The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1862-04-25

after houses, aHd its chief end the altering
Of carpets and putting up of bedsteads, and
has introduced the omnipresent furniture
wagon, that melancholy fact in modern civ
ilization, so suggestive of outraged house.
hold affections unnatural institution
of people who have ceased to regard per-
manency of abode among the cardinal vir.
tues. The heart cannot be brought again
to its right tone, or the life grow rich in
home affections, till we shall fall back upon
the wisdom of our fathers, who thought
good deal of owning their homes-tiIl we
shall do something toward securing for our
children, memories as pleasant as those
which form so large part of our past. To
how many of US is the old place-humble
though it be-the Mecca of our memories,
to which our affections make perpetual, in
voluntary pilgrimage? Was it no sacrifice
of our fathers that gave to us this boon,
and shall we sacrifice nothing to secure it
our children?
Now what are the essentials to be kept
in mind in building home? put at the
head of the requisites of house its fitness
for domestic purposes. The house is
place to be used by family for work, for
comfort. for sickness and for health. 1t is
place to be constantly and variously used.
1t should be primarily adapted to home
wants. There should be fitness in all its
parts to the great ends of home. 1t need
not be large, it need not be costly, but it
must be convenient, adapted to the means
and position of the builder-no way encum>
bering but every way helping him.
Is this so in general? Is it with regard
to the purposes of use and fitness that hous
es are built? If you will take the wide
range of farm house, cottage, suburban and
city residences, owned or rented, I think
you will find that they are built either with.
out plan, or to suit a lot, or to crafty
whim, or to bring more income or to make
a show.
Man is the only animal who, in the con.
struction of home, has ventured to disre.
gard the great law of fitness. He has
bullded for every purpose but that of utility.
The cell of the bee, the nest of the bird,
the burrow of the fox, the web of the spider,
are exactly suited to the wants of the in.
habitants. Each builder knows what he
requires, and at once, with the utmost econ.
omy and ingenuity, sets himself to the task.
Instinct does no less for man, and the home
of the savage, the wigwam OF the Indian,
the hut of the Esquimaux, the tent of the
Arab, are just what the condition of the
occupant demands. The house is the type
of the civilization OF the inhabitants. 1t
is only as you come to the more advanced
stages that there is a departure from this
law of fitness, an intrusion of other things
into the idea of home. When wisdom
| and culture supplant instinct, when the in.
tellect asserts and attains its mastery over
the animal, when society is formed and con-
vention rules, the house begins to lose the
| simpler, more natural characteristics of
fitness and use, the advancing man content
only when he has grated on some whim,
or followed some fashion, or made some dis
play, converting his home, not into a
reflection of his own thought and
want, but into an undigested mass
of rooms and appliances Windows
doors, gables, piazzas, without meaning and
without Value and without beauty. 1t is
about house as it is about dress. Every.
thing should mean something, even the Or
naments. Nothing is more meaningless
than the larger proportion of dresses one
sees. They have no beauty, no substantial
value; they do not add to, but substract
from your idea of the wearer. They en-.
cumber without adorning, they conceal
where they were meant to enhance, they
caricature where they are supposed to en-
noble. So it is with house. If you want
merely to snow that you can spend money,
or have the ambition to attract attention,
or be unlike your neighbors, that is one
thing if you want to build home for
yourself and your children, one which you
and they shall love, where you wish the
household virtues to take root and grow,
that is quite another. If your house is to
be mere show place, and your ambition to
excite vulgar approval or envy, you may
sacrifice utility to appearance but if you
are going to build home, the homely, COM
mon, ever-wanted things must be close by,
compact, ard convenient, to be used at no
waste of temper, time, or strength. UtilSty
should be the Alpha and Omega in home.
know that some of the most bome-ish
ito use word you will not find in the Die
tionary) looking places in the country-the
farm houses which have been the true homes
and nurseries of New England character -
have wanted not only the graces but the
conveniencies of more modern days. The
house is large, not wholly occupied or even
finished, poorly arranged and not over tight.
ly built, while the we'll is in the yard, and
in long row stretch outhouses and barns.
The architect today brings all these into
snugger compass, but the architect of to-
day omits one element of the old home
which made amends for all this, which the
taste, the advance or the mistake of the
present generation compels him to omit. l
mean the large, cheerful, generous old kitch>
en-, the place where many man and woman
OF silks and fashion was brought up-the