The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1874-12-09
For THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN.
LETTER FROM REV. JOHN BOYLE.

oIdl TedoOno' = uGil L lduuou h0'S l. H~
very little idea about the customs of the pee
pie, the city, houses, furniture, food, &C., &c
When in Baltimore, ascended to the tol
of Washington Monument to get a good vieV
of the city. A perfect sea of red 6ricj
houses lay beneath, and stretched away upol
all sides, covered with smooth, neat roofs o
shingles, or perhaps some with slate; anC
wide, regular streets intersected each othel
everywhere. How different this city would
appear. You would look down upon a large
city with not solitary frame house in it
all built of brick, but as white as possible
The bricks are very soft, whether because
they are made of poor clay, or are imper
fectly burned, cannot say, and when exposed
to the weather for few months they melt
away; so the walls of the houses are built
very roughly with these, (the layer of mortar
between being almost as thick as the bricks
and then plastered we'll both inside and out.
At first they are pure white and quite pretty,
but in course of time become dingy and
mouldy, and need to be whitewashed. Some
of them instead of being thus left white, are
tiled; a. e., covered on the outside with thin
blocks of plaster about four or five inches
square, which are figured with various col
Ors, which gives the house the appearance of
being papered on the outside. No house can
be covered with shingles; all have tile roofs.
These tiles are different from those just
spoken Of; they are simply troughs of clay,
burnt like bricks or crockery, Is inches long
and 6 across. Large, roughly-hewn beams
are laid from one gable to the other. Upon
these are placed the rafters, which are poles
about the size of mans arm, with the bark
simply peeled off, Across these again are
laid long, thin, splintery strips, and upon
these are placed the tiles: first two rows are
laid together, with the edges up, and then
row is laid with the edges down in the first
two, thus covering the crack between them.
They are heavy enough to be kept in place
without mailing. If the roofs of houses in
Palestine are made in this way, it was not
difficult for those who bore the sick man to
Jesus to take up the roof and let him down.
Tiles make very heavy, cumbersome.
looking roof. Not only is the outside ap-
pearance of houses different from those at
home, but the internal arrangement is as
different as possible. The ground floor is
always of brick, or cement (which has been
lately iptrodqced.) The floors of parlors and
halls are sometimes of marble of different
colors usually white aud blue.) This makes
very pretty floor and no carpet is used on
it except a square piece under the centre
table. The brick floors become very damp
in the rainy season, unless raised considera-
bly, above the level of the ground.
The first thing that would strike you on
entering house would be that there are no
ceilings; everything open up to the ugly,
unsightly roof; the next thing is that the
partition walls are only about eight feet high,
not built up to the roof, so that standing in
one room you can see the whole roof, almost
and you feel that you are in great barn.
More than that, there is no such thing as
private conversation, except in whisper
your neighbOr over the wall there, in the
next room, or even in the farthest room, will
hear all you say. To make the thing more
public, they make as many doors as possible,
all double or folding, and every one has over
it transom, and instead of having sash
and glass in this, have only some wire wick
er-work, to make it pretty. You need moi
put your ear to the key-hole to hear your
neighbor's secrets
Do you think it very ridiculous in the peo
pie to build their houses 80 Well, come
and build one of your foreign houses, with
tight doors and ceiled rooms, and you could
not live in it; you would suffocate Al
day long, from nine o'clock in the morning
we have fine sea. breeze, and all night {
very cool land-breeze. Now, these tile roof
keep out all the rain, but the wind pssse
up between and under them, so that there i
good breeze through the house all tn
time so in this respect the people are no
such heathens after all.
But suppose the house is more than on
story high? Well, of course, the rooms o
the lower stories are ceiled, and the floors o
the upper stories are of plank. If one fam
lily occupies the whole house they sleep u
stairs, and have the parlOr, oratory, dining
room, kitchen, &C., below. If family OF
cupies fat, "a. g., one of the StorieS) and
be below, then they must compensate a
e much as possible in some other way. This
: done, to certain extent, by peculiar al
j rsngement of the windows of all the house
s here. They do not slide up and down, lik
those at home, but swing on hinges, are a
ways double, and open into the room tf
} upper half of the sash is filled with glass
s admit light; the lower half is filled wit
= Stats like the green shutters at home, whic
Il admits air. Sometimes large pane of gla
is fixed into part of the sash, and fastent
on hinges to the sash of the whole windO'
and open, through which the air enters
; For security, heavy, board.shutterS are {
: the inside, which fold back, and fit into Il
= thick walls, and are only closed to keep o
;; the sun and the robbers.