and a few chickens will give him milk and eggs just as good and pure as Mr. Fitler, with his millions, can procure. The various companies that have been organized for the purpose make it within the reach of any one to own such a home, while the frequent train service and cheap fares make it perfectly feasible for one laboring in the city to reside in the suburbs. We have advanced thus far, where we can say that "Contentment," "Pure Air," Pure Water" and "Pure Food" are essentials to healthy life, and have we not made it clear that these four factors are as accessible to the clerk as to the millionaire. It is not the mere possession of so much wealth and that which it renders possible that makes Mr. Fitler such a healthy, happy-looking man, but it is his contentment that vouchsafes to him the health and happiness that he enjoys. To go back from our digression. After a while the hot days of Summer are upon us, and then we find our Mayor located in his palatial residence on the edge of the sea at Long Branch, a house so magnificently beautiful that it is a pleasure to gaze thereon. Can the $10.00 a week clerk go to Long Branch; yes; if he so wishes. Excursion rates are now so cheap and our seaside resorts are so full of boarding houses at reasonable prices that almost any one can enjoy the health-giving atmosphere of the seashore for a time. It is true that he cannot surround himself with the luxuries enjoyed by Mayor Fitler, but then it must be remembered that while such surroundings are all very well for one who has the wealth to possess them, yet they are not at all necessary to health. Mayor Fitler is a great friend of the working-man, and in conversation he heartily coincided with our idea, that while it would, of course, be entirely out of the question for any ordinary individual to possess that which belongs to him, yet there was and is no earthly reason why the poorest laborer should not enjoy the same hygienic advantages that are accessible even to the Mayor of this great city. Mayor Fitler thoroughly believes in hygiene, and in this fact we recognize that he is abundantly endowed with that rarest of all senses, Common Sense," for we have always maintained that there is pre-eminently the savor of common sense attached to all the teachings of hygiene. There is one point in connection with hygiene that we have always had a desire to see demonstrated, namely, the possibility of plumbing, when an intelligent plumber was given "carte blanche" by a man with whom expense was no consideration. This problem has been demonstrated to us by Mayor Fitler's experience with his three homes. When he first purchased these truly palatial mansions, it was not uncommon for both His Honor and Mrs. Fitler to suffer more or less with ill-health. Believing thoroughly, as we have already stated, in the efficacy of hygiene, and recognizing that good plumbing is one of the foundation stones of our science, Mayor Fitler called into requisition the services of an intelligent plumber, with the result that, as the natural and inevitable result of such magnificent plumbing as he now has, there is no more sewer gas in Mr. Fitler's residences. Of course, the expense will preclude such plumbing for the multitude, but the plumbing of Mayor Fitler's house may be accepted as an ideal to be approached as closely as possible. We would be glad if every one of our readers could see the ideal wash-room on the first floor of Mayor Fitler's residence; no wood-work, no paper-tiles, beautiful tiles everywhere; nothing organic to be rotted by the splashing water; nothing that water can spoil, so that absolutely perfect cleanliness is attainable. The whole house is a dream of refined elegance, but this particular wash-room would especially delight the heart of the sanitarian. Having now, in a general way, outlined our idea that the efficacies of hygiene are as accessible to the ordinary individual as to this man of unlimited wealth, we feel that to complete our article a brief reference must be made to Mayor Fitler's individuality. We have already given as our reason for selecting His Honor to typify our idea, that, because of his wealth and intelligence he could avail himself of all that there is in hygiene, while, because of his prominence, people would like to read of his doings, and his example would be followed. That Mayor Fitler is a healthy, happy, and contented man, a study of his portrait will demonstrate. As in the case of so many of our great men, domestic felicity has had much to do with Mayor Fitler's success in life. As in all well-regulated households, Mrs. Fitler has been truly a "helpmate" for His Honor, while his family of handsome sons and daughters have been to him a source of justifiable gratification and pride. This is, from a hygienic view, a more important point than will appear at the first glance, for domestic felicity is a mighty hygienic factor. Mayor Fitler is, as his portrait indicates, a man of great dignity and courtly demeanor, and just here we would give expression to a thought that has been frequently in our mind when we encounter "His Honor' on the street. The late Justice Miller, of the United States Supreme Court, once remarked that he was tired to death of having characterless men in the White House, and that he would like to say good-bye, for a time, to negative Presidents, and to see how the country would get along under a positive one. With Justice Miller, we have often thought it a pity that the Presidents of this great country have been, as a rule, of late years, men not only of but little dignity, but men who for many reasons were not equal to the dignity of this office. We believe that, with Mayor Fitler in the White House, Justice Miller's ideal would be realized. Wealth, health, dignity, culture, a handsome presence, a courtly demeanor, the ability to royally receive and entertain, just such attributes as would best become the ruler of a great nation, these attributes are possessed in a marked degree by Mayor Fitler. It is with a feeling of great satisfaction that we have learned of Mayor Fitler's great practical interest in hygiene, for it encourages us to believe, as we have always hoped and trusted, that when our glorious science has received the sanction, support, and hearty cooperation of the leaders of men, then it is but a question of time until all humanity will be as a great family of sanita |