NO CARPETS IN SUMMER.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1658, 10 November 1887, Page 3

NO CARPETS IN SUMMER.

„,.Says the American Analyst:—The European system of painting floors instead of carpeting them, and decorating them with handsome rnga, is gradually growing in popularity on this side of the Atlantic. Carpets, as well as curtains, lambrequins, etc., may be deemed necessary parts of house furnishing, but they all collect dust and dirt of amoreorlessdangerous character. In the winter they may be tolerated, but when summer comes ! they should be all removed to places of security and protected from light and insect destroyers. The floors should be oiled with boiled linseed oil, and whenever coverings of any kind are desirable, on account of lessening sounds, rugs and mats should take the place of carpets, and plain shades and shutters will suffice to exclude too glaring a light and diminish the dust nuisance. Floors thus treated are kept clean much easier, as the oil becomes incorporated with the wood and makes a hard finish, as it is oxidised by contact with the air. The same treatment of floors, removal of carpets and unnecessary materials for the lodgments of dust and organic impurities will make the sleeping apartments much more wholesome. It has long been acknowledged that carpets are entirely out of place in the apartments 1 occupied by the sick; and they retain I the poisons of such diseases as small

pox, diphtheria, and scarlet fever and it seems strange that a crusade against them has not long since been organised. In the far off future, when people shall have learned a moderate amount of sanitary knowledge, "the carpet must go."