WAY -SIDE HINTS 



TALK ABOUT PORCHES 



A COUNTRY house without a porch is Hke 

 a man without an eyebrow; it gives 

 ^ expression, and gives expression 

 where you most want it. The least 

 office of a porch is that of affording protec- 

 tion against the rain-beat and the sun-beat. It 

 is an interpreter of character; it humanizes 

 bald walls and windows; it emphasizes archi- 

 tectural tone; it gives hint of hospitality; it is 

 a hand stretched out (figuratively and lum- 

 beringly, often) from the world within to the 

 world without. 



At a church door even, a porch seems to me 

 to be a blessed thing, and a most worthy and 

 patent demonstration of the overflowing Chris- 

 tian charity, and of the wish to give shelter. Of 

 all the images of wayside country churches 

 which keep in my mind, those hang most per- 

 sistently and agreeably, which show their jut- 

 ting, defensive rooflets to keep the brunt of 



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