of the whole
income? Time, labor, cleaning mate
rails and utensils are all costly, even
under the most careful economy. And
when you add to the difficulties and
S0PChoC OlQdDlc ullueI Iu6 UtSt Ol
conditions dust, dampness and dark
ness-that trio of devils that domi-
mates the tenement-is it any wonder
that the foreign born mothers Of the
poor districts despair in their efforts
to keep UP the cleanliness they learned
in the old country?
Keeping a house clean-it is so easy
to say! We do not discuss it; we take
1t for granted as we take personal
cleanliness for granted and blame those
whose houses are not clean with a
of a kind of immortality. Few
women realize that it calls for scien-
tifc management and business sense.
What ought we to spend, in proportion
to u income, on mere cleanlinessi
Who figures out the sheer money cost
of brooms, mops, busters, dustpans,
pals, scrubbing brushes, chamois skin
for windows and mirrors, cleaning and
polishing cloths, ammonia, soap, furni-
ture polish, floor wax, oil, cloth and
chain dish mops, plenty of dish tow
els and the many other things for
brass, silver and so on? Who tries to
ldSlu WudC u pOOT WOAldu uOtS "
whom the money cost Of a 1.-THE of
these things is prohibitive, to say moth
ing of time and personal labor? Keep
ing a bridge score is pretty simple,
isn't it?
Did you know that there are endless
fraud and adulteration in the matter of
common soap and that the kinds most
advertised or lowest priced per cake
are by no means necessarily the cheap
est? A good broom costs 40 cents at
least, and the fine, soft, long handled
ones for hardwood floors cost still
more. OF course you need a good floor
mop, one of the patent kind, all prepar-
ed to keep the floors glossy, and a COW
cred dustpan for the stairs. If you
have a three or four story house you
should have these utensils duplicated
on the top floor and downstairs, or do
you think it good management to waste
the time and strength of your servants?
You think you must have the prepar-
ed, "dustless" busters at % cents
apiece, and they are good, and you have
lots Of rags from discarded undercloth-
ing. What do you suppose the poor
do, to whom the cost of a "dustless"
buster is the price of a meal for the
family, who have to wear their cloth
ing until it's remnants are hardly fit
ever for busters and floor cloths?