hotels some method should be adopted that would indicate to one unacquainted with the house the direction of exit. Independent of the consideration of safety, such an indicator would be many times most acceptable to some of the daily guests of the place, and in this way would be a sufficient compensation for the adoption of such a method. Several systems could be suggested for this purpose. Perhaps as among the best would be the placing of a colored light at all necessary points, as the angles, etc., of the passage-ways and halls, shaded on all but one side, so that following the direction in which the light could be seen would lead to the avenue of escape. Such lights should be placed so that from any one of them the next in the line could be seen, thus making a continuous chain of guide-indicators in the proper direction. Such lights might be small and comparatively inexpensive, and should be kept burning all night. The necessity of having colored glass would be to distinguish them from the usual hall lights when the latter might be in use.

On the subject of doors, New Hampshire has the credit of enacting the first law, the wisdom of which cannot be questioned. It is as follows:

(Chap. 106, Gen. Laws.)

SECT. 24. The outer doors, and doors of all passages leading outwards, of all churches, school-houses, public halls, and buildings to be used for public purposes, except depots, hereafter constructed, shall open outwards.

SECT. 25. If any person shall neglect to comply with the provisions of the preceding section, he shall pay a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars for the benefit of the county where such building is located, to be recovered by indictment.

The justice of such a law was recognized by other states, and the following year (1876) Wisconsin enacted a more stringent law on the same subject. That the above law has been only partially executed from the fact that it has not been kept before the public, is undoubtedly true. It is to be hoped that a law so laden with common-sense will not be allowed to become a dead letter. It is the duty of local boards of health, town and city authorities, and individuals who have an interest in the welfare of the public, to see that it is thoroughly and impartially enforced. Some of our public buildings have taken additional

means of safety in case of fire, by way of stationary iron ladders or stairways on the outside, leading from platforms erected within easy access of windows or doors to the ground. Some of the large factories have adopted the same plan. This is earnestly recommended where other methods do not seem to be perfectly adequate for any contingency that might occur, as in hospitals, county almshouses, factories, etc., where a large number of persons are frequently or constantly collected.

Since the above was written, a serious fire occurred at Manchester in a building used for tenements. Escape being cut off by the fire at the stairway, several persons from the upper stories jumped to the ground, and eight persons were very seriously injured, two of whom will undoubtedly die from the injuries received. The following forcible editorial from the Union on the subject is here inserted:

A FEW PLAIN WORDS.

The spectacle of terrified men and women jumping from the fourth story windows of a Manchester boarding-house the other night emphasizes the necessity for a new and severe law requiring the inspection of such buildings, and which shall also prescribe that there shall be methods of escape from tinder-traps. One provision should require that every building higher than two stories, which is used for the housing or entertainment of people, should be provided with effective fire-escapes on every floor. This is the law in other states, and it should be so here.

Such laws are absolutely necessary to restrain the rapacity of skinflint landlords. They build cheap fire-boxes, which they rent at the most outrageous and extravagant terms, collected with the unceasing regularity common to their class. They often refuse or neglect to make repairs so long as the old shells will hang together, and when a fire comes along and burns up their source of income they are the most confirmed grumblers a town can afford. There is no way to reach this kind of men but by the most severe of laws. They regard nothing but the little money they can get out of their investment, which may represent the miser's hoard, the rumseller's profit, or the legacy of some hard-working father, grandfather or uncle. They do not care for public sentiment, simply because they are impervious to any kind of sentiment. It is for such men as this that severe and exacting laws are needed.

This indictment does not, of course, refer to landlords, or to a majority, or any large proportion, but it is directed to any and

all who have buildings where such scenes as were witnessed Monday night either have occurred or may occur. There was not the slightest reason why a single person should have been injured the other night. Simple but safe rope fire-escapes might have been provided for every story of the Elm street building at a cost not to exceed ten dollars, and the men and women who leaped upon the hard pavements below would have descended safe and sound. Instead of this simple device there was nothing, and six or seven persons dependent on their labor for a living are lying at the point of death, or will be crippled for many weeks.

Cities are expected to furnish such protection from fire as the ingenuity of men has devised, and no class of men are more exacting in this regard than the type of landlords to whom this article is directed. And yet they will not even furnish the cheap conveniences which ordinary prudence would suggest as necessary for the protection of life. Their ram-shackle buildings are always protected by ample insurance, but history has never yet. recorded that one of them voluntarily offered to pay the expenses of their victims, or for their burial if dead. This is why a law of the most exacting order should be passed, and then rigidly enforced. The danger cannot be met in any other way. Appeals to decency or humanity are so much breath wasted on this class of men. It is, therefore, absolutely idle to make them.

There is neither time nor occasion for mincing words in this matter. Here is a great and growing city, with a large number of working people who must live, and who deserve all the protection the best devised laws and the highest sentiments of humanity can throw about them. Upon them depends in a large measure the continued growth of the city in population, business, and wealth. A dozen of them do more for the real advancement of the city in a year than the misers who would oppress them could do in a generation. Such an accident as this will keep enough of working people out of town to pay the money loss a half-dozen times over, and it ought to do so. Hence, any and all danger of the recurrence of such a calamity ought to be averted.

We are in this fight, and in to stay. Nobody needs to put on any shoe of our making if it does not fit him; but there are men for whom this measure has been accurately taken, and they must not be permitted to go barefoot.

SANITARY WORK AT THE WEIRS.

The growing popularity of the Weirs for a place of public meetings of many associations and societies, as well as a resort for the individual pleasure-seeker, has been remarkable within a few years.

The Camp Meeting Association, and the Soldiers' Veteran Association, both have beautiful grounds and groves. There are at present three hotels, and a great number of cottages, and more in the process of erection.

During the summer months there is constantly present a large number of people. This will be made obvious from the fact that the grounds are engaged by some society, association, or organization for every week in the season, the present year.

The Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad own quite extensive grounds at this point, upon which is the Hotel Weirs, which commands a beautiful view of the lake. The grove occupied by the Veteran Association is also owned by this company.

The necessity of maintaining good sanitary conditions is thoroughly recognized by the railroad authorities, the Camp Meeting Association, and the town of Laconia. The present

season, these parties have jointly been to considerable expense in putting in a good system of sewerage, which is to be well supplied with water from the lake, pumped to a reservoir upon the hill. Formerly the drainage was discharged into the lake near the steamboat landing, and in too close proximity to the point from which the water was taken to supply the reservoir mentioned, as this water is also employed for domestic and drinking purposes. An important improvement has been made by carrying the sewer terminus to a point much further down, near a current that will probably carry the waste to a safe distance. The hotels, pavilion, and some of the cottages are now connected with this sewer. With increasing demands, other connections will be made, or new pipes laid.

It is the determination of the parties mentioned to preserve the healthfulness of this popular resort. Our Board has rendered some advice upon the subject, and are pleased that the suggestions are being carried out.

LOCAL BOARDS OF HEALTH.

The importance of local boards of health is being more and more realized each year as the public mind becomes more strongly impressed with the fact that bad sanitary conditions are incompatible with good health; that certain diseases are preventable. The stubbornness and persistent opposition to such boards in many towns have given way to the strong evidence of facts, which, when given unsparingly to an intelligent public, will remove still greater obstacles, and thereby add to the health, peace, and prosperity of every community. It would be presumption to claim that every case of zymotic disease resulted from sink-spouts and cesspools and undrained soil, and equally so to assert that a board of health, with its almost unlimited powers, can free a given locality of diphtheria or typhoid fever, and guarantee perprotection. As yet only some crude generalities have to which some of the exceptions are most perplexing,

manent

been proven,

and seem to weaken any established theory. We are undoubtedly upon the border-land of investigation; still, many important facts have been brought out and demonstrated. That certain diseases bear an intimate relation to filthy conditions is undeniable ;— hence it follows that by the removal of such conditions sickness

may be

prevented and death averted. Evidence of this charac

ter has many times been so completely overwhelming that the relation of cause and effect could not be questioned.

From the sanitary knowledge which we already possess, the proposition cannot be controverted, that every town and city

should

have a board of health,-not such a board as the law

creates by non-interference, making the selectmen such in absence of a board appointed or elected, but a board carefully selected

from

men who take a personal interest in such matters.

Upon