The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-23
WHENCE TEE HOT WATER CAME.
Solution OF hc Mystery OF . Comfortable
Cottage in the woods.

Solution OF tho Mystery OF q Comfortable
Cottage in the woods.
The letter said-it was about a cottage
they were thinking Of hiring. belonging to a
hotel at q summer resort in the woods
that the cottage had three large bedrooms,
each with two windows. q sitting room with
q largo open fireplace and a bathroom
with hot and cold water. They were ready
to believe all the things said about it, the
only thing they couldn't exactly understand
being about the hot water. They couldn't
Just see how this cottage, situated as they
supposed 1t must be, could be supplied with
hot water.
But there is, you know, about a letter,
as there h about the spoken word, an air
that tells you whether IL ia true or not,
and they believed this letter to be true;
and 80 they wrote n took the cottage.
When, In the early morning, after a drive
Of some miles from the railroad station,
they reached the hotel they were met by
the proprietor, who himself escorted them
to the cottage, and with his own hands
lighted the fire already laid on it's hearth
stone. A most hospitable and graceful
welcome; and the cottage itself proved
TO be more than they had expected
1t was a rustic cottage, all bark on the
outside, and with a wide veranda, this
with its columns and ratings all OF bark
covered timbers.
Inside the house was natural wood every
where, and all bright, fresh and pleasing to
the eye.
The rooms were ample In size. Here
was the sitting room with its big open fire.
place in a broad stone chimney, and there
wa the bathroom, twice as big as many
q city bathroom, and with a most modern
bathtub.
When they tried the hot water faucets,
why, there was the hot water; and at that
they still wondered.
They could understand the cold water
supply-you can pipe cold water any dis
tanoe; but this cottage was FIVE hundred
feet, at least, from the hotel, and even il
they had laid a system Of hot water pipes for
the supply OF the cottages it wasn't possible
that, however jacketed, a pipe would keep
water, internationally used, hot at such a
distance. So the source OF the hot water
supply remained a mystery.
There was a hot water boiler, apparently
quite isolated, standing in one corner OF the
bathroom, hot to the touch, az hot water
boilers ought to be, and when the hot water
faucets were turned you got hot water;
but where il came from no one could guess.
And 30 they remained mystified for about
three days, when they made discovery.
Projecting diagonally downward from
the side Of the boiler toward a partition
between the bathroom and a bedroom in
front, adjoining the sitting room, they dis
covered two pipes running through this
partition and down nearly TO the floor Of
the bedroom. On looking to see where
their other ends went they discovered that
down close TO the floor in the bedroom the
pipes passed through the back OF the Chin
ney, which formed a part Of n side OF
this room, through the back o. the chimney
toward the sitting room, and when they
came to look for the pipes in hat room
the mystery was solved.
The andirons in the fireplace were OF
iron piping, through which the water cir
culated, and 30 with a fire in the fireplace
there was always hot water in the boiler.
1t was really very simple; but it wa also
rather clever, dom you think2