AND THE WILDERNESS BLOSSOMED 



has cost more than the Taj Mahal, and there is 

 hardly one room out of the hundreds that it 

 contains in which business can be carried on even 

 at midday without artificial light. If this build- 

 ing were beautiful, one might condone the entire 

 absence of utility in the structure, but every day 

 men of artistic temperament lean up against 

 near-by trolley-poles and weep when they look at 

 it. The mayor has lately ordered the police to 

 compel these people to move on, as they obstruct 

 traffic. 



Of course in a summer home one must have 

 fireplaces, and fireplaces are of little utility if 

 the smoke escapes into the room instead of going 

 up the chimney. A fire of coals in a grate does 

 not require much of a flue, but when you have a 

 large opening in which you expect to burn great 

 logs of wood, the size of your flue must be ma- 

 terially increased. A large stone fireplace was 

 built in the lounging-room of a city club of which 

 I happen to be a member, and though it cost a 

 couple of thousand dollars, a fire was never built 

 in it but once, and then all the smoke came out 

 into the room, and the members went out of the 

 doors. The architect had not apparently sup- 

 plied any flue at all worth mentioning. For- 



10 



