ADVICE FOR LACKLAND. 45 



stifling air in August, it is only necessary, in many 

 instances, to tear away the garret flooring, and to run 

 up the chamber ceilings into tent-like canopies, with 

 a ventilator in their peak to have as free circulation 

 as in the town attics. And such tented ceilings may 

 be prettily hung with French striped papers, with a 

 fringe-like border at the line of junction of the verti- 

 cal with the sloping wall in such sort that your 

 military friend, if he comes to pass a July night with 

 you, may wake with the illusion of the camp upon 

 him, and listen to such reveille as the crowing of a 

 cock, or the piping of a wren. 



But a monstrous and intolerable grievance to all 

 people of taste lies in the attempt to set off one of 

 those grave exteriors, at which I have hinted, by 

 some of the more current architectural cockney isms. 

 Thus, an ancient door, with the dark green paint in 

 blisters upon it, and opening in the middle, perhaps, 

 is torn away to give place to the newest fancy from 

 the sash factories, and a glazing of red and blue. 

 For my part, I have great respect for a door that has 

 banged back and forth its welcomes and its good- 

 byes for half a century ; the very blisters on it seem to 

 me only the exuding humors of a jovial hospitality ; 

 and all the weather-stains are but honorable scars of 

 a host of battles against wind and rain. I would no 

 more barter such an old-time door against the new- 



