The Favorite Poison of America [pp. 411-415]

THE LADIES' REPOSITORS.
of stoves-cooking stoves, hall stoves, parlor
stoves, air-tight stoves, cylinders, salamanders,
etc.? Why, it is absolutely the national invention this stove-thle most useful result of universal Yankee ingenuity."
WVe grant it all, good friends and readers, but
must all have our opinion-our calmly considered and carefully matured opinion-which is
nothing more nor less than this, that stoves-as.
now used-are the national curse, the secret
poisoners of that blessed air, bestowved by kind
Providence as an elixir of life-giving us new
vigor and fresh energy at every inspiration; and
we, ungrateful beings, as if the pure breath
of heaven were not fit for us, reject it, and
breathe instead-vlwhat?-the air which passes
over a surface of hot iron, and becomes loaded
withl all the vapor of arsenic and sulphur, which
that metal, highly heated, constantly gives off.
If in the heart of large cities-where there is
a large population crowded together, with scanty
means of subsistence-one saw a few persons
driven by necessity into warming their small
apartment by little close stoves of iron, liable to
be heated red-hot, and thereby absolutely to
destroy the purity of the air, one would not be
so difficult to preserve the poorest class fiom
suffering, in some way or otlher, in great cities.
But it is by no means only in the houses of
those who have slender means of subsistence
that this is the case. It is safe to say that ninetenthls of all the houses in the Northern States,
whether belonging to rich or poor, are entirely
unventilated, and heated at the present moment
by close stoves.
It is absolutely a matter of jirefereizce on the
part of thousands, with whom the trifling difference between one mode of heating and another
is of no account. Even in the midclst of the
country, where there is still wood in abundance,
the farmer will sell that wood and buy coal, so
that he may have a little tdemon-alias a black,
cheerless, close stove-in the place of that
genuine, hospitable, whlolesome friend and coilforter, an open fireplace.
And in order not to leave one unconverted
soul in the wilderness, the stove inventors have
lately brought out "a new article," for forest
countries, where coal is not to be had either for
love or barter-an "air-tight stove for burning
wood." The seductive, convenient, monstrous
thing! "It consumes one-fifth of the fuel which
was needed by the open chimney; is so neat
and clean, makes no dust, and gives no trouble."
All quite true, dear considerate housewife-all
quite true; but that very stove causes your hus band to pay twice its savings to the family doc tor before two Winters are past, and gives you
thrice as much trouble in nursing the sick in
your family as you formerly spent in taking care
of the fire in your chimney corner-besides
depriving you of the most delightful of all household occupations.
Our countrymen generally have a vast deal of
national pride, and national sensitiveness, and
we honor them for it. It is the warp and woof
out of which the stuff of national improvement
is woven. When a nation becomes quite indifferent as to what it has done, or can do, then
there is nothing left but for its prophets to uitter
lamentations over it.
Now there is a curious but indisputable factsomebody must say it-touching our present
condition and appearance as a nation of men,
women, and children, in which we Americans
compare most unfavorably with the people of
Europe, and especially with those of Northern
Europe-England and France, for example. It
is neither in religion nor morality, law or liberty.
In these great essentials every American feels
that his country is the birthplace of a larger number of robust and healthy souls than any other.
But in the bodily condition the sigans offihysical
healt/, and all that constitutes the outward aspect of the men and women of the United States,
our countrymen, and especially countrywomen,
compare most unfavorably with all but the absolutely starving classes on the other side of the
Atlantic. So completely is this the fact that,
thoughl we are unconscious of it at home, the
first thing, especially of late years, which strikes
an American returning fromi abroad, is the pale
and sickly countenance of friends, acquaintances
and almost every one he meets in the streets of
large towns-every other man looking as if he
lid lately recovered from a fit of illness.- The
men look so pale, and the women so delicate,
that his eye, accustomed to the higher hues of
health, and the more vigorous physical condition of transatlantic men and women, scarcely
credits the assertion of old acquaintances, wheni
they assure him that they were " never better in
their lives."
WVith this sort of impression weilghing disagreeably on our mind, on returning from Europe
lately, we fancied it worth our while to plunge
twvo hundred or three hundrecI miles into the
interior of the State of New York. It would
be pleasant, we thought, to see not only the
rich forest scenery opened by the new railroal
to Lake Erie, but also-for we felt confident
they were there-some good, hearty, fresh-look ing lads and lasses among the farmers' sons
andI daughters.
We were for the most part disappointed.
Certainly the men, especially the young men,
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