The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-16
ART or FIRE BUTLDING.
Plan or a Man Who Might he Expected 20
succeed I'm Any Calling.

| flAu OF n WAN Wuu WhAuN - EARNttro y"
succeed in Any Calling.
"A philosopher has said that a a who
can build a good fire could do anything
well, and l suppose said Mr.. Griptongs.
that there is truth in this.
ITO make a hre that will 60 the fire
builder must first nave provided himself
with all the materials requisite. thus in
dicating a due degrea Of forethought in
preparation. and then he must SO arrange
this material in the stove or on the hearth
as to insure the fre catching in It and
burning freely and with certainty, this re-
quiring a knowledge Of how to build a fire.
and calling for the exercise Of patience
and care in the work.. 1t is a fine art, in
deed. the building Of a good fire.
Some years 6 we spent a summer
in the mountains, where a fire was needed
for comfort. We had q good fire builder
in the party.
in the sitting room Of the small cottage
we occupied there was a square box stove
for burning wood, and every morning
as regular as clockwork u fire builder
used to come in to build the fire.
Apparently he never considered tho
stove, as some folks do. simply as an inani-
mate iron box, but he looked upon it rather
with a sort Of friendly feeling. as Of some
body or something he knew; and he would
draw up a chair and open the stove door
and look in. and then he would sit back
and get a big ~jackknife out OF his pocket
and fall to whiting deliberately on that
piece Of soft white pine.
These curly punches OF white pine he
would put in the stove, carefully laying
them one above another around so that an
abundance Of air could get in around every
shaving to make sure Of perfect combustion
when he should touch a match to them.
And then he would lay in gently some strips
Of fine kindlings, crossing them, too, to
give them plenty Of air. and on top OF these
he would put, in the same manner, q few
sticks of a little heavier split stun,
with surfaces and edges that would
catch the fire more readily, n then he
would put in two or three fair sized sticks
on top. -.
Now, there was a FIRE built in a At and
proper manner, one that O not go out,
a fire that would burn; and with everything
all ready so, the firebuilder would scratch
a match on the stove and touch the fame
Of il TO a tip of white pine shaving sticking
out under the stove door, and in a minute,
while he sat by the stove watching 1t, our
fire would be burning bravely, and that he
felt, as he justly might. as much pride
in his good work as we did wehad no doubt.
hlu "nOCODlu uOuOJ Nlldb buCh IN III ~
would do equally well in whatever he might
put his hand tor
I'm later years in the same region we
had a bigger cottage in whose sitting room
was a broad and deep pen fireplace de-
lightful to contemplate. But how different
were the fire building methods here.
when the fire builder came around TO us
on our first morning here we noticed that
he had with him an oil an. First he laid
in a few strips of thin board stuff split up
from a wooden box and then he piled on
logs, and then he picked up that oil can and
poured kerosene on the kindling stun and
after setting the can down back a little
again, lighted a match and touched 1t to
the kerosene covered kindlingsl
I'VE couldn't say II to him, for we all
liked the fire builder; but we could think 1t
to ourselves: How had the art Of FIRE build
ing fallen!
But this was only an instance OF its de-
cline which circumstances brought sharply
to our attention. In truth the art Of fire
building has fallen altogether in many
places, and especially In cities. Once fires
were built regularly in every home. Now
we ave steam radiators and gas stoves.
and in many homes fire building Is an art
quite unknown