64r 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
•> 
way of kicking and pushing and pulling and shout¬ 
ing, it will be a great gain; but attractive play 
which meets these necessities is not to be despised. 
Dear little fellows ! They seem so naughty, at 
times, to one who has had little experience among 
boys. But when your boy’s noise is hushed at night, 
when the busy feet and hands are still, and the ac¬ 
tive inquisitive brain is resting in slumber, does not 
your mother-heart go out in strong love and sym¬ 
pathy for the little fellow ? He is all right, after 
all. That is, he is what it is natural that he should 
be, and you would not exchange the spontaneity of 
his present style, wearisome as it often is, for a so¬ 
ber, care-taking, inoffensive kind of boy, always 
mindful of his tones and steps, and schooled in all 
conventionalisms. 
How he does eat! When he is hungry he is fear¬ 
fully so, and he is inclined to eat much and fast, 
with little attention to manners, except as he gets 
line upon line, and precept upon precept. I know 
of people who would tame these noisy active boys, 
and bring them into quiet subjection, by starving 
them to it, or by limiting their daily rations in such 
a way as to keep down most of the bounding life 
that makes the vigorous healthy boy such a lively 
specimen as he is. Such well-meant methods seem 
to me fraught with evil. No. Let young growing 
animals have all of the plain wholesome food they 
desire at their regular meals, and give them a free 
field in which to caper and grow. True, they must 
learn to work in harness, and the training should 
be begun early, but it should have small beginnings. 
Through all of childhood and youth, a boy has a 
right to daily play-spells ; longer and more frequent 
the younger he is. Indeed, I believe that all of us 
have, “in the nature of things,” a right to daily 
“play spells” of some kind, whatever our age. 
Farmers have so many little tasks and bigger jobs 
that boys can be kept at, that they need often to 
consider what is reasonable treatment for calves 
and colts, and to reason from this what is the prop¬ 
er physical training to give boys. 
“ Dr. Spanxter.” 
You never read Rose Terry’s capital little story 
by the above title ? More’s the pity. I have read 
it half a dozen times to my children, who “ see the 
point” every time. We have it in an old number 
of “ Our Young Folks,” and I should like to put it 
where all parents could have access to it. I wonder 
if H. H. ever read it? I suppose she would have 
all the children so judiciously trained from the first 
that little “ Prince Pucker,” crying his eyes out for 
the moon, would be an impossibility, and so per¬ 
haps there would be no necessity for summoning 
Dr. Spanxter. But “ there’s the rub.” Judicious 
training from the first doesn’t seem to come natur¬ 
al and easy to some of us mothers. Our hands are 
full of every thing else, and we fail to see the first 
steps of training, and presently find ourselves con¬ 
fronted by a small rebellion, or by persistent and 
unreasonable naughtiness, which must be put down 
immediately ; and in our harrassed condition, it 
seems necessary to stop the child’s nonsense, and 
teach it a lesson in behavior by the speediest pro¬ 
cess. Hence the popularity of Dr. Spanxter, or Dr. 
Birch, as the physician of the rod was called in the 
days of my youth. I surely believe that these 
old-school doctors, with their shingles and their 
whips, are doomed to pass away; and I doubt 
whether they do as much good as mischief even 
now. But I suppose we can not spare them yet. 
When Dr. Spanxter found that his brief prescrip¬ 
tion for the prince who had cried himself sick, be¬ 
cause no one would give him the moon, “Spank 
him! ”—was only carried out with a polished 
dainty little shingle, trimmed with swan’s down 
and jewels, which only tickled the little prince 
when administered gently by his royal father, he 
was justly indignant. He tossed the silly weapon 
through the window, and pulling a genuine shingle 
from his pocket, spanked the prince so soundly 
that he needed but one repetition of the dose, 
Nevertheless, it seems to me that the kiss and the 
blow need hardly be separated. It does not injure 
the moral effect of a sound spanking, to hug the 
little sufferer in your arms immediately after¬ 
ward. The child does not understand by this 
that mamma is sorry she spanked it, but only 
that she still loves it, and, though she had to 
resort to the only effective argument at hand, she is 
willing to cut short or relieve its pain. They ought 
to feel that mother punishes because she 
loves them, and because she cannot let 
her darliDgs be naughty, disobedient 
children, or grow up with bad habits. 
It is sad for children to suppose that 
their parents punish them because they 
do not love them, or are simply angry 
with them. I am very sure of one 
thing, and that is, that preventive 
measures are better than measures mere¬ 
ly curative, however gentle these may 
be; and among preventive measures, 
attention to a child’s health is as im¬ 
portant as gentleness and firmness in its govern¬ 
ment. An important matter to young and old is 
Ventilation in Winter. 
It is impossible for us to suffocate ourselves in 
our dwelling rooms, unless extraordinary means 
are used to bring about such a result. The pure 
air will creep in through divers cracks about the win¬ 
dows, doors, and floors, in spite of all our efforts to 
“ keep out the cold.” It is all right to try to keep 
our rooms warm, and it is very proper to chink up 
the cracks, but wc should see that some provision 
is made for the entrance of pure air. Though that 
which euters unavoidably through cracks, and by 
the frequent opening of the doors, may keep us 
from actual suffocation, it is not usually enough 
to keep the air of the room pure, and its inmates 
in high health. It sometimes seems as (hough 
people study to sec how little pure air they can live 
upon. They allow of various needless contamina¬ 
tions of the air, saying, in answer to one’s objec¬ 
tions, “ Pooh ! I guess that won’t kill anybody ! ” 
As though this is the main object in seeking pure 
air—merely to escape the point of death. 
Many persons suppose that nothing impairs the 
air of a room, uuless it be something positively 
poisonous, as, for instance, the effluvia of decaying 
animal or vegetable matter. This is not so. 
Wherever there is any permanent odor, though it 
may be only the fragrance of flowers, or the smell 
of oranges, the air is in some degree less pure than 
when positively odorless; 
and though sweet odors 
give pleasure at times, 
and in moderate degree, 
they should be sparingly 
used, and banished entire¬ 
ly during our sleeping- 
hours. Bridget, in the 
kitchen, breathing more 
than half her time air 
loaded with the odors of 
the various kinds of food, 
and an occasional varia¬ 
tion of scorched fat, may 
seem to be a tolerably 
healthy person, but in 
spite of her exercise and 
good constitution, she is 
less healthy now,and more 
likely to suffer from vari¬ 
ous diseases, and to die in 
early life, than she would 
be if she had really pure 
air to breathe, in her kitchen and in her sleeping- 
room. No one, however constitutionally endowed 
with health and strength, can enjoy the finest health 
without pure air to breathe habitually. The more 
one becomes accustomed to pure air, the more 
quickly is any contamination perceptible, and clean¬ 
liness in all respects seems more and more desirable. 
“I believe you let too much air into your room 
at night! ” I have more than once been told. 
“Too much air!” Is that possible? I would let 
in all out doors if I could, when the outside air is 
not unduly moist or cold. I prefer not to have the 
wind blow upon the back of my head, but if it onlv 
blows into my face, and I am otherwise well pro¬ 
tected, I do not care. I have two windows open in 
all moderate weather, in the large room where I 
sleep with the children this winter. Iu all weather 
there is one unclosed opteuing which supplies pure 
air from out-doors. This is made by raising a win¬ 
dow six inches from the bottom, and filling the 
opening so made, below the lower sash, with a 
closely fitting board. The air enters through the 
spaces between the upper and lower sashes, and 
however strong the wind comes from that quar¬ 
ter, none blows directly upon a person sitting near 
the window. This suffices for ventilation in the 
coldest weather, but I am always glad when it is 
warm enough to allow of letting in more air. 
.Sleeping Warm. 
I believe it is impossible to have too much pure 
air, but it is possible to have the air colder than 
feeble persons can breathe with comfort or with 
safety. For hardy persons there is no danger in 
cold air, provided they have plenty of bed-covering, 
and keep their mouths closed. It is unwholesome 
for any one to sleep cold. One of the hardest 
things for feeble persons to endure, is getting into 
a cold bed to sleep. It draws so much upon the 
already low vitality, that before the cold bed is 
warmed, itg occupant is so thoroughly chilled that 
it is almost impossible to get warm again. In this 
way the system is unnecessarily taxed, and the 
general health reduced. When one must sleep 
in a cold room, it would be better to wear flannel 
night clothes, (warmed before putting them on, 
and perhaps with woolen stockings for night use 
in exchange for the stockings worn all day), or to 
have the bed warmed before entering it. This can 
be done with a warming-pan, or by rolling a jug of 
hot water about between the sheets. 
I find by experience that children rest more 
quietly in rooms well ventilated, though the air is 
quite cold during the night, than when they sleep 
in warmer and closer rooms, and I think it well to 
accustom their lungs to cold air in this way. It is 
very undesirable to make hot-house plants of our 
children. They should be dressed so warmly, both 
by night and by day, that they can be comfortable 
in rooms moderately cool. 
The “Centennial” Extension Lounge. 
BY E. O. LEE, GLOUCESTER CO., N. J. 
In the American Agriculturist for March, 1873, is 
THE LOUNGE AS A BEDSTEAD. 
a description of an extension lounge, which “is a 
very convenient thing to have in the house,” es¬ 
pecially when the house has only two rooms on the 
ground floor, and one craves the luxury of sleeping 
Fig. 1.— FRAME OF LOUNGE. 
