The need of a laundry room is extreme at this season of the year. It is not possible to do washing without the house becoming somewhat damp from the steam which arises from the hot water, and in this case there are little ones in the family, they are almost sure to contract colds on each washday and thus suffer from such local congestion during the winter. This should not be regarded lightly. "Nothing but a cold" is an expression too commonly heard.

But before building and equipping a laundry room at home, think over the possibility of a co-operative laundry whose expenses and benefits may be shared by the entire neighborhood. It may not be practicable in all cases. the admonition is simply to think on this matter and decide what is best in your particular case, remembering that laundry work done in the kitchen in the winter is always a menace to family health. Meanwhile the following suggestions may help to tide over winter washdays with lessened dangers and hardships.

When washing is done in a room not under the same roof with the same part of the house, the dampness may be confined to that and the adjoining room, thus keeping the living room largely free from drafts; but when such work is done in the kitchen the living room adjoining is usually damp and cold, because the little ones find many excuses for opening the door to go where mother is even though not permitted to remain there.—University Farm News

A New Year's message with a most emphatic "punch" in it, dedicated "to the well being of the general public," and written by a safety first advocate, was issued to every employee of the Frisco Railroad system January 1. It was entitled "Alcohol," and it says:

"Alcohol: It is bad company and unsafe to be with. It throws switches wrong; it reads orders wrong; it sends orders wrong. It receives orders wrong; it calls red white; it never calls white red. It makes caution orders without effect; it makes slow flags with out color.

"It makes one meeting point another; it makes wakeful men sleepy.

"It makes duties dangerous, hot boxes cold, rough journals smooth. It makes pilots, and footboards death traps. it makes good men bad men; duties dangerous. It makes two limbs one and it makes widows and orphans. It is against safety; unsafety is its name.

"Statistics show that it has killed more people than all the wars of the world since the dawn of history.

"It has been said and proven that it sank the Titanic."—American Advance

Madison, Wis., Jan. 19.—The Wisconsin vice commission has practically decided to recommend to the state legislature in 1915 that every first, third and fourth class city of the state be required to have at least one woman police officer. This is the outcome of the investigation now in progress.