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Page 28
'wrought with greatest care,
Each minute and hidden part,'
we should not be trembling before a black and ragged chasm in the wall,
afraid to go to bed lest the fire should break out anew and burn us in
our sleep."
"There's not the least danger. We are as safe as a barrel of gunpowder
in a mill pond. There is nothing to set us on fire. That bit of dry
wood was the key to the whole situation. We have captured that and can
make our own terms. Still, if you feel nervous we will sit up and 'talk
house' till the fire goes out."
Jill acceded to this proposal and began to discourse, taking moral
number four for a text.
"I wish it were possible," said she, "to build a house with everything
in plain sight, the chimneys, the hot-air pipes from the furnace, if
there are any, the steam pipes, the ventilators, the gas pipes, the
water pipes, the speaking tubes, the cranks and wires for the
bells--whatever really belongs to the building. They might all be
decorated if that would make them more interesting, but even if they
were quite unadorned they ought not to be ugly. If we could see them we
shouldn't feel that we are surrounded by hidden mysteries liable at any
time to explode or break loose upon us unawares. Those things that get
out of order easily ought surely to be accessible. I don't believe
there would have been half the trouble with plumbing, either in the way
of danger to health or from dishonest and ignorant work, if it had not
been the custom to keep it as much as possible out of sight. There is a
great satisfaction, too, in knowing that everything is genuine."
"We might build a log house. The logs are solid, and the chimney, if
there happens to be one, won't pretend to be of the same material as
the walls of the building."
"I like better the notion of letting the material of which brick walls
and partitions are composed form the actual finish inside as well as
outside. The floors, too, should be bare, and the beams that support
them ought to be visible, and in case of a wooden house, the posts,
braces and other timbers should be left in sight when the building is
finished. It is a sad pity that modern modes of building, like modern
manners and fashions, conceal actual construction and character, making
a mask that may hide great excellence or absolute worthlessness."
"Won't all these pipes, wooden beams, bell ropes and things be
fearfully dusty and cumber the housekeeper with too much serving? I
supposed you would vote for smooth, flat, hard wood and painted walls,
they are so much easier to keep clean."
"Perhaps I shall; but we must remember the gnat and the camel and try
to be consistent. A single porti�re, especially if it be of the
rag-carpet style, has a greater dust-collecting capacity than a whole
houseful of wooden floors, ceilings and wainscots, even when they are
moulded and ornamentally wrought. Surely they will not be troublesome
if they are plain and simple, and only think how much more interesting
than flat square walls and ceilings, which we feel compelled to cover
with some sort of decoration to make them endurable. I suppose
architects have outgrown the sheet-iron and stucco style of building,
and do not generally approve of 'graining' honest pine in imitation of
coarse-grained chestnut. But these are not the only concealments and
disguises that ought to be reformed. If we cannot make our house a
model in any other respect, I hope it will be free from hypocrisy and
silly affectations."
"By all means; but you mustn't forget that reformers risk martyrdom.
However, you can't be too honest for me; I am ready to sign any pledge
you offer, even though it prohibit paint, putty and all other cloaks
for poverty, ignorance and dishonesty."
"There's a time and place for paint and putty, lath, plaster and paper,
but we ought not to be helplessly dependent upon them."
"Have you any idea how the house will look outside," asked Jack, giving
the fire a poke, "or is that to be left to take care of itself?"
"No, indeed! not left to take care of itself. In that part of the
undertaking we are bound to believe that the architect is wiser than
we, and must accept in all humility what he decrees. Still I think the
law of domestic architecture at least should be 'from within out.' For
the sake of the external appearance it ought not to be necessary to
make the rooms higher or lower than we want them for use, neither
larger nor more irregular in shape. It ought not to be necessary to
build crooked chimneys for the sake of a dignified standing on the
roof, or to make a pretense of a window where none is needed. The
windows are for you and me to look out from and to let in the sunlight,
not for the benefit of outside observers, and should be treated
accordingly. We will not have big posts--mullions, do you call
them?--in the middle of them, as there are in these. When I try to look
down the street to see if you are coming home I can scarcely see
obliquely to the corner of the lot, and we don't get half as much
sunshine as we should if the windows were all in one."
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