Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-04-15
Open Fires and -".anteI-Pieces.


And the next pleasant thing is to look at
an open wood fire, with ample hearth,
brass andirons, fender, shovel and tongs
to match, bellows, hearth-hrush, ana
the whole surmounted by handsome
mantel-piece We ought to make more
OF sunshine in our houses all the year
round, and having trapped every sun
beam, at least in the winter months, con-
slider next the re-place with its radiant
heat and social glow as the best adjunct
to our domestic cheer. In the first place
for it's history and its poetry. Registers
and radiators have no such quality. Our
ancestors, whether of the New England
or the Old, never fought for any such
cast-iron inventions, but for their hearth
stones and their firesides. What painter
or poet could ever work up any " fine
frenzy" in celebrating the conception of
an air tight stove, or Webster furnace,
or even I" Morning Glory?" Think of
an old interior, whether of cottage, or
farmhouse, or mansion, without back
log, crane or mantel, no rudy glow, nor
quivering lights, nor dancing shadows!
Sentiment is duenched, good cheer grows
dull, and the poetry of hospitality is
gone.
What royal element is fire, emblem
of life, power, aspiration, purity-ter-
rible, beautiful-the worst master, the
legends of the fire-worshipers, in illus
trations Of sacred truths, in the useful
artist What place for air.castles and
reveries in the bed of glowing Goals and
leaping tongues of flame!
And then the mantel- piece-not a
meager, narrow shelf nor scrimping
bracket, but mantel-piece indeed, with
depth and breadth and room for shells,
and hyacnths, and broGzes, and photo
graphs of good friends, and stuffed birds
and bits of porcelain, or whatever oddi-
ties and curiosities of the mantel-piece
kind that have pleasant associations be-
longing to them, and that your purse or
fancy can afford.
"But there's the trouble We can't
afford it. Hard times and household
economy forbid" Let US think that over
twice There are luXuries, and there are
reasonable luxuries. Candies, prize
candies, cigars, fine-cut and such like !;
we will say nothing about them except
that the list is long and they absorb a
great deal of money. But health and
domestic cheer are reasonable luXuries.
Good ventilation and well-oxygenated
air are their prime conditions. Nothing
will secure these conditions like an open
fireplace. 1t is beyond all comparison
the best ventilator 1t warns the lower
part of the room, creating current
where impurities are most likely to &C
emulate, and whisking them up the
chimney. 1t sucks in the purer air from
every outside crevice and creates an in
MIGRATING flow and change. Better still
it sends out radiant heat, which is quite
different thing from heated air from
Cast-iron or sheet-iron surfaces. 1t has
penetrating and stimulating influence
the blood in way altogether more
healthy to the brain and nervous system
generally than the heated air of furnaces
or stoves. Registers and radiators are
well, especially when supplying large
volume of moderately heated air drawn
from without, rather than small
volume of over-heated air, but they are
not well enough till the fireplace or
open CRATE supplements them with its
radiant heat Even little fire on the
hearth will suffice, for it's various bene-
fits of health and comfort, and if the ar
gument of economy be very cogent, the
occasional luxury when the day is dark
and dreary or when the wind is wrong
and the furnace sullen, or when the
friend arrives, and your hospitality
Graves its best expression, it is, to say the
least, reasonable luxury. Why, the
very look of an open fire place with the
wood laid and the kindlings under, all
ready for the match, is suggestive of an
open heart kindly welcome and a
CHEEKY home.
For the sick-room there is no question
about it. 1t is a hygienic necessity. And
what is necessity for the sick-room
should set the well man a-thinking. If
you nave MUCH DTdlU WOfk 10 90, your
head hot and feet cold, your nerves tired
and a sense of goneness, dissatisfaction
and futility mingling with your best
work, reflect on the above. Economy is
sometimes double-edged. 1t may be that
you cannot afford not to have an open
fire. And by all means, if you contem
plate building house, provide for it, as
one that "loveth life and would see
many days."-SprinQtfeld Republican.
IN an account of the last hours of Vas
Quez the San Francisco Chonicle says
About half-past eight he again asked
Sheriff Adams if he could see his coffin
In compliance with his wish profusely
ornamented casket was brought into his
cell Without tremor Vasouez gazed
upon the CHASTITY affair and deliberately
began measuring it by spans. He seemed
to take q childish delight in the silver
screw-heads, and remarked as he took 6