84 
'WALDEN. 
nished with various utensils. The Indians had advanced 
so far as to regulate the effect of the wind by a mat 
suspended over the hole in the roof and moved by 
a string. Such a lodge was in the first instance con¬ 
structed in a day or two at most, and taken down and 
put up in a few hours; and every family owned one, or 
its apartment in one. 
In the savage state every family owns a shelter as 
good as the best, and sufficient for its coarser and sim¬ 
pler wants; but I think that I speak within bounds 
when I say that, though the birds of the air have their 
nests, and the foxes their holes, and the savages their 
wigwams, in modern civilized society not more than one 
half the families own a shelter. In the large towns and 
cities, where civilization especially prevails, the number 
of those who own a shelter is a very small fraction of 
the whole. The rest pay an annual tax for this outside 
garment of all, become indispensable summer and win¬ 
ter, which would buy a village of Indian wigwams, but 
now helps to keep them poor as long as they live. I do 
not mean to insist here on the disadvantage of hiring 
compared with owning, but it is evident that the savage 
owns his shelter because it costs so little, while the civil¬ 
ized man hires his commonly because he cannot afford 
to own it; nor can he, in the long run, any better afford 
to hire. But, answers one, by merely paying this tax 
the poor civilized man secures an abode which is a pal¬ 
ace compared with the savage’s. An annual rent of 
from twenty-five to a hundred dollars, these are the 
country rates, entitles him to the benefit of the improve¬ 
ments of centuries, spacious apartments, clean paint and 
paper, Rumford fireplace, back plastering, Venetian 
blinds, copper pump, spring lock, a commodious cellar, 
