336 
USES FOR CORN HUSKS. 
such variety and profusion, and so temptingly pre¬ 
pared, as to lead to excess, by which the physical 
as well as the mental powers become choked, vi¬ 
tiated, and stupified. 
But we deem a pure, healthful, and free circula¬ 
tion of air the principal agent in producing lon¬ 
gevity, health, hardiness, and size. Excepting far¬ 
mers. we have few classes of men in this country, 
hereditary in their occupations, from whom we can 
draw general conclusions on this subject, but we 
have an accumulation of evidence from abroad, 
where society remains unchanged for centuries, 
which go to establish these views conclusively. 
The shoemakers, the tailors, the silversmiths of the 
old world, generally, and almost without excep¬ 
tion where these trades have been perpetuated from 
generation to generation, have been diminutive and 
diseased. The blacksmiths, the carpenters, the 
yeomanry, the soldiers, and gentlemen have been 
generally healthy, strong, and long-lived. It is not 
to be apprehended, that our rural population will 
not get their share of healthful breezes during the 
day. The danger is, and we have too often seen it 
even among intelligent and thriving people, who 
ought to know, and can afford to provide better, 
that fr@m six to eight hours of each day (one 
fourth to one third), of their whole lives are spent 
in close 7 by 9-feet boxes (kennels or vaults 
would be an appropriate term for them), where not 
a breath of air is admitted through the night, and 
sometimes, scarcely through the day. Much as 
the damp and chilling influences of an unroofed 
exposure to the night air are to be deprecated, they 
are hardly more so than such a total exclusion of 
the second great element in the order of creation. 
Air was made, unstinted as light and water, and 
much more available than either, that it might be 
enjoyed in all its healthfulness and purity by every 
descendant of Adam. It can’t be taxed like light 
in England, nor can it be doled out at so much per 
head, per quarter, as the Croton water, by our city 
fathers. Whatever may be the case with free soil , 
free air may be enjoyed by every man, woman, and 
child, who can erect a shanty, a log house, or a mud 
cottage on the surface of the earth. A draft of 
night air, over the bed, unless it be dry and tem¬ 
perate, as it is frequently found in latitudes far 
south, and in peculiar seasons and localities, is 
always objectionable ; but free circulation through 
the apartment is absolutely essential in all rooms 
of moderate size, or even in large ones, when occu¬ 
pied by two or more persons. 
We once knew a family of seven or eight chil¬ 
dren, one half of whom, during boyhood, occupied 
the unfinished upper story of a building, through 
which the air poured in torrents, and often covered 
their beds with the wintry snow; the others occu¬ 
pied low, close apartments. The former are now 
in the enjoyment of an advanced and vigorous man¬ 
hood ; all the latter reached the grave before they 
attained maturity, the result undoubtedly of vitiated 
air acting upon the susceptible membranes of the 
lungs, and producing that loathsome disease we 
call consumption. 
No matter, how cold the weather, let in the air, 
and let it in profusely. Pile on the clothing if 
necessary, but do not exclude the atmosphere. It 
comes fraught with the quadruple blessings of 
health, vigor, pleasurable existence, and longevity, 
“We breathe freer and deeper,” was the announce¬ 
ment of a glorious triumph to his delighted audi¬ 
ence, by the profoundest genius of the age; and he 
thus happily characterized a mental and moral, by 
a physical, enjoyment equally unequivocal. 
Close and confined air depresses the spirits and 
clogs the vital energies. A steamboat might as 
well make head way through a quagmire, as a 
man retain his health and vigor in a stagnant or 
vitiated atmosphere. My limited space will not 
permit me now to tell you why, but you can learn it 
from every elemental work of chemistry or physi¬ 
ology. 
Light and heat, freely admitted through our 
sleeping apartments, seem equally essential to 
health, as a free circulation of air. It has been 
found, even in a sultry climate, during epidemics 
and diseases, the result of intense and long-con¬ 
tinued heat, that the inhabitants of those buildings 
occupying the north sides of streets, and thus hav¬ 
ing a southern exposure, through which the rays of 
the sun were admitted, were the last to be attacked 
by disease, and suffered the least from its effects. 
It is of the greatest importance to open the win¬ 
dows and shutters to their utmost capacity and let 
in the fresh morning sun and air. Get out of the 
bed rooms yourselves, at the earliest dawn, and let 
the air and sunlight take your place. Bathe in the 
fresh morning air, abroad, while it is renewing the 
healthfulness and comfort of your room for the com¬ 
ing evening. You will thus be refreshed and in¬ 
vigorated for the duties of the day, and be doubly 
prepared for the refreshing influence of sleep at 
night. There is no more healthful practice than 
the old one handed down by the descendants of 
the Puritans in our rural districts, of hanging or 
spreading out the bedding to the uninterrupted rays 
of the sun during a portion of the day. 
A shower bath, or ablutions with cold water, ap¬ 
plied in any way, by the hand, or with a sponge or 
towel to every part of the body, which is then 
thoroughly rubbed dry, if steadily pursued every 
morning, will tend greatly to the avoidance of colds 
and disease, and the preservation of health. This 
is always safe w’hen a glow follows the friction of 
the towels, and unsafe when the system remains 
permanently chilled by the application. 
These few hints, if rigidly observed, and accom¬ 
panied by a moderate indulgence in plain, whole¬ 
some, and nutritious food, at regular periods (the 
absence of high-seasoned viands and stimulating 
drinks): full, regular, but not over-strained exer¬ 
cise, cheerful spirits and a mind at peace with it¬ 
self and all the world, will ensure the full measure 
of life and enjoyment allotted to humanity. 
R." L. A. 
New York , Sept. 12th , 1848. 
Uses for Corn Husks. —The outside husks of 
Indian corn, neatly platted, with the braids stitched 
together from the centre to the edge, make excot- 
lent, durable door mats. The inner husks when 
coarsely hetcheled, and freed from the end of the 
cob, can be made into comfortable mattresses, that 
many people prefer to those made of curled hair; 
also, into fragrant pillows, sofa cushions, &c. 
An Old Housekeeper. 
