Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-02-09
OPEN WOOD FIRES.


OPEN WOOD FIRES.
Hints to Those Nho Would Enjoy
From the New York suns
Since the taste for the open wood fire re-
vived many new houses have been built
with ample tireplaces. and many old ones
have been altered so as to be supplied with
| this old necessity and new luxury. while
ancient androns have been brought out
fl ON holes and corners to grace the hearth.
But many persons have ccntented them
selves with the shallow, narrow fireplaces
designed for coal fires and with the mod
ern cheap andirons of spun brass.
The New York fireplace at best is apt to
have an artificial look, for nobody has a
wood pile in his back yard and man to
chop his firewood so the New Yorker with
a fireplace, great or small has his wood
sent seasoned from the mill and sawed
even at both ends If anything can de-
stroy the beauty of an open fire it is those
artficial-looking logs with their mathe-
matically parallel ends and their dead. sap
less bark. The real log fire should be of
unseasoned wood, so that one may hear
the sap stew and smell the aromatic, sac
rificial odor of the trees living tissues,
which in the case of seasoned wood, are
consumed in advance by the slow combus-
ton involved in the seasoning. The sea-
scned log is half Burned before it comes
to the fireplace, and half the poetry is
dried out of it's lifc!ess body. The fire of
unSea SoEed logs is to the fire of seasoned
logs as juicy broiled steak an inch and
a half thick is to the thin beaten steak
fried to a crisp and dry as punk. 1t is
well to have a few seasoned loss to make
a sudden heat, but for a lasting. pictur-
esque fire to keep q mans body warm of a
long winter evening and to nourish his
imagination, the proper thing is unSeaSon-
ed wood, still redolent of the forest ana
unspoiled Of civilization.
Utterly unworthy is the trick of obtaining
a so-called picturesque fire by having the
legs soaked in copperas In order That IN
burning they may simulate the brilliant
coiorS of the drift-wood fires that burn in
great fireplaces along the coast The only
proper wood fire is that obtained from logs
with rough-hewn ends, still rich in sap.
clothed with living bark, and not too often
split. Two split logs of generous size and
two smaller round logs make an admir-
able fire. and it is all the better if the fire
place be large enough to take them from
thirty inches to three feet long. 1t IS a
mistake to suppose that green wood burns
badly. Logs from a tree less than twelve
hours felled will burn brilliantly. though
they do not consume with the unseemly
haste of seasoned wood.
Hickory is considered the best wood for
open fires. Even seasoned hickory will
carry fire for long time, and log of
green hickory may be buried in ashes at
bedtime, uncovered the next morning, and
with five minutes work of the bellows
blown into lively flame. If covered deep
enough it will waste but little in all the in
tervening hours. Oak makes a brilliant hot
fire. but being less dense than hickory will
not last so long. One hickory log four
inches in diameter will outiast, perhaps,
twice its bulk of oak. Maple, round green
logs of the pin oak, sassafras, and three or
four other of the native woods, burn Well
though most of them rapidly. 1t is a sin
to burn elms but an elm butt with part of
the root makes a lasting fire. The tulip
tree is on no account to be used unless
nothing else is to be had. for it burns i'll
when green, goes like finder when dry, and
in either case snaps great burning Goals q
yard or more beyond the fireplace. The
Connecticut parson who, having received
from a deacon twenty cords of white birch
asked for twenty more to help quench
he'll fire. seems to have done injustice to
the WOOD unless Connecticut white birch
of early days was different from that of
the Adirondack region, for up in the New
York wilderness white birch makes a good
fire. Chestnut is another of the light.
snappy woods not to be depended upon for
the hearth.
The man that is not too poor to have the
right kind of wood fire and not too busy to
enjoy it should now and then drop all else
and give himself up to this indulgence.
Nobody ever saw TWO WOOD 1lreS allke, ana
nobody ever saw successful one that was
not beautiful. 1t is a proper and COM
rnendabIe late Saturday night Indulgence
to turn down the lights and the logs
shoulder ard slowly fall into embers. This
operation may well last an hour, and when
the silent observer is brim full of revery,
the time has come to cover the fire and go
to bed. Covering the fire is an almost for
gotten art in these parts because too many
uneaSiiy neat housewives sanction the sac
riege of sweeping up and carrying out
each morning all the ashes from the fire
of the night before. Then there are some
cautious persons that eXtinguish the en-
bers at night with water an act that seems
almost like taking life. If, however, the
ashes have been spared for three or four
nights, and the inmates of the house have
no nervous fears touching live Goals left to
themselves, the ceremony Of covering the
fire may appropriately end Saturday
nights revery. A deep bed should be
scraped until the bricks Of the hearth are
laid bare and into this bed thick, we'll
fired brand should be rolled. Over this
should be poured the embers, and over
them the warm ashes, till not a spark or
glimmer shows in the darkened room.
Half dozen pats of the shovel on the
mound of ashes will complete the task.
and the life of the fire is prolonged until
Sunday morning. No good man should per-
init his hearth fire to die the winter
through, and ell the train of legendary
house fairies come to bless the hearth that
is warm from midnight to dawn