The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-29
HOUSES.

MODEL AMERICAN HOUSE.
There is an excellent chance for some spe-
oulative showman-sOme British Datnum-
realize q moderate fortune 10y importing 10
this country, erecting and eNhloiuhg, an
American house do not mean specimen
of the log cabins in which large propofuoh
of NV oouptrymen are supposed TO reside,
nov model of the modest White House. at
Washington, which is made to serve rs poor
substitute for a Presidential palace; but j
mean an average American house, such as
those which are erected In atl the cities OF the
United States for the residences OF
the mddle.class population. Compared with
a dwelling of this kind, the middle-class
houses in England seem destitute equally OF
comfort and convenience, although those VINO
have never been accustomed to anything dill
ferent or better consider them quite oOmforta-
BILE and convenient enough for all practical
purposes. But then different psople have
different minds. An Englishman absolutely
believes that he can warm a room by building
crate fire at one end OF 1t. An american
visiting this country is i'll continual shlver,
his face being scorched and his back cold, Or
Uice versa, until he becomes thoroughly aocli-
mated, and learns that the most healthy
warmth is that which exercise in the open air
jmparts to the blood.
MODEL ENGLISH FIRE.
The parade, labor, skill, and parapherDaia
required to maintain and manage an English
fire are bewilderipg to foreigner. There are
the CRATE, and the ornamented fender, and the
rug before the hearth; the steel shovel, tongs,
and poker that are kept for beauty, not for
use; and the steel poker, tOngs, and shovel
that are to be used. Need say that the
foreigner always undertakes to employ the
wrong poker, and i5 detested accordingly
Then there is the handsome ooal.box that
stands by the freside, and the ugly coal-sout-
tie which the maid carries in and out to reple-
nish the former Matches, waste paper, bundles
Of kindling wood ad ibitula, and the first issue
thereof is smoke. Presently there comes
fame, and then, after many hours of manipu-
lation, heat is generated. Not much heat,
but still enough to make one wish for more.
Meanwhile, the fire consumes the Goals with
fendish disregard of their price per sack. BY
way of revenge, l presume, everybody who
enters the room gives the fire savage poke.
But, like "Stephano's' fish in the Tempest, it
is a most delicate monster Let but foreign
hand touch the poker, and the fire grows sui
len and dies out. Every man thinks he
can dress 8 salad; every man thinks
he can poke fire; these are the two least
venial OF human errors. When the fire
dies, either naturally, or by some unskilful
touch it strews the whole fender with its
ashes. Then one of the maid-servants pro-
duces boxful of black lead and brushes,
takes away the ashes and Sits them, and, by
dint of much hard work, polishes the crate
land so troublesome, vexatious, unsatisfao
tory, and uDgrateful, rs an English fire; but
the people love it, and praise it, and shver
round it, as if it were a fire from heaven, like
that which lit the altsrs OF the gods.
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SERVANTS.
II is evident that the origin of the numer-
Gus labor-saving contrivauces in America ID
the lack of good servants but in London the
inhabitants have been complaining for years
of the lack OF good servants and are yet very
slow to introduce servant saving machines.
Americans, who know what the horrors of
servantdom really are, cannot but regard these
complaints as ill-founded. Everywhere in Eng
land, not excepting London, the servants seem
astonishingly docile, civil, willing, and well
trained. The worst London maid OF. all-work
who ever transformed lodging house into
purgatory shines like an angel by contrast
with her Irish sister in New York. The most
stupid, drunken, negligent coachman in Eng
land Is a perfect master of his business by
contrast with his brother, the independent
adopted fellow citizen who murders your
horses in the United States. Per-
haPs. the best servants we have
had in America during the past twenty
years were the black slaves in the South; but
they were exceedingly lazy, wasteful, and
expensive, so that | have often heard
Southern planter declare that he was the real
slave forced to work for his negroes. But
thirty or forty years ago there was set of
servants, mostly blacks, attached to Knioker-
booker families in New York aud New Jersey,
who were as near perfection as men aud
women can become. Those were the days of
Dutch kitchens, Dutch dishes, Dutch neat
ness, and Dutch housewifery, now long past
and never to return. With them faded away
the old faithful race of servants, who honored
and respected their employers, and were
hOnored and respected by all. Occasionally
one happens upon a descendant of this race,
with all the virtues of the good old stock;
but the accident is very rare. / remember
one of them nova negress named Diana
with whose culinary art no French cook
could compete, and with whose merits as a
woman few whittier women could compare
She lived only to show us what treasures we
had lost. But the English servants, at their
best, are precisely like these Knickerbocker
marvels. At their worst, they are so much
better than the present race of servants In
America, that any American who values his
comfort more than his democracy would do
well to exchange countries for this reason
alone. Nevertheless, we are right to fatter
ourselves that We have no good servants
because of our democracy. It is not
pleasant to think of thousands of young
men and women who grow up as SER
wants in private houses, with no ambition
beyond exchanging their domestic servtude
for the public servitude of a little landlord
ship and landladyship in minor tavern. In
America coachman may win his way into
congress, and a servant may marry a future
PRESIDENT. II we must have either discomfort
or feudalism, let us choose discomfort But
sometimes when watch the English servants
at their work it occurs to me that as there ia