DIRTY SLUMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 November 1918, Page 8

DIRTY SLUMS.

MD IGNOH-ANX PEOPLE

It may amuse many, but it is absolutely tr UO; that very large numbers of tlw people are innoecnt to the verge of ihin.est ignorance, and are narrow and sell-centred to the greatest" possioie decree, in tneir ideas about thia epidemic. Science and medicine, every tiling that throws ligut upon the subject of disease, proves that fresh air i-nd suuligat, cleanness of person ami surroundings, are the greatest foes of any disease;"yet there are hundreds of people here and now whoso belief to the contrary amounts to fanaticism. On every side men and women live amid dirt and lilt!) and untidiness, on every hand hovels that are iim lit to be dogkeimels are rented to unclean people. And Uio peopb ■ themselves are astonishing for the abyssmal depths of their ignorance. They seem to thin:; that, as water may be. kept out by stuffing np every crack and cranny, so disease gorms may bo kept troni iVir dwellings in the same way. Anyone wfio can have a chat, witii'the workers (says the, Auckland Star) .will set some surprising details of the conditions thpy have seen. One hard worker related how he had found four foreigners all suffering from the epidemic. The place had been rendered almost airtight by keeping the windows closed, and pieces of paper bad been pasted round the edges to keep the microbes out. Tins is only one father mild caso taken from many. At f.nother house, with all its windows closed, the one nuv.i inside refused to open the door. A constable was called and ths house "cnteroTl. The man inside had the "influenza, and sa3 afraid to go outside for anything. Tn yet another Tiouse the sick man insido confessed that he had not had a wash for ever so lons', because hewas afraid of catching a chill and so getting the disease. All these peorde m, olisttiintelv Wind to the fact that fresh" air and snnshir.o are the lisst possible germ-killers. A bodr of husiness men hrp'e made known their intention to air man"* facts concerning these places when the epidemic is over.