HOUSE DUST. 147 



We need to learn a good deal more about avoiding and 

 destroying dust, and the things that make dust. 



Towns and cities need more sprinkling to keep the dust 

 down. Much more of the refuse and street sweepings and 

 cleanings ought to be burned. The dust of a house should 

 always be burned, as we know not what germs of disease may 

 be in it. If we burn it, we shall surely not have to sweep up 

 that dust again. If we send it out-of-doors it may come back, 

 and we may have to handle it again and again. 



So far as possible let us avoid things that make dust. 

 When we sweep a carpet, a considerable share of the dust 

 comes from the carpet itself, especially if the carpet is old. 

 Curtains and tapestries of nearly all sorts not only hold dust, 

 but contribute a good deal to it. Those who write on such 

 subjects recommend hard-wood floors with rugs instead of 

 carpets. The rugs can be taken out-of-doors and shaken, and 

 the floors wiped with a moist cloth, so that little dust is left 

 floating in the air of the room. Compare this with the condi- 

 tion that holds after the ordinary sweeping of a carpeted room 

 with the common broom. The dust fills the air, only to settle 

 back on the floor and furniture. Then comes the whisk broom, 

 the so-called dusting. Well, it is dusting ! It fills the air once 

 more with dust. But do we get rid of it? Wiping off the 

 dust with a moist cloth takes most of it away on the cloth. 

 For those who cannot have hard-wood floors, a most excellent 

 substitute (and in some respects better) is oilcloth or linoleum. 

 With rugs over these, a house may be kept clean. Not wait- 

 ing for housecleaning time (that reign of terror), rugs can be 

 taken out, and the floors gone over with a moist cloth. 



The improved carpet-sweepers are not only convenient, but 

 sanatory. 



Many a well-meaning person will sweep a carpet in a sick- 

 room with an ordinary broom, when the patient is suffering 



