The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-16
IN THE DAYS OF THE
 OLDFASHION FIRE PLACE
BY ALMA RITTENBERRY.

knew anything about a chimney No traces of such a fixture have been dis covered in any ancient ruins. Those of Hurculaneun and Pompeii show us that for the purpose of cooking and warmth their inhabitants were supplied with pans or small portable furnaces, containing live coals. It was one of the accomplish ments of perfect cook in the age when these utensils were employed as Sosi- batter says: 'To know which way the wind blows" and Vitruius Is quoted as saying with reference to these expedients that 'these should be only plain cor nices In rooms where there are to be fires and lights. as more elaborate orna- ments would soon be filled with soot."
 It must be that fires among the Greeks were sometimes made outside of the house from which heated eoals were brought into the work of cookery and warmth. For how otherwise are we to un- derstand the saying of Anacharsis, that the Greeks kept the smoke without, and brought only the fire Into their homes.
 The chimney, then in any form is not so very much older than the printing press. In Verice and in England, chim- neys were first used in the fourteenth century. It took centuries to make them generally used They were at first only in the possession of houses owned by the great and wealthy.
  place always presumes a chimney and 1t was for long time the one puzzle of the builder and perplexity of the owner and frequently sufferer by 1t. to make 1t work freely. good deal of domestic ir- ritation and loss of temper were occasion ed in the generations of our grandfathers by smoky chimneys, and for which there are number of causes.
 The smoky chimney may occur from imperfectiols in the flue, from being built too narrow. from a rough inside, from openings which bring Inside draughts of cold air ana finally from 'too large an opening at the fireplace on the east"
 Count Runsford made a thorough study of all these defects, and brought the fireplace to perfection. His rules for building the fireplace and chimney are still valid and have not been improved upon since his time. How many of the present generation have seen the old fashion1replace of sixty years ago, with the old half-century soot not yet out of it's back and sides, around which our forefathers sat with their neighbor re- counting other days as the walnuts and wine went round, have seen the staples where the crane hung which has been long ago removed to the garret-await- ing its return and between them what stories could be told if hot punch and pollity when in a past generation the two were not deemed unlawful as dis- creditable companions.
 I am sure a warmer home zest and greater hilarity prevailed when the fre- place was universal than has ever been known since. It would not be difficult to believe that our manners have changed not a little with this backward change in our houses, which brings us to- gether around a solemn black stove or a hole in the floor, where 1t is Q sheer effort to raise a laugh. and where no whole family circle can long be tied to- gether.
 Your true fireside except in old houses, and as vet i1 only a few of the very new est fashion, Is no longer found. It was the cheery ingleside of old, and with the