The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-07-22
ARCHITECTURE A TATTlER.

Peoples Characters Judged From the
Styles of the Houses They Live In.
Did you ever notice that houses have
rs distinct characteristics as people?
Certain styles of architecture ara
genuine embodiments in wood and
stone of the kind of lives the occupants
lead, and it needs but a Tying railway
trip to note these wayside telltales-
Take first the large stone mansion,
gray, solemn and rigidly correct, with
no graceful feminine touches IN window
drapsries, no hanging b. Its in tie
broad piazza The trees az eut down
within radius of square so that no
natural beauty can hide or tract from
this monument that has b an erected
solely through mans hoa-ding and
mans industry.
The occupant is perhaps old, feeble,
penurions, yet proud of his grand home,
which never shows the twinkling lights
OF hospitality cleaning through the
countless windows, never echoes To tine
sound of guests gay laughter, but
stands grim, awe-inspiring and magnii-
cent, perpetual reminder of the wealth
of its owner.
A little further on is much smaller
but no less handsome structure. Here
are hammocks on the 10, rats20
chairs and settees brought out into the
open air. the windows are open and the
sound of piano and banjo floats out
and you catch glimpse of girl in
white and man in regulation tennis
costume. The drive shows marks of
many and recent carriage wheels The
dog rises lazily TO greet a new guest as
though the ceremony was so oft repeat
ed he soon grew tired of being too
demonstrative. The entire house re-
fleets the character of the inmates,
wealthy, genial, hospitable people who
look upon life as period of endless en-
joyment and do all they can to make
everyone within their gates feel the
same way
The train makes a sudden dash
through the woods and just on the
other side stands dwelling typical of
so many lives we meet every day Right
in the midst of natures wondrouS
beauty they have no share in it Grim,
angular and forbidding, the colorless
structure stands minus any attempt at
decoration, its staring windows uncov-
cred from the binding rays of the sun,
not Towering plant blooming in the
severely practical garden. The paint,
long since weather beaten and changed
from all semblance TO its original color,
and the occupant, tall, gaunt woman
who gives the passing train but a mo-
mentary glance and then bends her
body over the washtub with extra vigor
as if to compensate for that one heeting
moment when she obtained glimpse of
another world so different from her own.
Are there not just such lives being
| lived all about u.s. hearts that are shut
against the beauty close at hand, and
! burden-bearers who make their trials
harder by not accepting the helps and
wayside offerings of natures lavish
hand? As if to compensate for the pit
iful, colorless existence that the revolv-
ing wheels permitted US to look upon
there soon comes into view a picture
that warns the heart and sends us out
into the world with loving remem-
brance of its beauty. A house with no
pretentions to style; brown, homely
and struggling. The paint is off in
many places, but trailing vines hide the
bare spots from outsiders eyes The
windows are draped prettily in
cheap muslin. A canary bird hangs in
its cage on the porch and sings as if his
little soul would burst through the tiny
body, An open window on the lower
floor shows US a group of girls, one at
the sewing-machine and others cutting
and fitting. A CHEEKY voice from the
kitchen calls out: Dinners ready
and we can imagine the sunny, buxom
woman who owns il. Under that roof
is more content, though less riches,
than in many a grander home. The
little effort to hide their necessary
makeshifts from the world but draw
them closer together and when the
busy sewers at last leave the rambling
old farm house for the snug, coy
homes of their own they may have
more style but it will never seem To
them like the roof-tree under which
they passed their trying yet happy
childhood days.-Phiiadelphia Times.