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Page 29
[Illustration: WITH A MULLION AND WITHOUT.]
"Why not, if there's the same amount of glass?"
"Because the sun can't shine around a corner; and Jack, why did you set
them so near the floor? There's no chance for a seat under them, and
they do not give as much light or ventilation as they would if they ran
nearly up to the ceiling."
"What is the use of making them long at the top? They are always half
covered up with lambrequins or some fanciful contrivance."
"Indeed, they will not be; our windows will be arranged to be wholly
uncovered whenever we need the light. Too many windows are not so
unmanageable as too many doors, and I should like one room with a whole
broadside of glass; but for most rooms the fewer windows the better,
provided they are broad and high. I despise a room in which you can't
sit down without being in front of a window or walk around without
running against a door, that has no large wall spaces for pictures and
no room for a piano, a book-case, a cabinet or a large lounge. A small
room, that has doors or windows on all sides does not seem like a room
intended for permanent occupation, but rather as a sort of outer court
or vestibule belonging to something farther on."
"I suppose the architect will claim the porches, balconies, and things
of that sort, as belonging to the exterior, and design them as he
pleases; but I think we have a right to insist that they shall add to
our comfort. They must be large enough to be used, they must be put
where we can use them conveniently, and they must not interfere with
the interior arrangements; beyond that we shall accept what the
architect sets before us."
"'Asking no questions for conscience sake.' How about the roof--is that
also a matter of evolution?"
"No; because the inside of the roof is of but little consequence. It
must keep out the rain and wind, snow and ice; it must be strong and
economically built and have a reasonable amount of light. The rest we
shall leave to the architect. As Uncle Harry observes, 'the material
part of the house rests upon the foundation stones; its spiritual
character is displayed chiefly in the roof, which may change to an
unlimited extent the expression of the building it covers.'"
[Illustration: JACK'S ARCHITECTURAL PHRENOLOGY.]
"That's so. Let me make the roofs for a people and I care not who
builds the houses. The roof on the house is like the hat on the man, as
I can show you," said Jack, taking a piece of charcoal from the stove
and drawing on the back of the fireboard some astonishing illustrations
of his theory.
"Here is the president of a big corporation who must be dignified
whether he has a soul or not. He represents the 'renaissance.' No
nonsense about him, no sentiment, no sympathy, no anything but--himself
and his own magnificence."
"This fellow is a brakeman--prompt, efficient, laconic. Same head, you
see, but different hat. He stands for the hipped roof which has one
duty to do and does it."
[Illustration: THE HAT MAKES THE MAN.]
"Give the dignified president a smashing blow on the head and you see
what he may become after an unsuccessful defalcation--an unfortunate
tramp, who has 'seen better days.' He is a capital illustration of the
roofs called 'French,' that were so imposing a few years ago, and are
about as agreeable in the way of landscape decoration as the tramp
himself, but not half so picturesque.
"Pull the string again and we have a benevolent 'broad-brim,' stiff,
symmetrical and proper to the last degree, like an Italian villa; and,
once more changing the straight lines to crooked ones, the conventional
formalist becomes the unconventional, free-and-easy South-westerner,
who may stand for Swiss or any other go-as-you-please style."
"It is midnight and the fire is out; let's adjourn."
[Illustration.]
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