new a lady who died of
pneumonia from airing her room too much," said the landlady, "but that
was a beautiful death!"

I doubt whether there is comfort under a system of ventilation which
induces pneumonia, but it certainly is luxury as well as comfort to let
in all the fresh air we want and not to stint fuel.

Plenty of light is another essential in a home. Most city houses are
deficient in sunlight, and most of them, however richly furnished, are
accordingly depressing. Whether or not the dreams of socialists can ever
be realized we do not know, but none is more alluring than that of the
disappearance of blocks of houses. If every house could stand in the
midst of its own garden, the gain would be as great in inner comfort as
in outward beauty.

No one can tell the amount of near-sightedness caused by the effort to
read and write in our dark city houses. Rich people ought to be
extravagant in the matter of light. Corner lots are worth buying, and it
is worth while to live on "streets with only one side."

And when natural light fails let us have enough of the artificial. Even
the poor who cannot have electricity or gas hardly need economize here
with kerosene at its present rates. A kerosene lamp, to be sure, is not
often a beautiful or poetical object, but with the right kind of care
the vile odor may be suppressed, and though this involves an additional
burden for the housekeeper, light is too essential for the work to be
grudged. A sufficient number of _clean_ kerosene lamps will make a house
cheerful from one end to the other. Now I have often noticed that women
who are compelled to economize in little things are inclined to
economize in all things. They will strain their eyes for fifteen minutes
after it is too dark to sew, they will sit in a room dimly lighted by
one lamp when two are necessary to make it attractive, without stopping
to think that twelve or fifteen cents worth of oil would supply three
large lamps for a week! And in this way they sacrifice not only
cheerfulness, but opportunities for all the family to do easy and
comfortable work.

Cleanliness is as essential in a home as over-neatness is destructive to
it. There is nothing homelike in any room that is in perfect order; but,
on the other hand, there is little of the home feeling in a room that is
not bright and fresh with cleanliness. Tables littered with books,
chairs and sofas strewn with gloves and ribbons, and even a floor
encumbered w