68 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



reduce the work of building, but we shall find oppor- 

 tunities for making our houses more beautiful, as well 

 as wholesome. Lath and plaster are an inheritance 

 of poverty. They involve incessant dust and break- 

 age, repapering for fashion, and nothing is ever 

 quite tidy; with all the rest they are the hiding place 

 of germs, if we have sickness in the house. Your 

 ceiled wall may be oiled over at any time, and fumi- 

 gation cleanses it much more easily. I have known 

 typhoid fever to be passed on to three successive fam- 

 ilies of tenants, in a very handsome house, until the 

 plaster was entirely removed, and the house could 

 then be made sanitary. 



This may be a hobby of mine, all the same I feel 

 capable of defending it. Apart from this I hold 

 that natural wood, finished in oil alone, is the most 

 beautiful wall that can be built. We have not yet 

 learned to appreciate the beauty hidden under the 

 rough bark of our maples and beeches and walnuts 

 and hickories and pines. They constitute a study as 

 well as a charm. 



The original house of our Saxon fathers was called 

 the All, and it consisted of but one room. Here the 

 whole family lived, dined, and slept. This All was 

 gradually differentiated into apartments, leaving at 

 last the All as a Hall. The kitchen or workroom 

 came off first; then sleeping rooms for the more dis- 

 tinguished. We have now a house subdivided to ex- 

 press the tastes and whims of civilization. Until 

 very recently the kitchen was the home room, the so- 



