ALL AROUND THE HOUSE.
The English people have a saying: “Every man’s house is his castle.” In
his own house a man ought to be safe, if he is to be so anywhere, and
there he ought to feel sure that his family is safe. With his strong
right arm he will keep all enemies away; will fight, if need be, for the
safety of his castle. It would be a very mean man who would not do this.
We should think even a child a coward who did not help to defend his
home. But while we defend the front door, we must not let enemies creep
in at the back. Now, the deadliest enemy of human life in the tropics is
dirt. We have to fight hard against dirt of every sort. Let us see,
to-day, about building a house and keeping our enemy out of it.
Every country must have its own particular kind of a house. The house
suitable for a cold country would not do at all in the country where we
are now. We do not need walls built so as to keep out cold and winds. We
have no use for fires to fight off frost and chill. But houses in
countries where the winters are cold and snowy must have thick walls;
they must have carpets on the floors and heavy curtains at the windows.
There must be fires in the houses, to keep people warm. If the houses
were not warm, people would suffer from cold and many would die.
Nevertheless, while they do not need to be built for warmth, our houses
in the tropics ought to be as carefully built as are the homes in winter
lands. That they are not so built is one reason why so many little
children die here,—many more than in America, for instance.
[Illustration:
AN UNHEALTHFUL STREET.
Without pavement or gutters.
]
First of all, since we are to build a house, we must have a good place
for it. We will not build on low land if we can help it. Neither will we
build near standing water. We see a great many houses upon land that is
almost always wet, but they are very unhealthful for the people who have
to live in them. If our house is to be a healthful place for us, we must
build it on firm land that is well drained. Some day the whole city of
Manila, within the walls, will have to be raised several feet higher
than it is at present, to get it far enough above the low, unhealthful
land it now stands on. The streets must be made wider, too, so that the
sun can shine upon the house walls. The narrow streets are nearly always
damp and unhealthful. Manila will never be a healthy place until these
things are done.
But outside of the walls, and in the country, we can pick our plots and
prepare our building sites. The fine, beautiful house and the little
nipa cottage can be equal in one respect; that is, both can have clean,
healthful surroundings.
The living-rooms of houses in this country should never be close to the
ground. The land on which a house stands should be well drained and kept
dry. This, however, is not all that should be done to prepare a building
spot. In tropical countries bad gases rise from the earth at night, and
we should do what we can to prevent these from getting into the house.
The ground where the house is to stand should be dug down at least a
foot and filled in with hard cement. This will keep it dry and prevent
the earth-gases from rising through the floors. Besides this foundation,
the house should have cement gutters running all around it, to carry off
surface water. The foundation walls should rise from the cement bottom
to a height of at least six feet.
The ground floor may be used as a place to store carriages, furniture,
and other things of that sort; but it is unsafe to keep horses or other
animals there. All the bad odors and gases from these rise, making the
living rooms above unhealthful.
The first floor of our house,—the floor on which we mean to live, should
be tightly built, so as to keep out all drafts of air, and to leave as
few cracks as possible for insects to crawl through. We shall get fresh
air enough if we have large windows that open freely.
We are fortunate, in this country, in having the beautiful thin shells
with which our window sashes are filled. These are much better here than
glass would be. They shut out the bright rays of the sun, while they can
be pierced with tiny holes, if need be, to let in air when the window is
closed. Heavy shutters with slats are also good. If we have these in the
house, the windows may be open, even at night, or when it rains.
The roof of our house is a very important part. Most of the roofs in
this country are of nipa or bamboo. These make a good protection against
the sun’s rays, but they need great care, and should be often renewed,
as the wind tears them so that they become leaky. They catch and hold
the dust, and are always hatching-places for all sorts of insects. The
roof of split bamboo is cheap, beautiful, and easy to make, but it is
also easily blown away by a high wind. If we use it, we must fasten it
with wire to the rafters and walls.
Wood makes a very bad roofing material. It decays quickly and is a poor
protection against the rain. Then, too, it can hardly be built so that a
great wind will not blow it away. Many roofs are now built of zinc, and
for some reasons this is good material to make them of. If we have a
zinc roof, however, we must build a garret between it and the living
rooms,—a sort of air chamber for the sake of coolness; for when the sun
beats down on the zinc roof, the metal gets very hot. This sort of roof
is useful for catching rain water; after the first rain has washed off
all the dust and dirt, then we may collect the rain water that falls
from the roof into our cisterns, and have a plentiful, pure supply
during the rainy season.
In early days roofs were covered with half-round red tiles. We see a
great many of them still on old houses, but they are heavy, and
dangerous as well during the typhoons and earthquakes that sometimes
visit us.
Perhaps the best of all roofs for this climate are the ones covered with
flat, broad pieces of slate, secured by wire or nails to boards and
rafters underneath, but roofs of this sort are expensive. It will
probably be best, therefore, for us to roof our house with zinc. If we
have an airy garret between it and the ceiling of the upper rooms, it
will be quite cool enough.
The rooms in our house will be very simple. We shall not have any heavy,
stiff carpets on the floors, to catch dust and breed disease. Nor shall
there be moldings or ornamental ledges along the walls, because these
also catch and hold the dust. Our rooms shall be easy to keep clean.
What pictures and ornaments we have on the walls shall be such as can
readily be reached and dusted. A room so decorated that it cannot be
kept free from dust and dirt cannot possibly be beautiful.
The kitchen of a house anywhere should be clean as can be, but
particularly in this country. It should be on the north side of the
house if possible, for the sake of shade. We will not, however, have
trees growing very near it, even to shade it. They have a saying in the
tropics that “He who grows a tree against his house invites death to his
door.” This means that dampness and shade made by the trees growing too
near the house breed disease and often bring death. So we shall have no
trees nearer our house than twenty feet.
Nor shall any one be allowed to sleep in our kitchen. It is a very
unhealthful and uncleanly custom to let the servants sleep in the
kitchen. There should be no sleeping in a room where food is prepared.
By morning the air of a sleeping room is always charged with bad matter
given off from the lungs of the sleepers. Sleeping rooms have a chance
for ventilation during the day, and all these vapors are replaced by
pure air. But there is no time in the morning to change the air of the
kitchen. The food must be prepared in the midst of all the bad gases
that have gathered there during the night.
This brings us to think of what proper sleeping arrangements should be.
Not enough attention is given to the subject in this country. The nights
are so hot that people are careless. Many grown people and nearly all
children sleep on or close to the floor. This custom is a great source
of sickness. If the floor is of bamboo, the bad air from the earth rises
through it at night. There is always a draft across the floor, from
doors and from windows, and from spaces in the floor itself. When we are
asleep the body is relaxed, the pores of the skin are open, and we are
in every way less able to resist chills and the bad effects of impure
air. Sleep is a condition of helplessness, and we should protect
ourselves in it.
A serious cause of disease, which people are just beginning to
understand, is the mosquito. We have only lately come to know that this
insect is the direct cause of the malaria which is so common, and so
dangerous, here. Malaria is a germ disease. That is, it is a disease
caused by germs which get into the blood. The germ of malaria is a
parasite which lives on the body of the mosquito. We can imagine how
tiny it must be when we know that a great many of them find room to live
on a single mosquito.
Now, when the mosquito lights on a person and bites him, these germs
often get into the little puncture which the insect makes to draw blood.
In this way they get into the blood of the human being, and there they
increase in numbers very fast. They poison the blood, the person becomes
sick and weak, suffers from headache and other pains, and very often
dies at last of malaria.
We may learn from these facts how important it is that mosquito nets
should be used in this country. Even if a person sleeps upon the floor,
he should arrange some sort of protection from the mosquitoes.
Every morning, the floors of our house must be washed with water in
which we have put a little kerosene oil; one or two large spoonfuls of
oil will be enough for a bucket of water. We should see that the washing
is carefully done. This washing with kerosene will help to keep
mosquitoes away. It also tends to drive out ants and other small
insects. Kerosene oil is cleansing, and helps to kill many of the germs
that breed in corners and cracks. If it is poured upon standing water,
it will prevent mosquitoes from breeding there. One ounce of kerosene
will spread out over fifteen square feet of water, and this fact is made
use of in some countries in getting rid of mosquitoes. It may be spread
over the surface of the water in cisterns without imparting any taste to
the water which is drawn from below for drinking purposes.
Persons who have consumption ought never to sleep in the same room with
others, particularly with children. Consumption is catching. The germs
which cause it are breathed out by the victim, and other people often
inhale them and contract the disease. A consumptive person should never
spit on the floor, and all discharges from the mouth should be
disinfected.
There are two other places about a house in the tropics where our arch
enemy, dirt, may hide and slay us, if we are not on guard against it.
These are the sinks and the cesspools, which receive waste from the
bathroom, toilet, and such places. No refuse matter ought to be thrown
out about the house, and no dirt should be allowed to gather on the
ground floor or in the court. We cannot be too careful about this; for
if dirt does gather in these places, it is sure to breed disease.
Decayed vegetables, fruit, and all leavings from the kitchen should be
carried away and burned, or buried, or otherwise disposed of where they
can do no harm. Even the water in which dishes are washed, or in which
we have bathed, should not be poured out on the ground near the house.
It should be carried as far away as possible and emptied in some waste
place.
There are few sewers in this country. Even those in Manila are scarcely
worthy of the name. Before long, steps will have to be taken to have
them in all cities in the archipelago; for there is great need for them.
The fact that there are no good sewers makes the question of cleanliness
about the house a grave one. If waste from the toilets is carried into
the cesspools, there should be plenty of running water with it for
flushing; it should be carried in pipes to the cesspool, and at least
once a day the water-closet should be flushed with water in which there
is some good disinfectant. If, as is so often the case, the closet is
merely an outhouse over a hole or vault dug in the earth, at least five
liters of a mixture of quicklime and dry earth should be put into the
vault every day.
Milk of lime is one of the best disinfectants for use in this country.
It is cheap, and it not only disinfects waste matter, but destroys bad
odors. It is powdered quicklime dissolved in water, about one liter of
quicklime to four liters of water. Another very cheap, but reliable,
disinfectant is made by dissolving three drams of mercury bichloride
with three drams of ammonium chloride in a bucket of water. This mixture
can always be kept in the house and a tabo or two of it thrown down the
closet seat whenever the latter is used. It must be kept where little
children cannot meddle with it; but a child need not be very old to be
wise enough to use it when necessary and not to meddle with it.
Children, as well as grown people, should feel in honor bound to take
good care of the house and to fight against dirt and disease when these
attack it.
The bathroom and water-closet of our house should be kept as clean as
can be. They should be swept and washed every day, and no soiled
clothing or towels should be allowed to lie about. Our enemies, the
mosquitoes, are very fond of hiding about soiled clothing or that which
has been worn and is not soiled enough to be sent to the laundry.
Soiled garments should be washed as soon as possible after they are
taken off. Right here lurks one of the greatest foes to health in this
country. People are too careless about the way their garments are
washed. The clothes often lie for several days in baskets or bags before
going to the laundry or being washed. This is bad, as germs breed
quickly among them. It is harmful for clothes to be washed in pools or
canals. The water of standing pools or even of the canals in the city
is, more often than not, full of disease germs.
[Illustration:
CLOTHES DRYING ON THE GROUND.
]
To make matters worse, the clothes, when washed, are laid out on the
grass to dry. All sorts of tiny creeping things are here; so that while
the garments look white and clean, they may be full of wriggling life
from the water and from the ground,—creatures too small to be seen
without a microscope, yet the cause, many times, of the unpleasant skin
diseases so common in this climate.
The laundry work of the family ought to be done at home, and the clothes
should be hung upon lines to dry. In other countries clothes are boiled
after first being washed with soap, but this is not possible here;
probably it never will be possible. Yet clothes can be washed with soap
and water and then leached,—that is, rinsed in lye water. Wood ashes are
easy to get, and lye water—that is, water in which the ashes have been
soaked—will destroy all germs. The clothes rinsed in it are as safe as
those which have been boiled.
[Illustration:
THE BEST WAY TO DRY CLOTHES.
]
Attention to all of these things means work for men and women, and for
the boys and girls who wish to feel that their house is really their
castle which they are defending against unseen foes. These foes are
harder to fight than those who come openly and slay with the sword. They
are more dangerous foes, moreover; for they are about us always, and
must be fought daily. Otherwise, they will rob us of health, of comfort,
of sight; they will make us the victims of disease which is ugly to look
upon and painful to bear. They even take from us life itself, unless we
are constantly on guard to fight their great helper, the dirt, which
gathers about any neglected spot.
QUESTIONS.
What sort of site should be chosen to build a home upon?
How should the foundation be prepared?
Why is it unhealthful to live near the ground in the tropics?
Why is it unwise to keep animals under the houses?
What is the best sort of roof in this country?
How should the kitchen be located?
Why should no one be allowed to sleep in the kitchen?
Why is it not healthful to sleep on the floor?
How should the body be protected during sleep?
How do mosquitoes cause malaria?
How does the use of kerosene oil keep them away?
Why should consumptives never sleep in the room with healthy persons?
How should refuse matter be disposed of?
What are some of the best cheap disinfectants?
How should clothes be washed?
How should they be dried?