Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-04-25
THE SPRING CLEANUP
BY H. Addington Bruce
. HE time is rapidly approaching when,
in accordance with immemorial GUS

" HE time is rapidly approaching when
In accordance with immemorial Gus
tom, housekeeping will be in order.
1t is much to be hoped that nobody whose
house needs it will neglect the spring clean
up this year, and that it will be made really
thorough one.
Still more is it to be hoped that, after the
house and its surroundings have been put
in good order, pains will be taken to keep
them in good order the year round.
For, after all, the fact that people find it
necessary to have a special cleaning of their
living places every spring reflects somewhat
unfavorably on their management of the
house the rest of the year. And, in the light
of modern medical knowledge, this is in
deed serious matter.
Disease, the modern medical expert en-
phasizes ever more insistently, is fostered by
dust and dirt 1t finds favorite points of at
tack in houses where the housekeeping is,
to put it mildly, slack, Particularly is this
true of the germ-caused diseases.
Floating in the air, attaching themselves
to the dust particles, brought into the house
on clothing, waited in through open win
dows, disease germs of almost every kind
may find lodging place on floors and walls
and furniture.
There, fortunately, most of them soon per-
ish 1t is a popularity of disease germs that
comparatively few live any great length of
time outside of the human organism.
But some are tenacious of life And the
supply of disease germs is endless So that,
if dust and dirt are allowed to gather on
floors and walls, curtains, and furniture,
there is always possibility that the dust and
dirt contain active germs of some disease.
Thence, all too easily, these germs may b.
transmitted into the bodily organism.
To touch tho mouth with a hand that has
just been turning grimy greasy doorknob,
or that has been handling book that has
been left undusted for weeks on an open
hpQinninp a
illness.
When the symptoms of such an illness de-
vclop there is much conjecture as to it's
cause. Too seldom is the sequence traced
back-illness, mouth, hand, germ-infected
dust on book or germ-infected CRIME on door
knob.
If for this reason alone, eternal vigilance in
housekeeping is thing much to be desired.
There are other reasons, not least the bene-
ficent effect of household cleanliness on the
state of the mind and through this, on the
health of the body.
Everybody knows that it is easier to be
cheerful and happy in a bright, clean home
than in one gloomy because of dit and gen
eral untidiness. The psychic influence of the
latter kind of house is always in the dlrec-
ton of creating disagreeable moods.
1t breeds perhaps irritability, perhaps de-
preston of spirits. And, because Ct the close
inter-relation between mind and body, this
makes for general lowerinG of the vital re-
sources, with resultant increased susceptible
ty to disease.
Accordingly, it is by no means enough to
have an annual cleanup. Indeed, such
cleanup should never be necessary.
Nor will it longer b. necessary when peo-
pie take really to hea. the findings of m4di-
: cal science with regard to the connection
that exists between dust and dirt in the house
and ill-health in the ouse.
Copyright, 1919, by the Associated News
papers)
There is this much about grand opera,