August, 1905 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



"5 



respectively at the top and bottom of the 

 door at one end, and fitting loosely into 

 holes in the lintel and sill of the door 

 frame. Glass for the windows is some- 

 what of a luxury. A primitive substitute 

 is oiled paper, which admits plenty of 

 light and also prevents rain from beating 

 in. The chinks between the logs of the 

 cabin can be closed with pieces of wood, 

 rolls of bark or a plastering of mud. A 

 flooring of logs split into slabs will be 

 found an acceptable luxury, though it is 

 not necessary on well drained ground. 



No log cabin is complete without an 

 open fireplace. A stove is very much out 

 of keeping with a primitive dwelling. Its 

 dead black walls lend no poetry to the 

 surroundings. A large open fireplace 

 should, by all means, be constructed. For 

 this purpose an opening should be cut in 

 the rear of the building and framed in the 

 same way as a door or window. If stones 

 are plentiful, a chimney of rustic masonry 

 can be built up on the outside, using mud 

 or clay for mortar. With such a chimney 

 it will be found best to use only flat stone, 

 because the binding power of the mud is 

 not very strong, and where the fire opening comes in contact 

 with the logs of the cabin a thick lining of clay should be ap- 

 plied. Where stones are not available, the frame of the 

 chimney can be constructed of logs and sticks, notched and 

 built up like the logs of the main building. A lining of clay 

 at least twelve inches thick must cover the wood. The chim- 

 ney should be carried well above the gable of the cabin to 

 insure a good draft in any direction of the wind. The fire- 

 place may be raised a little above the floor of the cabin and 

 framed in with large logs well plastered with clay. 



For a bunk a pair of logs are laid parallel on the floor, 

 and the space between them filled with hemlock or balsam 

 boughs, or the latter may be supported on stout sticks laid 

 across the logs. But of the making of camp furniture there 

 is no end. Rustic stools, chairs, benches, settees, tables, cup- 

 boards, desks, chests, can all be added as fast as one's skill 

 and ingenuity 7 permits. In fact, it is the fitting up of the 



The Use of Boards and Shingles Greatly Simplifies the Work of Construction, 

 But They Are Not Always to Be Obtained 



cabin out of the limited resources at hand that adds so much 

 to the charm of living in the frontiersman's abode. The use 

 of bark in a hundred and one different ways, even the build- 

 ing of a camp fire in the open, and the many other tricks of 

 the woodsman, which can be acquired only by actual ex- 

 perience, will be found a most fascinating study — a study 

 that carries one far from the sphere of business cares and 

 anxiety. It was only a short time ago that the free life of 

 the forest was considered a species of savagery, a relic of 

 the brute instinct, betokening an animal origin, but in these 

 days of feverish business activity, when every day emphasizes 

 the need of frequent and thorough rest, it is no longer con- 

 sidered vulgar or barbarous to seek recreation at the old 

 homestead where man at his creation gained strength and 

 vigor. 



We are indebted to Mr. Henry D. Cochrane for several 

 of the photographs published herewith. 



Science for the Home 



Ventilation for the House 



HE last word on ventilation will probably 

 never be said while there are people to live 

 in houses. And yet, important as ventilation 

 is for the house, it is rather its relation to 

 public buildings, to places of assembly, such 

 as churches, schools, theaters and other 

 places of amusement, to factories and workshops — in fine, to 

 any place where large numbers of people are crowded to- 

 gether — that is considered, than its direct relationship to the 

 house, or the very important part ventilation must have in the 

 dwelling; in no place is pure air more urgently needed than 

 in the home. 



The breathing of impure air is precisely identical, so far as 

 its effect is concerned, upon the human body as the drinking 

 of impure water or the eating of impure food. Both air 

 and water are foods, foods of such abundance in supply and 

 so readily obtained that little thought is given to their get- 

 ting. This is especially true of air, which is the single life- 

 sustaining element obtained without cost or labor, and a gen- 



eral indifference exists as to its origin and a quite profound 

 lack of knowledge as to its contents and qualities. 



One of the newest of the New York hotels recently in- 

 stalled an elaborate and intricate air-filtering plant, by which 

 every pound of air brought into the building was thoroughly 

 filtered and cleaned before reaching the rooms. It was not 

 a new idea, but it had not before been applied to a building 

 of this sort, and perhaps never before on so large a scale. 

 The results obtained were little short of startling, a very con- 

 siderable quantity of dust, dirt and ashes being obtained 

 each day. 



In the present state of the ventilating art it is hardly pos- 

 sible that air filters can come into general use as regular 

 articles of household equipment, valuable and servicable as 

 such a device would be; but the practical demonstration that 

 the air of New York — and in an excellent locality, it should 

 be noted — is so foul as to yield appreciable and even con- 

 siderable amounts of refuse is an object lesson of the utmost 

 importance. 



