o some inoffensive outlet. This would perhaps involve setting the
plumbing articles in the most simple and open fashion--which ought
always to be done. 'Cabinets,' cupboards, casings and wood finish, no
matter how full of conveniences, or how elegantly made, are worse than
useless in connection with plumbing fixtures, which, for all reasons,
should stand forth in absolute nakedness. They must be so strongly and
simply made that no concealment will be necessary.

"One more danger closes the list, so far as the system is concerned.
Even if the water in the traps is clean and inoffensive it will
evaporate quickly in warm weather, and then the prison door is open
again. This adds another vigil which we can never lay aside if we must
have plumbing and water traps. The burden may be somewhat
lightened--since we are prone to forgetfulness as stones to fall
downward--by using traps made of glass and leaving them in plain sight.

[Illustration: Fig. 5.]

"I conclusion, I wish to remind you that the lower end of the main
drain must be protected from the iniquity of the sewer or cesspool to
which it runs by another trap, or dam, just below the open pipe that
admits fresh air from outside the house (Fig. 5), and also, as I have
before remarked, that the system is wrong. The rising tide of
civilization will some time wash it all away."

"Uncle Harry's notion of reform," said Jack, after the long letter had
been read, "seems to be to blow the universe to pieces and then put it
together again on a new and improved plan. It strikes me we had better
fight it out on this line and try to straighten the evils we know
something about rather than invent new ones. If we had begun on that
track and tried to utilize the waste materials on strictly economical
principles, perhaps by this time our methods and machinery would have
been so far perfected that the real or imaginary evils of modern
plumbing would not have existed. It seems a pity to throw away all we
have accomplished and begin again."

"That is a part of the price paid for progress," said Jill. "Stage
coaches are useless when steam appears, and locomotives must go to the
junk shop when electricity is ready to be harnessed. But I'm afraid we
cannot afford to be pioneers, and I'm sure the neighbors are not ready
to co-operate. We must still 'go by water,' and the important question
is where to send the lower end of the main drain. There is no sewer in
the street, and a cesspool is