Evening star., 1898-04-30
TO ENJOY AN OPEN FIRE.

II have made a great discovery this past
winter" said Hawkins to Simpson, as the
car came down the hill.
Whats that?" asked Simpson.
We'll, SIR" replied Hawkins, you would
hardly believe it, but l am pretty near
Efty-five years old; and was born and
brought up III hardwood county in Ohio
where my fathers uncle used to haul back
logs into the fireplace with a yoke of cat
tie. You know how they did that, don't
you? They linked two or three big log
chains together and run them in one door
and out the other; then the steers just
walked away from the house and the log
walked in and turn two with a hand
spike put Mr.. Log right into the big black
stone chimney, where he would glow and
sparkle for week or two before he crum-
bled to ashes, and his successor lay at the
door ready to come in and take his place
1 grew up i'll front of that old fireplace
Many a bowl of samp and hominy l have
eaten right there on the hearthstone sit
ting on e little slab stool. Oh, my life;
weren't those happy days! What digestion
How good that samp was! And hulled corn
boiled all day with just little lye in the
water! I tell you, don't realize what
civilization owes to good corn and open
men that were made of corn and fire!
We"
Treasury Department. Transfer for
Georgetown!' interrupted the conductor
Several times that day Simpson Won
dered what Hawkins discovery was, and
as many times he had to go back and foot
up the long columns of internal revenue re-
turns on which he was serving his country
at S1,GOO a year.
That night. as Hawkins boarded his car
to go home, there sat Simpson.
Il was telling you," resumed Hawkins,
"about Ohio and the old fireplace this
morning, and l have had a blazing log fire
in my mind all day. No wonder we grew
up to be fire worshipers. The best men,
ory l have of the war is of the iires we
had in camp and on the march. How the
south did burnt Nothing like that pitch
pine except the pinon we had out in Colo
rado when l was ranching twenty years
ago. That burns like butter, never used to
light lamp to read by. Just lay down on
the deerskih floor before the fire and the
light was steady as kerosene. We"
You said you had made a discovery"
suggestively interrupted Simpson.
"Oh, yes; l have, and it's great. AS
said I've lived half a century or so, and
loved fires all my life and never knew it
until this last winter You know, when l
was little chap eating my bowl of Samp
in the fireplace, the fire would snap and
cIackle and throw sparks and Goals at me.
Many a time l felt them before saw them.
Sometimes they burned a little round hole
through my trousers or wastcoat. Down
south the camp fires sometimes popped like
the muskets of the JohnnieS. In Colorado
wet pinon knot would crack like an OK
drivers whip
"Eut where does your discovery come
ln?' said Simpson, somewhat impatiently,
as he saw the streets flying by and foresaw
slecrless night of worry ahead of him if
he did not set the nub of Hawkins story
before he got off the car.
"Oh, that's 50! 1t is this: 1 have been en-
1oylnS the luxury of an open fire all the
time Eve been in Washington. Buy sea-
soned hickory. Sometimes have paid $40
cord for it. 1 believe it has added ten years
to my life. And it was only two or three
months go learned how to burn it. We've
always had little trouble in family
over 1t. My wife SWearS-declareS ] should
say-that it has bdrned up good rug
every year. L won't have one OF these
fancy brass screens mixed in with my fire.
No, SIR. l want my fire straight and full
strength. How to Eave a good open FIRE
and not set the house on fire has peen
1oblcm. l have solved it completely. Put
your log on endwise and it Will not throw
out a single spark. Just try it! Don't put
al other stick on across your andirons and
parallel with the chimney back But have
your wood cut short, about eighteen inches,
then put two ilon bars across your and
irons and on them lay your sticks with the
ends out toward the rug. Not a single
spark or coal will ever fly out. There Is
scientific reason fog 1t. The wood cells run
1engthwise of the tree; when moisture in
them is suddenly converted to gas by the
heat there is al: explosion and the sparks
fly out along the path of least resistance.
Now, just twist that path around a ,luar-
ter Of the circle so the length of the Stick
of wood is parallel with the sides of your
chimney, and you are all right and balnly
ptacc VIII abide with you and your wife.
That's something mankind never knew be-
fore David and Methusaleh lived and
died ignorant of 1t. Napoleon Bonaparte
and Darwin never thought Of it. Time and
mind for centuries have gone on without
its bepeiiccnce. 1t remained for a Hawk
ns to bring it forth from the outer dark
ness of things unknown and unthought of
for the eternal comfort and happiness cf
man. Try it, Simpson! Here's your street,
Goodnight old boy