Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-01-29
A Wonderful House.
BY ROSA GRAHAM.

| oG htSA 6hAhAh-
am going to talk to you, little readers,
about very wonderful house-a house
not tenanted by fairies, or genii or other
fancy folk, but by real people who live in
it from the time they are born till they die.
When | say house, do not mean single
| dwelling occupied by many persons, but
one of class exactly similar in corstruc-
ton, and in which but one person is per-
mitted to dwell. There are millions and
millions OF these houses in the world,
each possessing its solitary occupant; yet
although men and boys and girls some
times live in them a hundred years, never
| mas one roamed through their various
rooms, and but a very small number know
or care aught concerning the furniture or
| the machinery that keeps the timbers
| from falling. Every child that reads this
| sketch lives in one of these houses. and is
even now looking out of its windows.
| Let me describe it to you, and perhaps
| you can guess its name.
1t is not large house; on the contrary,
! if you should search the world you would
! find no class of buildings occupying as
| limited a space as that of which | speak
| Neither is it remarkable for height, and if
it should chance to measure eight feet it
| would rank among the rarest curiosities
compared with average houses we read
about. In Europe travellers tell us there
are buildings that have stood hundreds
of years, and even in our own country
many of you can recall houses that are at
least hundred and fifty years old. But
this house scarce exists fifty years before
it begins TO decay, and even if The great
est care prolOngs its life century it be-
comes mere wreck, quite unsatisfactory
to live in.
This house can neither be rented nor
purchased; it is bestowed free of charge
| upon its occupant, on whom rests, how
ever, the duty of keeping it in repair, the
expense of which is trifing if he follow
certain positive laws, and bring no I'M
natural strain upon the delicate frame
work. If the occupant willfully abuse
the tenement cOnfided to him, allowing
the hinges to become rusty, the rooms
uncleanly, and the general appearance
disorderly, he will receive a reward, bit
ter but well-merited always.
This house is two stories in height, pos
sesses cupola or dome, two windows,
east and west of which and below are the
doors that lead to the inner apartments,
| fifteen or twenty in number. The mate
rial of the framework is hard and difficult
| to dislOdge. 1t rests upon two pillars
| and has besides post running through
| the entire building to the base of the GU
| pola, various appendages, hinges, and an
| outer surface smooth and beautiful. All!
l forgot, it has also sort of bellows in
| the upper story without which the whole
building would Immediately decay.
What boy or girl has not guessed that
this wonderful house is the human body;
| that the cupola is the skull; the windows
the eyes; the eastern and western doors
the ears, and the southern the nose and
mouth; the framework the bones; the
two pillars the limbs; the great post the
spine; the hinges the joints; the smooth
outer surface the skin; the bellows the
air receiving and expelling lungs, on
whose healthful action depends the vital
interests of our dwelling house?
Another matter of interest concerning
the exterior of this building is its paint
or coloring matter. There are, as you
may know, three layers of outer surface
spread over the framework, and under
the lower or true skin lies soft, PUPPY
| substance, which contains the color. In
| the African this substance is black; in the
| Indian red or copper color; in the Asiatic
| yellow; in our own race white. So you
! see the skin in all races of men is exactly
| alike; their color depends on this sub
| stance lying beneath. We hear some
| times of cases where this cOloring matter
fades in spots, and even marvellous stories
| of black men turning white; but this
paint is so firmly imbedded under the
| hard membrane of the lower skin that
even such sig hts must be unworthy of be-
lief and produced only by deceptive
| means.
| Sometime we will examine into the
wonders of our outer framework, and
take peep at the furniture so artistically
scattered in the inner apartments. We
shall find more doors within and great
| moving machinery that will make us
silent with awe, and deeply grateful to
the good God who has honored our spir-
its with so perfect dwelling place
Hearth and Home.