CONVICT LABOK FOB KOAD WORK. 125 



purpose, but at the large camps a longer time is necessary. After 

 being laundered, the clothing is sorted and placed in pigeonholes or 

 on shelves until given out again at the end of the week. Necessary 

 clothing repairs are made by the laundrymen. At a few camps there 

 are no definite rules in regard to washing the clothes, and each man 

 does his own wash in his leisure time. In such cases Sunday morning 

 usually is chosen for laundry work, but there is no assurance that all 

 the men are desirous of keeping their clothing decently clean. 



The better camps provide laundry sheds or tents equipped with 

 clothes-washing machines, scrubbing boards, wringers, and other 

 paraphernalia. Water is heated in iron heaters made especially for 

 the purpose and consisting of a firebox and large iron caldron. Boil- 

 ing water is drawn from the heaters into metal tubs, in which the 

 clothes are washed with soap. Lines are strung in the sim for the pur- 

 pose of drying the clothes. In other cases the laundry rooms are 

 provided with coojsstoves, on which water is heated in wash boilers 

 or metal tubs. 



At one camp a ditch was dug from a rapidly-flowing mountain 

 stream to the laundry tent, and then led back to the stream at a 

 point lower down. By this means a plentiful supply of running 

 water was obtained easily. 



At some camps a large iron kettle is suspended over a fire out of 

 doors for heating the water for laundry and bathing purposes, or 

 metal washtubs may be placed directly over the open fires and the 

 clothing boiled out in that way. In such cases the laundry work is 

 all done out of doors, without overhead protection. 



In the process of laundering, the clothing should first be soaked in 

 cold or tepid water. This removes a certain amount of the dirt and 

 filth which would not come out so easily if heated first, and the 

 water becomes laden with germs from the skin and body which may 

 be very dangerous. It is important, therefore, that this water should 

 be disposed of in such a way that it will not pollute the soil or the 

 water supply of the camp.^ After the preliminary soaking the clothing 

 should be boiled with soap, and then rinsed in pure water until clean. 

 Boiling destroys any germs which may be in the clothing, but it does 

 not remove the bad-smelling substances absorbed from the skin. 

 Rinsing in a sufficient amount of pure water (preferably running 

 water) will accomplish this and at the same time remove the soap, 

 which might prove irritating to the skin if allowed to remain. Prop- 

 erly laundered clothing should have no other than a clean, sweet 

 smell. 



Convicts entering a camp from the jails are sometimes in a filthy 

 condition and loaded with vermin. In order to guard against the 

 introduction of disease germs and vermin, every new man who is 



I See Disijosal of Wastes, p. 104, 



