Evening star., 1933-09-02
HOUSING PROGRESS
ORIGIN DESCRIBED
Quest for Comfort in Primi-
tive Age Started Home
Development.
BY JAMES WALDO FAWCETT.

BY JAMES WALDO FAWCETT.
If. as Hendrick Van Loon says in his
study of Ancient Man." the history OF
humanity is the record Of hungry crea-
lures in search of food, it follows that
the history Of architecture must be in
large part the chronicle of shelterlesS
people in quest of comfort.
Mr.. Van Loon develops the idea in
these paragraphs: 1T is well known
fact that all living beings like to be
comfortable. When it rains the cat
hastens to place Of shelter. When it
is cold the dog finds a spot in front Of
the stove When a certain part of the
sea becomes more salty than it has been
before Cor less, for that matter) nyriads
of little fishes swim hastily to another
part of the wide ocean. AS for birds,
great many of them move from one
place to another regularly once year.
When the cold weather sets in the
geese depart. and when the first swal-
low returns we know that Summer is
about to smile upon us.
Cause Of Travel.
Man is no exception to this rule.
He likes the warm stove much better
than the cold wind. Whenever he has
the choice between good dinner and
crust of bread he prefers the dinner.
He will live in the desert or In the
snow of the Arctic zone If it Is abso-
lutely necessary. But offer him a more
agreeable place Of residence and he will
accept without moments hesitation.
This desire to improve his condition,
which really means desire to make
life more comfortable and less weari-
some, has been a very good thing for
the progress of the world.
1T has driven the white people of
Europe to the ends OF the earth. It
has populated the mountains and the
plains of our own country. It has made
many millions of men travel ceaselessly
from East to West and from South to
North until they have found the climate
and the living conditions which suit
them best"
And, although Mr.. Van Loon does not
mention the fact particularly, it has
promoted mans interest in that form of
adjustment to circumstance which
takes the form of the deliberate and
purposeful creation Of a made-to-order
environment
The story of civilization has been one
OF increasingly successful control OF
the circumstance of environment Men
have survived and prospered in the
earth because they have been compe-
tent either to conquer the conditions in
which they have found themselves or
to adjust themselves to those condi-
tions.
Illustration Given.
Thus, when the Eskimo peoples of
t4e Arctic we're driven into the un-
friendly territory which they ever since
have occupied they developed for their
uSe the ice house. or igloo, in which
It is possible for them to enjoy Sum-
mer heat. The invention of such a
shelter was necessary to their con-
tinued existence. They met the need
and therefore have survived,
No one knows how long the human
race has been extant in the world, but
scientists estimate that it appeared in
the Pleistocene or Ice Age. In any
event, it was faced from its beginning
with the problems Of a hostile season,
the Winter period, long or short. At
such a time clothing, fire and pro-
tecting habitation of one kind or an
other were imperative to life.
It may have been the great glacial
Ice cap moving south over the larger
portions of Asia, Europe and North
America that first prompted man to
invent a more or less weather-proof
1lOuSe. IlS lllStIilCtIFt4y IIdOC QSC Va
natural caves. and it is logical to sup
pose that he had wit enough to improve
them. 1t is known, for example, that
he brought his fire indoors. DR.. Fred
erick Starr writes in Some First Steps
of Human Progress: In the cave
dwellings of France stones are found
which show the effects Of heat. The
flints of Thenay, not universally ac-
cepted by scientific men as showing
signs Of human handiwork but claimed
by some to be human relics, show the
action Of fire upon them" He declares:
1.-The fire has made the home :. The
value Of fire known and the need OF
feeding 1t recognized, it becomes neces-
sary that scme one should stay by it to
tend It. The woman was more
naturally the one who would remain
behind to care for the fCeiing of the
flame Before that. men anG women
wandered from p!acc to place, thought
less of the night After that, a place
was fixed to which the man returned
after the days hunt. 1t was the be-
ginning of the home.
Hearth Is Inspiration.
"It is not strange that many senti-
mental and beautiful ideas have risen
in connection with the fire on the
hearth. Just as the fire in the indi-
Wdual home meant comfort and rest,
relaxation and enjoyment, safety and
security at night. the national fire,
preserved in the temple Of the tribe,
came to have connected with it all
sorts cf fond and tender thoughts"
DR.. Starr elsewhere in the same
book says: Caves and caverns have
always been comfortable houses. Long
ago, in France, hundreds Of these cav
ems had been taken possession Of, and
today as the cave earth and stalagnlite
covering their floors are dug up We may
see just how the old cave dwellers lived.
They were very rude folk, using flint
for tools and bone and horn for weap-
ons. They were artists, too, in GER
tain way, and had passion for carving
on the bone and ivory of the animals
they killed representations Of beasts of
many kinds. Sometimes. at least they
appear to have dressed in garments
made of skins; these perhaps were
sewed together with needles of bone
threaded with sinew. They daubed
themselves with color, and fragments of
their old red and black pigments have
been found. They knew the use Of fire
and perhaps knew how to boil meat in
water heated with stones. They were
fond OF ornaments, wearing necklaces
composed of teeth carved with various
designs. They we're hunters, using ar
rows. spears, harpoons, the heads of
which were made Of bits of bone or
antlerS. Thus we have a picture Of the