VANDALIZING THE REVERED PAST 3 



n. 



A kitchen settle not only settled, but tabled; it also stored coal 

 and kindling. One broad settle, its cover seat securely hasped, was 

 filled with cord wood through a hinged panel in the house wall. 



A force pump in the kitchen connected with the well had a shut- 

 off valve, enabling one to pump directly into the caraffe instead of the 

 up-attic, planished copper-lined tank installed in case of accident to 

 the ram. A water pipe over the range conveniently filled wash boiler 

 and kettle. 



Room of Comfort. 



A practical makeshift, for not always did our out-of-a-rut inno- 

 vations hit the bull's eye, was to place the range hot water boiler flat- 

 wise in a pokehole jog under the eaves adjoining a bathroom. This 

 jog was asbestos-lined, and its whole front hinged with double doors 

 that could be hooked back to the side wall, making the bathroom 

 synonym of comfort. 



Heating. 



One experiment was a Baltimore heater, while another was to 

 utilize the kitchen range by using an additional hot water back appli- 

 ance connected by pipes and radiators with a small open safety 

 expansion tank in the attic. A third was a perforated sleeve and 

 radiator drum surrounding the galvanized smoke flue that, protected 

 at the floors by soapstone collars, entered the chimney high under the 

 attic ridge. An ell room was heated by the unhygienic oxygen eating 

 oil stove, but placed within a specially built sheet iron cylinder stove, 

 flue connected ; another was heated and ventilated by an oil lamp 

 treated in like manner. 

 Vandalizing the Revered Past.* 



Substantial oak beam and girder construction made it possible 

 to remove partitions, cut through doorways, inset bookshelves, and 

 cupboards in plastered walls, change stair openings, etc., without 

 regard to consequences, all radical improvements made at trifling 

 cost convincing proof that destruction is easier than construction. 

 With bars once lowered for the entrance of minor improvements 

 big ones speedily elbowed their way to the fore. 



While the carpenters were ripping into the farm house fore and 

 aft, we increased the area of the small dining room by still farther 

 thefts from the kitchen. Sufficient of the wall was torn through to 

 inset a sideboard and coal and wood cupboard, the latter serving 

 also as a kitchen shelf, while a large bay window thrown out to 

 the north revealed a cattle yard, but it had to be, as it facili- 

 tated "waitin* on table." Even Spot, the fox terrier, and Angora 

 Aurea, the only cat, shared in the improvements, as a lower panel of 



*The farm house was built along the lines of those old houses of the late 17th and early 

 18th centuries that sometimes required three years to build, when the 8 x 12 and 12 x 16 

 beams and girts were cut in the woods and sledded in winter to the site and at leisure adzed 

 into shape. All spikes, nails, and pegs were hand wrought and later a neighborhood raising 

 whipped the new house into line. 



