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Types of weather-vanes to be found on some Pennsylvania estates 
expense of a little trouble a weather-vane may be con- 
structed with an attachment for indoor readings. Con- 
nection may be made either electrically or mechanically by 
an inner spindle with a dial like a clock face on which a 
hand indicator points to the quarters of the compass in- 
stead of to the hours. North is at the top, South at the 
bottom, West at the left and East at the right. The great 
advantage possessed by this sort of vane is that it can be 
read at night. Occasionally weather-dials are set on the 
exteriors of buildings and always supply a pleasantly ani- 
mated feature. 
In their architectural significance weather-vanes are of 
just as much import to most of us as they are in their purely 
i CS as AT BTID POS OE 
Weather-vane on the porchroof of a country house 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
November, 1912 
practical capacity. To begin with, the right kind of vane 
suitably set imparts a finish and distinction that nothing else 
will quite take the place of. On spire or turret, on lantern 
or gable, a vane strikes a note alike of finality and life: of 
finality because its presence shows that the culmination has 
been reached, the structure is complete, there is nothing 
more to be done; of life, because it seems in some way to 
say that the building it surmounts is instinct with the quick- 
ening spirit of nature whose breath currents it marks with 
its never-resting pointer. Of course, to be acceptable the 
right vane must be in the right spot. Place and setting must 
be perfectly congruous. Better no vane than the wrong 
vane or\the wrong setting. But just herein lies the chance 
of the architect to make a happy stroke. 
A weather-vane is in itself a legitimate piece of ornamen- 
tation inasmuch as it emphasizes structural points, and at the 
same time it is susceptible of much embellishment and orna- 
mental treatment on its own account. A graceful vane oft- 
times supplies just the one needful complement of detail to 
perfect the line of a roof or pinnacle and relieve any sense 
of baldness that its absence might occasion. Wherever it 
may be set a weather-vane certainly prevents any feeling of 
monotony. If you wish to test the truth of this, look at 
some point from which a vane that you have been accus- 
tomed to watching has been removed and see how lifeless 
it appears. Think, too, whether nine times out of ten, other 
things being equal, you wouldn’t rather look at something 
with an element of variability in it to break its sameness, an 
element of movement and life. And try, besides, looking at 
a live vane and a “‘stickit’” vane that always points one way, 
no matter whether Auster blows gently or Boreas roars and 
rages, and see how much more interesting the live one is. 
Quite apart from architectural or artistic aspects, a 
weather-vane may serve as an index to the special character 
or office of the building it stands on. It may advertise not 
only the use to which the building is put, but may also give 
a hint of the business, recreation or personal fancies of its 
owner, establishing thereby a kind of personal spirit in the 
fabric itself. Through the medium of the vane’s in- 
dividuality the personality of the owner may make itself 
plainly apparent. So much is this the case that someone has 
aptly said, ‘‘As the book-plate to the volume, so is the 
weather-vane to the homestead.” 
Sometimes a vane is expressive of the dominant con- 
sideration of a whole community as, for instance, the sacred 
gilded codfish, emblem of Massachusetts’ prosperity, swim- 
ming aloft in the blue of heaven above the steeple of Mar- 
blehead church. Considering what the harvest of the sea 
has meant to generations of hardy Marblehead fishermen, 
it is no wonder the codfish should hold an exalted place of 
honor on one of the chief buildings of that fine old coast 
town. Just why gilt cocks should root so nonchalantly on so 
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