Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-06-21
OPEN FIREPLACES.
BY CHRISTINE rrRHUNE HERR1cK.
Tcopyriohted, 1886. I

l'care to accept the last proviso OF good
Sarah Battles famous conditions for en-
joyment, all the lovers of social comfort
and home cheer will grant that for the
perfection of these the two first are es-
sentials. A notable change of opinion
has taken place nthIs respect during the
last few years. Foreigners were for a
long time In the habit of making them
selves merry over the American fashion
OF gathering around hole in the floor, and
professed a royal contempt for any good
fellowship that could be developed about
register or close stove. There NAV be a
strong streak Of Mark Tapley philosophy
in the American character, but fun and
jollity prevailed even under those circum-
stances. A few old-fashloned spirits
chung to the open fireplace, and its use
was advocated by doctors and practical
students OF hygiene. While these recon-
mendations may have proved the enter
ing wedge, it was reserved for fashion to
finally make the family hearth the rage.
ana to do away with the black fire
gods, at whose shrine we had SO long
bowed.
From the aesthetic standpoint the bene.
1ts OF the change can hardly beOveresti-
mated. Do what one may, a stove,
register or steam heater can never be
made artistic. The only successful effort
That can be put forth is by keeping them
thoroughly in the background to render
them as unobtrusive and thus as unObjec-
tionable as possible. But around the
open fire cluster all associations of poetry
and brightness. 1t has been the symbol
OF testivity and pleasure making from the
earliest records Oftbe old English yule log
and the merry games Of All HallOw Eve
about the wide-mouthed fireplaces down
to the present day, when the prettily
tiled hearth, with its brass fender and
andirons and blazing sticks, forms the
nucleus OF the home. There is hardly
need to refer to the poets and prose writ
ers, from Cowper to Tx Marvel, who have
Wanted its praises ogiYe it fresh attrac-
tiveness.
Considered IN hygienic light, there is
as much TO be said in favor of the open
fire. AS means OF ventilation it is un-
surpassed, for the Impurities of the at
mosphere are naturally drawn up the
chimney by the draught Of her air aud
vanish in smoke. 1t is especially to be
commended in cases OF sickness. A we'll
known physician is reported to have said
that one of the best safeguards against
cholera or malarial troubles is a brisk
blaze in the bedroom each evening and
morning. The great secret of purifying
the air is to render it thoroughly dry, as
the germs which cause disease cannot
exist without moisture. Another medi-
cal writer, in recent essay treating Of
scarlet fever and how to nurse patients
suffering from IL. mentions as best of all
means OF disinfection an open CRATE.
In warming a room the philosophy of the
open fire lies in the fact that Instead of
heating the air to excess, as is the case
with stoves and furnaces, the rays from
the blaze warm also the walls, ceiling
and floor Of the room. and these in turn
modify the temperature OF the atmos-
phere.
One great objection urged against the
open fireplace is that it requires too much
trouble and attention. All care of this
sort is comparative, and regarded in this
light it may be questioned whether it is
more labor TO take charge Of a wood or
coal fire in an open CRATE than to look alter
one in an air-tight stove. The chief exer-
ton entailed by either consists in the
fetching and carrying OF fuel and ashes.
1t is pleaded, too, that an open fire
causes more dust than a stove. But may
not the additional healthfulness gained
by free ventilation serve to cOunterbal-
ance this?
Let the open fireplace be considered as
an ornament. Even in a house heated
by steam or furnace, a little blaze on the
hearth imparts an air of cheer and
coziness to the family sitting room. In
many homes the reign OF registers and
stoves has caused the closing OF the fire.
places and the substitution of grim sum-
mer fronts which suggest nothing more
than the door Of a miniature Newgate,
shutting of brightness and comfort. If
there is any pretense OF a fireplace let an
effort be made to bring it into service. A
coal CRATE is CHEEKY and coke makes a
pretty IRE, bat for cleanliness and mini
mum of annOyances wood leads the van.
With small trouble a coal crate can be
made suitable for burning wood. The
CRATE itself may be taken out, and if il is
one OF the Philadelphia make, with hole
to let the ashes fail into the cellar below
the aperture may be covered with a
square of sheet iron that may be removed
at will, thus saving the labor of carrying
the ashes off by hand. OF course a fire.
place constructed especially for using
wood can be rendered more ornamental
than coal crate. Surrounded with pic
turesque tiles, lined and ilOored with
bright fire brick, and large enough to
allow ample space for tall brass andirOns,
IL might cast the humber imitation into
the shade, were the two brought into
direct comparison, a case which seldom
occurs.
A disused fireplace can be prettily re-
n0Vated by any one Win little skill and "a
pot of paint. A young girl of an artistic
turn of mind transformed a wide old fire
place by colOring the time-stained bricks
bright vermiliOn, painting the mortar with
black. Across the mantelpiece she
painted birds nest on a swinging branch
and beneath, in struggling rustic letters,
"East, west, homes best.'
The old-tashioned Franklns, with their
brass knobs and rOsettes, are popular
again, and happy is the pOssessOr of one.
They can be found once In while at an
auction store. or picked up in the country
for small amount, but generally the
owners have grown too wise to let them
go without getting good round sum in
return. Tolerable copies are made-at a
high price-but they usually lack the
quaint OrnamentatiOn and the flavor OF
antiquity that lend a charm to the Origi-
nails.
Unless one can find andirOns and fen
der, shovel, tongs and poker in some out
of-the-way nook far from the city, or is so
fortunate as to possess them as n heritage,
1t is rather difficult 20 it uD a fireplace at
"A moderate sum. New andirOns. even
small ones, rarely cost less than 81 or s.;
and tenders are even more expensive i'm
proportion. The smaller utensils, if Only
brass mounted, are not so high priced,
and gay scarlet bellows and hearth brush,
with brisues of the same color, can be
purchased at from Toe. to VI each. The
hearth brush is a sine QitG non. One old
lady, whose hearth was always a model OF
neatness, used TO earnestly assure her
a. Ia. a L. a.