238 HOW TO MAKE A COUNTRY PLACE 



did double duty another infringement on the realm of the some- 

 times over glamored antique. 



In the dining room floor was the usual foot bell connection; the 

 electrical handmaiden domineered in the kitchen. She peeled 

 potatoes, prepared other vegetables, beat and boiled eggs, cooked food 

 of all kinds and fanned the dishes dry in fact proved trustworthy 

 under the most trying conditions, and often simplified intricate house- 

 keeping to the one servant limit. 



Electric Elevators. 



An electric safety elevator for passengers and luggage operated 

 from cellar to attic through a brick, fireproof shaft; all openings 

 and doors therefrom metal sheathed, experience having proved that a 

 wooden door metal covered will not warp with heat like a solid iron 

 door. 



The same dynamo and engine used to operate electric lighting 

 and ice making plants ran the vacuum cleaning outfit, whose pipes 

 extended from cellar to attic with convenient outlets either in closet 

 or hall, and through which into the cellar metal dust-box was forced 

 every particle of dust from floors, walls, draperies and pictures. 

 Indeed, we used the docile, industrious servant, electricity, that won- 

 derful unknown force, in every possible way. Long before the car- 

 bonized vegetation of the coal mines is exhausted the pick of the 

 miner will rust through disuse, for the penned-in and harnessed might 

 of waterways will do the bidding of the great mass of humanity 

 and the electric switch and a turn of the wrist will eliminate dust, 

 ashes, and much of the laborious work of today. In time eight 

 hours will be halved by this mighty giant, and an emancipated super- 

 man take the place of the present enslaved, undeveloped burden 

 bearer. 



Recesses. 



Two recesses were much in evidence, one a usable ingle, spaced 

 for unscorched comfort, the other the billiard alcove big enough to 

 squelch profanity, both advantageously placed to vista and enlarge 

 what would otherwise have been small adjoining rooms. Recesses 

 for sideboards, beds, cribs, bureaus, drawers, chests, closets, bath tubs, 

 and shower jogs gave great results, and utilized waste space under 

 stairs, eaves, and in chimney angles. Niches in side walls and over 

 doorways in entrance hall, corridor, and ball room, as well as 

 exteriorly each side of the front door, aided in giving distinction. 

 A large sea shell from the Orient hooded a niche in the plastered 

 wall of a hall recess holding a telephone, and the guest book was kept 

 in a similar alcove. 



Solarium. 



One novelty, a recessed, roofed, and windowed solarium made 

 by two projecting ells, and big enough for a real room, with wainscot 



