Delaware inquirer. (Wilmington, Del.) 1859-18??, 1860-01-28
oLD-FAsHIoNED COMFORTS.

Our ancestors were frugal, self-denying
people, Injured to hardship from the cradle
they were content to be without almost all the
luxuries of life, but they enjoyed some OF its
comforts to which many of us are Strangers
old-fashioned comforts, we may term them
and, among these, the old Fireplace, as II used
TO be termed held no mean rank. How vivid
~ the picture of one of those spacious kitch-
ems of the oden time comes to our mind, with
its plain furniture, and sanded floor, innocent
of paint, but as white as the neatest OF house,
wives could make it.. In one corner stood the
old clock, its very face wearing an aspect Of
good cheer, and seeming to smile benignantly
upon miniature moon over its head, which,
tradition said, had, at remote period follow
ed the rising and setting of its great prototype
in the heavens, through its day OF active SER
vice were long ago over.
But the browning glory of that kitchen was
not its white sanded floor, nor the high desk,
with its pigeon-holes and secret drawers, that
no venturous youngsterev dared invade, nor
yet the old clock ticking so unsteady in one
corner, but ii was the old-fashioncd Fireplace,
with its blazing embers, huge backlog and iron
iire-dogs, that shed glory over the whole
room, gided the plan and homely furniture
with its bright light, and rendered the place II
fit type of true New England homes in "ye oil
den time"
Never were there such apples as those which
swing round and round upon strings before
the bright fire of winters evoning-never
such baked potatoes as those buried deep in
the ashes upon the hearth-neyer such corn
stalks as those which caught golden hue
from the blazing embers, or turkeys like those
turned slowly upon a spit, filling the room
with savory odors so suggestive of a dainty re-
past
Before the fire was the wooden settee, and
here the children were wont to sit in the long
evenings, telling stories, cracking nuts, con-
ming their lessons for the morrow, or listening
in silence to the words of wisdom that fell
from the lips ofther superors-and anon gaz-
ing in silence into the bright fire, and conjur-
ing up all stories of grotesques and fanciful
images from the burning Goals. No tabled
genii, with their magic lamps of enchantment,
could build such gorgeous palaces, or create
gems as the child could discover amid the bla-
zing embers of the old-fashioned Fireplace.
And we must not neglect the chimney cor
ner, where sat our grandfather in his accus-
toned seat-his hair silyered with the SHOWS
of many wnters--a venerable man, to whom
old age had come frostily, but kindly and
whose last days were like those of an Indian
Summer serene and beautiful, even till the
stars appeared in heaven.
How pure was the air of the room in those
days The huge Fireplace, with its brisk
draught, carried off the impurities of the at
mosphere and left the air pure, life-giving and
healthful. Now we crouch around hot cooking
stoves, and think it strange that we f'el so
stupid and drowsy of an evenings OF huddle
about sir-tight stoves, and wonder that the air
seems burnt and impure or we sit down in
chilly rooms heated by II furnace, and marvel
that with all our costly furniture, soft carpets,
bright mirrors, and damask curtains, they are
II. 10 ntrr dnna
of A New England home.
Alas that with all the so-called improve
ments of our advanced civilization the fire
should be permitted to go out forever in cur
old-fashioned fire-plsees, thus burying in tho
ashes of the past SO many means OF health,
home-comfort, good cheer and Aappiness,-
Exeter Neps Letter.