lbows; the blue, red, and green of the painted windows melted into a
rainbow dimness of hazy confusion; and ere they were aware, they were
off on a cloud to the land of dreams.

An energetic sister in the church suggested the inquiry, whether it
was ever ventilated, and discovered that it was regularly locked up at
the close of service, and remained so till opened for the next week.
She suggested the inquiry, whether giving the church a thorough airing
on Saturday would not improve the Sunday services; but nobody acted on
her suggestion. Finally, she borrowed the sexton's key one Saturday
night, and went into the church and opened all the windows herself,
and let them remain so for the night. The next day everybody remarked
the improved comfort of the church, and wondered what had produced the
change. Nevertheless, when it was discovered, it was not deemed a
matter of enough importance to call for an order on the sexton to
perpetuate the improvement.

The ventilation of private dwellings in this country is such as might
be expected from that entire indifference to the laws of health
manifested in public establishments. Let a person travel in private
conveyance up through the valley of the Connecticut, and stop for a
night at the taverns which he will usually find at the end of each
day's stage. The bedchamber into which he will be ushered will be the
concentration of all forms of bad air. The house is redolent of the
vegetables in the cellar,--cabbages, turnips, and potatoes; and this
fragrance is confined and retained by the custom of closing the window
blinds and dropping the inside curtains, so that neither air nor
sunshine enters in to purify. Add to this the strong odor of a new
feather bed and pillows, and you have a combination of perfumes most
appalling to a delicate sense. Yet travelers take possession of these
rooms, sleep in them all night without raising the window or opening
the blinds, and leave them to be shut up for other travelers.

The spare chamber of many dwellings seems to be an hermetically closed
box, opened only twice a year, for spring and fall cleaning; but for
the rest of the time closed to the sun and the air of heaven. Thrifty
country housekeepers often adopt the custom of making their beds on
the instant after they are left, without airing the sheets and
mattresses; and a bed so made gradually becomes permeated with the
insensible emanations of the human body, so as to be a steady
corrup