The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1915-01-30

Its Advantages and Disadvantages
Presented COnvincingiy.

An editorial writer on the Kansas
City Star few days ago saw a pic
ture Of family gathered about an
open fireplace or dreaming about the
days Of his youth on the farm and
the poem fireplace in the evening, wrote
an editorial which appeared in the
leading position in the paper of Sun
day. says the Independence (Mo.) Ex-
aminer. He idealized the fireplace and
the fire and the gathering of the fam
lily and advanced the theory that the
home life had disappeared with the
coming Of the hot air register and
the steam radiator.
An open fireplace does not make an
old fashioned family, neither does the
modern system of heating run the
young folks away from home.
Many Of us are plenty old enough to
remember the big open fireplace, the
enormous amount of wood it required
to keep it going. how the cord sticks
had to be dug out of the ice and snow,
how 1t was a struggle to get the big
back log in place, how every morn
ing the fire had to be started over
again. unless you were cunning enough
in woodcraft to hide some Goals deep
enough under the ashes to keep them
until morning, how in the early hours
Of the bleak days the rooms of the
house were so cold It required great
courage or the insiste mt commands of
the head Of the house to get you up
to make that fire. But this is not all.
1t will be remembered also that in
real weather the fire from the open
side Of the room bakeG you on one side
while the other side was frozen, and
all the day long the frost on the win
dows maintained the beauty of the for
nation into pictured mountains and
valley undisturbed by the heat from
the burning logs.
The idealist of the open fireplace re-
members the good times in the fall
when the cold had not yet arrived and
when apples and nuts and the cider
and perhaps the baked potatoes made
the evening a delight. He forgets
about the real business Of life when
winter comes down from the north
and when the little ole air-tight heat
er made life worth living after it was
invented. Yes. there is lots of poetry
about an open fireplace and We all
cling to the ideals sufficiently to have
at least one built in every modern
home. 1T is useful to furnish the blaze
and the ventilation when the fur
mace is on the job doing the heating.
1t IL not likely that the modern FAM
+ lily Of boys and girls would stay at
home nights any closer nowadays II
the houses had the open fireplace sys-
tenn.
The family life has not disappeared
In this country. The home and family,
the evening worship, the love and ac-
cord of each member OF the home cir
Gle. depends not on the open fireplace,
the hot-air register or the steam radi-
ator. 1t is in the hearts of those who
make the home. in the wisdom Of the
father and the mother and the raising
Of the children. l can take you 10
real homes in Missouri today, real
family circles. where every room in the
house is used every day and where
the home would be perfect If the
house were a cabin. And always when
you find this home you find that every
member Of the family is busy, has
tasks to dispose Of every day and has
pride in the work being done. There
are no homes where the family is an
idle one and where the servants rule
the house. The home is not in the
open fireplace, my good friend, it is
in the hearts Of the home makers.