AT OUR HOMES 239 



automobiles as power machinery, operating at high rates 

 of speed on public highways, has been the distressing list 

 of fatalities annually, amounting the country over to an 

 enormous total in killed and maimed. " Safety first" 

 needs to be learned by each new generation of automobile 

 drivers. Protection should be assured to people on the public 

 highways as elsewhere against incompetency, recklessness, 

 and an indifference to human life and suffering. Only those 

 of proved competency in the handling of machines should 

 be licensed to use the highways of public travel. 



SUMMARY 



In times of accident and of danger it is important to keep from be- 

 coming unduly excited. Definite information of the procedure to be 

 followed in times of emergency, whether in the home or elsewhere, is 

 knowledge upon which life itself may at times depend. What to do 

 till the doctor comes is knowledge worth having. 



Many fires are undoubtedly accidental. It is extremely probable, 

 however, that enormous annual losses by fire in the United States are 

 wholly unnecessary, and chargeable to carelessness, shiftlessness, or 

 incompetency. This waste puts a heavy tax upon property holders 

 generally, for they must pay higher fire insurance premiums to cover 

 these unnecessary fire losses. 



Death from burns follows at times because of the shock to the nerve 

 centres as result of the pain from the irritated nerve ends. Especially 

 is this the case when the centres affected are those from which originate 

 the impulses maintaining action of the heart and other vital organs. 

 Where the skin is broken in case of a burn, antiseptic dressings must 

 be used for the wound to prevent its becoming infected. 



In all places in life, and under all circumstances, due precautions 

 to prevent accident are to be insisted upon. Indifference to the wel- 

 fare of others is selfishness, and foolhardiness in conduct shows lack in 

 good judgment and in ordinary good sense. Forethought and pains- 

 taking measures are obligations resting on all persons alike. 



Exercises 



1. In view of possible fires in a factory building, what advantage is there in 

 having the elevator shaft far removed from. the stairways? Under 

 what circumstances have fire-escapes many times failed to provide 

 means of escape from burning buildings? 



