214 GENERAL SCIENCE 



12. As an important item in the cost of living, what are some of the argu- 

 ments advanced to warrant a system of insurance against fire, accidents, 

 death, and disabilities from old age? 



13. What may be used to clean sinks and bath-tubs of the "scum" from hard 

 water? 



14. What is the nature (a) of paint; (6) of varnish? Aside from any improve- 

 ment in appearance, why should woodwork be painted if it is to be 

 exposed to the weather? Why have furniture and woodwork indoors 

 varnished? 



15. What in general should characterize the furnishings of a home? 



16. State the value of a basement for a house aside from the extra room it 

 affords. 



FUEL AND LIGHTS FOR MODERN HOMES 



Possibly in no one respect are the comforts of modern life 

 more fully manifest than in the heating and lighting of 

 American homes. Whittier in "Snow Bound" pictures for 

 us a winter's evening in a New England home of the first 

 half of the nineteenth century: 



"Shut in from all the world without, 

 We sat the clean-winged hearth about, 

 Content to let the north wind roar 

 In baffled rage at pane and door, 

 While the red logs before us beat 

 The frost line back with tropic heat; 

 And ever when a louder blast 

 Shook beam and rafter as it passed, 

 The merrier up its roaring draught 

 The great throat of the chimney laughed." 



However, we should not overlook the fact that all other 

 rooms in this typical farm home were probably icy cold, and 

 that with all the lavish use of wood as fuel in the big-throated 

 fireplace, costing as it did little more than the labor incident 

 to cutting and hauling it, there was none of the comfort 

 enjoyed by us in the even temperatures so easily maintained 

 in all parts of our present-day homes. 



