23 FARM HOMES, IX-DOOES AND OUT-DOORS. 



the morning it has to unvitiated lungs a close, stale, 

 " sleepy " atmosphere. 



Let the builder and the ' ' provider " do their part, and 

 the intelligent mother, having the welfare of her dear 

 ones at heart, will see that they have good " lung food" 

 on which to thrive through the long nights. 



DRAINAGE AND PREVENTABLE FILTH. 



The cleanly care of the body and the ventilation of 

 rooms avail not so much, however, if about the house 

 there creep and crawl the invisible but none the less terri- 

 ble impurities from damp, mouldy cellars, standing pools 

 jof slop-water, and neglected, barbarous privies. 



" How long we might live " exclaims Dr. Nichols, " if 

 we could only get out of our dirt and that of our neigh- 

 bors ! " In the better part of large cities people seem to 

 have succeeded very well in "getting out" thanks to 

 the rigid enforcement of sanitary laws ! and although a 

 clogged-sewer pipe has power to transform the most ele- 

 gant mansion into an intolerable dwelling place, it re- 

 mains for the country to furnish horrors that would cause 

 a sanitarian's hair to stand on end. 



The cheering thing about this rural disregard for health 

 laws is that it seems to be an unconscious disregard, a 

 sin of thoughtlessness. The tasteful and thrifty farmer 

 has his fences, outbuildings, and walks, in faultless repair, 

 while in-doors his wife scrubs and polishes, and is a marvel 

 of order and neatness ; and yet some villainous cesspool 

 brewing its mischief in the insulted air, or some reposi- 

 tory of filth emboweled it may be, in luxuriant vines 

 breathes out its poison day and night, and mocks the 

 orderly care of the farmer and the tidy pride of his good 

 wife with its unspeakable pollution. 



Could the farmer be permitted to encounter these air- 

 poisons in tangible shape, could he, for instance, catch a 

 glimpse of diphtheria peeping into the sleeping-room of 



