Old Ouicb door and side setts. The Bowne House, Flushing, Long island, N. Y. 



CHAPTER V 

 DOORS AND DOORWAYS 



HE origin of the true door is not known, nor is the inquiry of 

 great importance. With the Greeks the doorway signified a 

 "passage of air," which is as good a definition as we of the 

 present day can give it. The intervening centuries of much 

 cheerful experience with the door have tended to confirm rather 

 than cancel this signification. An open doorway will allow of 

 the free passage of more air than of people in a given time; 

 therefore the air should stand godfather to the door. That the Greeks appreci- 

 ated this fact is quite evident, and testifies to their keenness of perception. 



Like all other essential parts of the house, the door must have sprung from 

 necessity. The cave man rolled stones to the mouth of his cave to protect his 

 household from the dreaded invasion of animals. Later, man built habitations, 

 perhaps first in trees, as an experiment, and to be safer from the prowling 

 menace. With these first habitations the door may well have begun. Mr. A. B. 

 C., tired of draughts and of acting as a windbreak to the rest of the family, 

 became indignant, went out, slew a beast and hung its skin up over his rathole 

 of a doorway. He had made a door. 



Skins were probably a very long time in use, being much more serviceable 

 even than woven stuffs, which were not introduced until a much later period. 

 Even in feudal times, when the outer door had grown formidable in size and 



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