The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-04-17
Over the Nuts and Wine
BY FRANCES coURTENAY BAYLOR
"OnIy n Coldn


afford to smile when friend says "on-
" a cold" But is there anything
much worse? TO feel that you haven't
a friend on earth. for instance. Is no
light-maker and no one can persuade
a victim OF grippe tina. he has. or has
ever had one, that he Is not fatally
III that he is not booked for the poor
house that his whole life has not
been dismal failure; 90 feel as If ones
head had been boiled. as II every layer
OF skin had been grated off ones
throat as If one had swallowed a yard
or two OF flannel, 10 cough oneself to
fddlestrings TO feel as gloomy as
Othollo: to burn and SILVER by turns
for weeks and weeks and wecks and
ache In every imp beside. while peo-
pie smile afiably and say only cold"
tell they get 1t themselves twhen no.
body ever suffered as much), is most
certainly no Joke
Furnaces.
1t has been said domosticity died
when people began to sit around
hole in the wall and criminals were
born, so great was the delightful In
fluence of roaring. tanning, friendly.
open fire, with all the family gathered
about 1T. from the grandparents in
comfortable srmchars, knitting or
musing. smoking, TO the children roast
ing apples in a row the dog, the cat,
part of the circle, the negroes, the
stranger. the sweethearts. "aIl smiley
round the mouths and teary round the
lashes." Well, there arc wise ones who
keep all this still and add furnace.
But haven't furnaces other vices be-
side invariably failing to work III a Sc
we're blizzard2 Don't they send the
blood to the head? Aren't they likely
! to roast us on hot days in good hu-
NOR and leave US blue and miserable
with snow on the ground? Aren't they
dusty; haven't they regular talents for
getting rusty and needing now boilers
when II is least convenient to go to
the expense OF putting them in, not TO
dwell on their well known turn for
turning crusty2 And was there ever
anything like them for devouring coal
at $3.50 the ton, regardless of poor
pater familas pocket-hook?
stoves.
Russian stoves OF China. painted
with lovely flowers and glowing clear
and charming all down the side OF the
room are a welcome sight In winter in
ST. Petersburg drawing room. and
there is room about them and tea on
them always for all the frozen. n!pp-
people who may come In. The double
windows. too, with the space between
shut off all draughts. hut produce a
most lovely effect, and even a peasants
isba is far more comfortable than many
a pretentious bisln.Gnt In other
countries in the matter of heat But
we OF the South have not yet learned
10 deal well and wisely with cold
weather. Double doors as we'll as
double windows, portieres; we'll fitting
sashos too. and well hung doors; plen-
~ OF light to read. write, work and
sketch by coy alcoves. porte-coches,
sheltering us as we come and go from
rain and snow: floors that are sealed
prcper!y-all these are simple things.
within the reach OF mo Il people, as are
storm doors and storm shutters out
side and thoroughly good, well made,
comfortable chairs and other real fur
niturc inside, and the presence OF
them spells comfort, the absence. many
an III and bill well. One rarely sees
q really thoroughly comfortable win
ter home in the South, and some one
has said that 10 be comfortable in
this country one must go North in
winter and South in summer. as for
our stoves, they are monstorities, not
even simply. sincerely unaffectcdly
ugly and useful. but niclSeled and
knobbed and turrated and gilt, and with
'storied urns'' and animated busts''
bursting out all over them as adorn.
ments. in hideous profuslon. The
wonder IS wonder. in swift heating,
but it takes a man and a hoy 10 keep
one going for twenty-four hours con-
secutively, an axe and forest for
one winter.
Our Dear Old Homes.
In spacousness, solidity and refined
arrangement and possibilities. we hav,
more fine old houses than any other
State in the South, and when they
were peoplod by the delightful gentle
folk who built them who TO the
charming, spontaneous hospttable vel
come of the period added every com
fort OF NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. males
ties in the way OF furniture, good ser
wants. good horses. good cellars-they
were indeed delightful homes! Mary
land has almost as many-Virginia':
sister. State. MIR. Fithian, the New
Jersey tutor in the Carter family a
Nomini Hall in Colonial days has give!
us perfect picture of one. In some
of them there are very fine effects o
space. In others, Grinling Gibbons
carvings and valuable wainscoting
and ceilings; in others. the hetero
geneous collection Of additions. wings
towers, ellis levels, sahes that sue
cessive generations have produced
But they all, like tllea Pail Mall Ga
zette. show that they We're done "b!
gentlemen for gentlemen"
Farm Houses.
And leaving out our Nirginian mano
houses, which the English consul t
New Orleans once said were eNactl.
like the old houses of the same elias
in Kent and Sussex, what could b
more seemly, substantial, comforta
BILE than our red brick farm houses
framed in green meadows and Sc
against a lovely background of Blu
Ridge and Alleghanies. in the Vale
of Virginia? OF course. many of Their
are still very much In need of repair
But still they are such homes. an
not shanties, shacks tenements-
modern ne-brick-wall affairs at al
For years we have known them an
loved them and visited them. Th
windows have ratified IN gale tire
mendously, the rag carpets have rise
along the floor, like the one tina
Keats describes in the Eve OF S
Agnes" The doors have often bee
propped open with a bomb shell pickle
up off the battletields. But the wal
have heen whitewashed, the Who'll