1030 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov, 1 



cut through, she said it gave her a thrill of 

 delight, not only daily and hourly, but every 

 few minutes, to think of the ease with which 

 she could go back and forth instead of tak- 

 ing that old roundabout path. No doubt 

 hundreds of our readers are ready to sug- 

 gest a still better arrangement of kitchen, 

 Eantry, and dining-room than we have now; 

 ut may be some of you good women are 

 probably making roundabout routes just as 

 Mrs. Root did. The new door cost only 

 about $5.00, including having every thing 

 finished and varnished just like the rest of 

 the room. Mrs. R. tells me that pantries 

 are being generally dispensed with nowa- 

 days. They just have shelves with doors to 

 close them— cupboards you might call them. 

 Now for another short cut. Back of the 

 stove is the woodshed. You may think it is 

 old-fashioned when I tell you we still keep a 

 Stewart cooking-stove, and burn wood. Of 

 course, we use gasoline more or less in sum- 

 mer ;* but in winter Mrs. R. is just old- 

 fashioned enough to stick to good dry maple 

 wood and the old-fashioned Stewart stove. 



Inside of the woodshed near the kitchen 

 stove there is a storeroom marked S. For 21 

 years this storeroom was inclosed and had 

 shelves on three sides as shown by the dot- 

 ted lines. This was put up in order to shut 

 off from the open woodshed things to be 

 stored that there was not room for in the 

 pantry. Well, this storeroom was dark, 

 crowded, and inconvenient. Just recently we 

 took away the partition and door, and put 

 light short doors over the shelves on the 

 north and east wall, and she says she never- 

 more wants rooms when shelves covered 

 with doors can be made to take their place. 

 The old arrangement was really more ex- 

 pensive than the new. 



In order that the floors of our house may 

 be taken care of with less trouble, we are 

 dispensing with carpets, and using rugs 

 over the painted floor. One of our great 

 trials with carpets has been the carpet- 

 moth; and I think we have banished them 

 entirely by filling the cracks of the floor 

 with paint, and leaving the floor exposed all 

 around the outside. Of course, the exposed 

 portion is covered with floor-cement, and 

 varnished. It is certainly a big move in the 

 right direction to have houses so arranged 

 that we can keep absolutely clear of insects 

 and vermin. I do not suppose we shall ever 

 be able to banish dust entirely here in this 

 world, "where moth and rust doth corrupt, 

 and where thieves break through and steal;" 

 but by availing ourselves of all modern ap- 

 pliances we can do a great deal to save the 



* This woodshed was purposely left without any ceil- 

 irg overhead, and our gasoline-stove is in this room. 

 We tried to use it in the kitchen, but Mrs. Root declares 

 that, whenever she uses gasoline, she must have a room 

 sufficiently open to let the odor escape up throug'h the 

 roof. The gasoline-stove is also used more or less in the 

 winter time, whenever there is frying meat or other 

 cooking that might make it unpleasant or be liable to 

 smoke, or make the ceiling and walls look untidy. I 

 know of a good many people using gasoline in close 

 rooms rear the pantry and dining-table. But such an 

 arrangement does not suit Mrs. Root, for the reasons 

 given. 



labor of dusting, sweeping, and pounding 

 carpets. And right here I wish to empha- 

 size again the importance of drilling the 

 children again and again in the matter of 

 carefully cleaning their feet before they 

 rush into the house. Have good porches, 

 storm-doors in winter, a broom in readiness, 

 husk mats on which to wipe the feet ; rub- 

 bers to put on when it is muddy or sloppy, 

 and a place to keep them when they are not 

 needed, etc. A good husband will, of course, 

 help in all this drilling— line upon line, pre- 

 cept upon precept; and as example goes be- 

 yond precept he will— that is, if he loves his 

 wife— take pains to set an example before 

 all the children. I know it seems some- 

 times that matters are so pressing that the 

 wife will have to excuse rushing in, even if 

 it is just a little muddy. Well, if your own 

 or a neighbor's house is on fire I think you 

 may be excused for not cleaning your feet, 

 but, you may almost say, nothing short of 

 that. 



The following comes so near the matter 

 we are discussing I give place to it here: 



Friend Root:—! see by the Oct. 1st number of Glean- 

 ings that you are fitting up an up-to-date bath-room. 

 Can you not give us some information regarding it? I 

 recollect that, years ago, you wrote something about 

 having the stove-flue answer as ventilator. Kindly tell 

 how, etc.; also the best way to dispose of sewage. I ex- 

 pect to put one in soon, and shall await your answer. 



Kerrmoor, Pa., Oct. 10. J. P. Watts. 



Friend W., the matter you refer to was 

 very fully written up in Gleanings for May 

 1, 1901. At the time, we had a lot of leaf- 

 lets struck off, entitled "Sanitary Drain- 

 age, ' ' and we are ready to mail them to any 

 of our subscribers who have not seen them. 

 Since then there may have been some im- 

 provements in bath-room appliances. Mont- 

 gomery Ward & Co., and I presume other 

 like dealers, give cuts and descriptions of 

 the latest appliances. The best bath-tubs 

 are made of enameled cast-iron. While this 

 is not equal to porcelain, the expense of the 

 latter is so great they are seldom seen ex- 

 cept among the very wealthy. Enameled 

 iron has been used largely for water-closets 

 and wash-basins; but they are so difficult to 

 keep clean that most people think it better 

 to pay a little more and have the porcelain. 

 I do not know of any reason why enamel or 

 agate coating may not be made to equal 

 porcelain; but so far as I know it has not 

 yet been done. The water seems to have a 

 corrosive action in time on all of the enamel 

 ware that it does not have on porcelain. We 

 have had three water-closets. The first one 

 was made of iron, and painted. This looked 

 untidy in a very short time. The next one 

 was porcelain, costing, I think, about $15; 

 but the working of it was very defective. It 

 needed a great deal of attention to keep it 

 clean. The latest one, costing $30, just put 

 in, is called the "Hustler," and is made by 

 E. W. Fisher & Co., Cleveland, O. It has 

 a low-down reservoir; and when you lift the 

 lever the contents of the bowl are thorough- 

 ly washed by a strong current of water 

 clear out of sight; but just after the water 



