ver its name or characteristic
qualities maybe; not a flaunting weed nor an unseen miasmatic vapor,
which is not created for some good and wise purpose. It is for us to
learn those purposes. The grand secret of safe and comfortable living
lies in keeping yourself and everything about you in the right place. I
hear much of the dangers and annoyances that arise from modern
plumbing. I am not surprised by them; on the contrary, I wonder they
are not more numerous and fatal, since nothing is more inconsistent
with the first principles of comfort and health than our relations to
these 'modern conveniences.' Instead of disposing of what are
incorrectly called waste materials according to nature's modes, we
persist in defying her examples and her laws, even after we fully
understand them, and, in the vain hope of adding to our own case,
bring upon ourselves untold calamities. 'Earth to earth' is a mandate
that cannot be disregarded with impunity. The infinite laboratories of
nature welcome to their crucibles all the strange and awful elements
which we fail to comprehend and against which we wage a futile warfare.
If all these miscalled 'wastes' that we find so hurtful and offensive
when out of place in and around our homes could be consigned to the
bosom of mother earth the moment they seem to us worthless, they would
be at once changed to life-giving forces, out of which forms of
freshness and beauty would arise to fill us with delight. They are
willing to serve us whenever we give them an opportunity. The one
direct and infallible mode of doing that is to put them in the ground
before they have a chance to work us injury. If we bury them, or,
rather, plant them, they will bring forth, some thirty, some sixty,
some an hundredfold.

[Illustration: NO PLACE FOR SECRET FOES.]

"It is my impression that sewers were originally invented by the Evil
one. He couldn't drag men down to his dominions fast enough, so he
moved a portion of his estate to this planet, and lest its true
character should be discovered, buried it under paved streets and
flowery parks. We might easily and quietly put these crude materials
into convenient receptacles, to be carried where they will bless the
world by making two ears of corn grow where one grew before. This we
could do, each one for ourselves, or more advantageously by cooperating
with one another. We are too wasteful, too indolent, too ignorant.
Tempted by the invisible sewers we imprison these