The San Francisco call., 1910-07-03
HOUSE ASSOCIATIONS GREAT CAMPAIGN

for the martin house, come here,
want to show you somethingF erred
Ned leading the astonished FRANK
around into the side yard Where the
truck garden was.
ITS a blamed lucky thing / hap
pened to stay here all night, cause
when the fire broke out the ,hrst thing
I did was to throw on some clothes ana
run for the martin house TOOK out
the hasp and let down the whole thins
by the hinged post.
''Then | noted where the house
struck the ground, propped it up ana
dug a big hole in the soft garden mold
Things were getting pretty hot by this
time, as the fire was creeping up along
the hotel wall, but 1 knocked out the
prop lowered the martin house into
the hole and managed to get 1T pretty
well buried by shoveling in the dirt
on top of It, 1 got 1t covered all up pc
fore I had to skip
"There it is" concluded Ned triumph
antly, pointing to the mound or DIRT
in the garden. The inclined pole pro-
jected through the mound top at an
angle to where it was hinged TO the
upright post, and while 1T was some
what scorched the tough wood had not
burned.
Fortunately the hotel walls fell in
ward so practically all that needed to
be done was to remove the dirt, dig
the martin house out of its hole and
tilt 1t back into upright position again.
A little fresh paint would quickly re-
store 1t to its former glory. The blrds
had all escaped and Ned assured Frank
that he looked to see that no young
ones were inside before he buried their
hotel
Frank heartily congratulated Ned on
his cleverness and daring, for now
Martin House day" could still be held,
and under even more interesting cir
l. had
been saved made fine advertising
stuff" to quote Frank
And as soon as the boys breakfasted
and Ned washed up and put on some
other clothes they went for the first
auto load. assuring their doubling
guests that while the Prairie house
was UP the fiue," the martin house was
in such splendid condition that X the
burned out guests had only been small
enough they could move in right now!
While Frank and Ned went for the
first load Bill painted out the scorched
places on the post and touched up the
house here and there, SO that every
thing was in fine order for the inspec-
ton.
This effect was doubly telling In con-
trast with the ruin all about. All who
visited the spot noticed it. not to men
tion the invited farmer visitors.
Frank told of the numerous martins
account of It's luxurious quarters, and
the farmers readily believed him.
"Swan't, man! From the looks of
that air house, they could 'er stayed
right along and never got a tail feather
singed! Can you guarantee me fire.
proofed house like that?' asked one
big farmer.
I'VE can. If you buy one with a
hinged post and have got nice soft
garden" laughed Frank, as he took his
order. Three more orders for big
houses were taken, and Frank felt that
notwithstanding it's disastrous opening
the day had closed rich in business re-
suits.
But the days greatest results were
to come from a source they knew moth
ing of until month later, when the as
sociation received a large bundle of
mail from New York;
An explanatory communication writ
ten on the letterhead of famous New
York illustrated weekly cleared up the
mystery. The publishers of the weekly
had received so many inquiries from
people who wanted to build martin
houses that they sent all of them to
the association after looking up it's
address.
But how did they know of 1t at all?
One of the burned out guests had taken
a certain photograph and sent 1t in to
the weekly's Photographic supplement
as an interesting contribution.
That picture had brought all the in
quiries. Frank and his partners
eagerly sought it in the marked copy
that came with the mail and found a
fine photo of the martin house standing
spick and span among the ruins of the
Prairie house! Under the photo was a
short article explaining its use and
telling how the martin house had
escaped being destroyed. And above
that was the title of the picture
"The Hotel That Didn't Burn Up"