AND THE WILDERNESS BLOSSOMED 



chimney, but with separate flues. One, the 

 largest, is in a corner of the hall, and next to 

 it is also a corner fireplace in the dining-room, 

 the third being on the side of an adjoining bed- 

 room. This sketch (Fig. 2) explains it. An 

 advantage of this arrangement is that there can be 

 no wood-work behind any of these fireplaces and 

 danger from fire is practically eliminated. None 

 of the timbers of either of the floors or of the roof 

 touch the chimney at all. There is a space be- 

 tween the wood and the brick-work everywhere. 

 Now and then you will find a stairway up 

 which you can walk without appreciable effort. 

 If you will stop and measure the steps on such a 

 flight, you will find that the riser, or elevation of 

 the steps, does not vary much from six inches in 

 height, and that the tread, or width of the step, is 

 about thirteen inches. The average man raises 

 his foot about so high, and advances it each time 

 about so far, and any variation from this compels 

 him to call upon his muscles for extra work with 

 resulting fatigue. It seems to me that this ought 

 to be horn-book law to the architects, and that 

 long ere this the proper dimensions of a stair- 

 case should have been ascertained and reduced to 

 a positive law, to be followed wherever possible. 



13 



