Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-25

changed. Children commonly 60 all
Winter without stockings, and very
few of them wear heavy underwear
AS for their elders, especially their
mothers and sisters, they wear little
clothing at any season, little more in
Winter than in Summer.
Men mostly wear Summer underwear
the year around, unless they happen to
be engaged in outdoor work, making up
, for the inner deficiency by outer coats,
either the so-called overcoat or the
ubiquitous topcoat. Perhaps the ma
jority Of men wear low shoes the year
around.
The result OF this quiet revolution in
dress is that the old time honoped 10
degrees actually is not quite warm
enough for the average person. Women
want to sit around in sleeveless dresses.
| Men want to sit around the house in
| shirt sleeves. To do so, something
more than 20 degrees is necessary, we
believe. If comfort Is to be secured at
the same time.
No doubt 10 degrees is sufficient If
one is engaged In manual labor Of some
sort. Women admit that even less
a temperature Is enough, SO long as
| they are doing house work.
But when evening comes and the
family is Just "settin' around" every
body is thankful for the extra de-
grees of which we stand forth as the
champion. When one is reading, or
listening to, the radio, or sewing or
| talking, 10 degrees is not enough.
How about these homes where they
keep the room temperature at go de-
grees?
Well, every one who has ever visited
such a home knows what so degrees
means. 1t means that the visitors
are half frozen before the visit Is over.
1t means that said visitors shrink
from calling again, even II their hosts
are the incest people in the world. 1t
means that the old home, with its
nice warm radiators, seems the happi-
est. pleasantest place IN the world.
Warmth! Surely there Is nothing
which makes home home more than
plenty of good heat circulating through
out the various rooms. After all, dry
ness and warmth are the two essen
tials Of a house. Shelter is the old
primitive, fundamental reason for be-
! ing of house.
Our modern refinements cannot take
away one jot from the century-old ne
cessity for warmth and dryness. A
house basically is good when it keeps
its inmates dry in wet weather and
warm in cold.
One does not need to study ther-
mometer to know when he is chilly.
Every one knows the disquieting chilli
ness which creeps over a house In the
Fall just before the furnace is started.
Fireplaces and auxiliary heaters
! help, but they do not transform a
chilly house into a pleasant place to
live Nine out of ten persons will feel
chilly when the house temperature
gets down to 10 degrees.
They will say, if their attention Is
called to this, that 10 is the "dampness"
of the air which makes them cold, that
they would feel warm if the air were
dryer.
Yet when they put the furnace on
/ they Immediately begin to talk against
the very dryness of the air. which they
formerly praised. and place containers
! filled with water behind radiators IN
order to make the air moist again.
The truth is, We believe. that the
modern human frame is not comfort
able in air at temperature lower
! than "A degrees. nor higher than rs
degrees, so sensitive is the skin to such
changes.