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r in the same place for the same time. These "dust gardens," as the children called them, "took the place of the family album" for callers, and spread knowledge. Hundreds of similar experiences should convince any intelligent, earnest Board of Health that a teacher by nature or training should be in their employ, to be sent WITH POWER, like any other inspector, wherever ignorance--usually diagnosed as stubbornness--is found. The health officer whose mother was a good housekeeper, not afraid of work, has no idea of the attitude of half the housewives of his district. Having been made as a boy "to get the dustpan and brush and sweep up his whittlings," he does not realize that these houses in the tenement district have no dustpans, and that no one would bend his back to sweep up litter if there were. It is all swept into the alley or the street. Cheap, long-handled dustpans would be valuable sanitary implements. As has been elsewhere suggested, the garbage question in the tenement house needs study and must be solved by a practical housewife. There are such, and Boards of Health are wasting effort and the town's money until they avail themselves of this help in the enforcement of their rules. All Health Boards use the strong arm of the law, _i. e._, a police inspector's club, to drive the ignorant and careless householder to keep his premises from becoming a nuisance. The newly-arrived, prospective citizen, or more often citizeness, fails to understand what it is all about--neither the words nor the pantomime convey an idea, except that this country is topsy-turvy anyway, for everything is different in this new land. In the process of learning what not to do, the dwellers in the alleys flee when the health officer appears, and oppose a stubborn indifference to his threats. When his back is turned, matters go on as before and nothing is gained, but an opportunity is lost. Law is a potent educator when rightly applied, but it may work more harm than good. Rules of action clearly explained are soon accepted--like traffic rules, notification of contagious diseases, disinfection, etc. The placing on the force of each town of at least one specially trained "Explainer" would result in cleaner back yards and less illness and, better than all else, a more friendly feeling between the officials and those they honestly wish to help; for I do not think there is often justification for such remarks as were made to me by a
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