Life, 1906-11-01 · page 43 of 56
Life — November 1, 1906 — page 43: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct elements: an informational article on winter ventilation and period furnishings advertisements. **Left side:** A serious health article warns that overheated, poorly ventilated homes—common in that era—spread illness. It explains how sealed rooms accumulate "crowd-poison" (carbon dioxide and other noxious gases) and advocates opening windows daily. A humorous illustration shows a waiter apologizing because an elderly woman ("Mrs. Mullins") ate all the dessert meant for a boy—likely satirizing the complaint that in stuffy rooms, people lose appetite or behave oddly. **Right side:** An advertisement for The Verbeck, Whybrow & Crossley Company promotes "period furnishing" (historically accurate interior design). It contrasts authentic, carefully designed period rooms with cheap commercial imitations, appealing to affluent customers who valued tasteful, historically researched home decoration. The photograph shows an actual English drawing room they furnished. Both pieces reflect early 20th-century concerns: public health awareness and the emerging middle-class aspiration toward refined, historically-informed domestic environments.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
war wer egun pugh wld bare erythirg Ventilation in Winter T IS beginning to be more generally realized that the overheating and faulty ventilation of dwellings is an important factor in predisposing to many forms of illness. The custom of living in rooms habitually kept at a temperature above seventy degrees Fahrenheit, and with the atmosphere surcharged with noxious: gases and deficient in the moisture necessary for the health of the delicate linings of the air-passages, renders. the body much less able to resist the effects of exposure tocold and wet, and is one of the most important reasons why, in some families, coughs and cclds are matters of everyday occurrence. The stuffiness of the air produced by the presence of numerous people in small rooms is due not only to the consumption of oxygen and the accumulation of carbon dioxid gas, but also to the formation in small quantities of a highly poisonous substance called “crowd-poison.” In addition, noxious gases arise from the imperfect combustion of coal in stoves or furnaces and of gas or oil in other forms of heaters, while the air in steam-heated apartments is always rmally dry, unless special pains are taken to supply the necessary moisture. Owing to the means of heating and the increased 2 mount of artificial illumina- tion, the frequent airing of rooms is even more essential in winter than in sum- mer, and at least once a day fresh air from outdoors should be allowed to circulate through each room. If the apartment must be occupied while this is done, thorough ventilation is possible without danger by resort to an old and simple but very effective plan. A board about six inches wide is cut so that its length equals the width of the window, and is placed on the edge under the lower sash, which is shut down upon it. In this way air enters freely through the space between the two sashes, but the current is directed upward, and no draft is felt in the room. Tt should not be forgotten that the ideal plan permits the escape of the stale airat the same time that fresh air is being admitted, and that an open fireplace in operation forms one of the most satisfactory means of household ventilation. —Youth’s Companion, + VERY SORRY, SIR, BUT OLD MRS. MULLINS JUST CAME IN AND GOT OUR OF DESSERT FOR THAT BOY OF HERS. A Time-Mellowed English Drawing-Room Furnished By Us in Germantown, Philadelphia. Furnishing Plus Sentiment A few wall-panels and a so-called suite of Louis XVI or Sheraton furniture don’t make a period room! Except the dry-goods-store-sort. We plead for mellow colouring, arrange- ment—atmosphere—in “assembling” that shall reflect the sentiment and life of the time —human interest. “The silks that softer fade To a dream of vanished roses, Woven in an old brocade."* Good period-furnishing means a designer who possesses the infinite capacity for taking pains, and who has a song in his heart. This describes our entire staff. Do you know that all our furniture, mural effects, wall-papers and stuffs are copied from historic originals; and cost no more than the half-baked commereial sort? We invite you to call at our studios, or will wait upon you at your house anywhere in the United Statts. Or we will, upon request, send you colour- schemes with attendant samples of wall-papers and stuffs, or colour-sketches, if you will send on a rough plan of your room or house. Also, if you are collecting pieces of furniture, let us know in what you are interested, and half-tone engravings will go forward—no obligation to purchase on your part, no importunity on ours. Write for literature and booklets. THE VERBECK, WHYBROW & CROSSLEY CO. (Incorporated) Period Furnishers and Decorators, Mauser Building, Two Hundred Ninety-Eight Fitth Avenue, Corner Thirty-First Street, New York. comicbooks.com