VOL. LXIII
_~_
—-
INDIANAPOLIS, JANUARY 25, 1908.
NO. 4
RURAL ARCHITECTURE.—No.   2.
I would reverse this and have as the
»ain feature of the plan, a large central
living room, which should have as much
floor space, and be as light and airy as
possible. With such a room as this as
the key note of the home, the only wise
course would be to group around it the
several rooms which may be necessary to
supply the needs of the household and as
such they may be regarded as mere fixtures or appendages of the living room.
(No cold lifeless "parlor" full of bric-a-
bac and to be opened only once or twice
a week) uot pretending to compete with it
as rooms, but rather recesses so to speak,
each specially designed for its particular
function in the economy of house keeping.
Some of these may indeed be left quite
open to the living room, without any
more substantial division than a curtain;
rolling doors would be preferable, but
others from the nature of their uses may
require a more effectual screen from sound
and sight.
These, however, will not necessarily
be so large as if they formed units in a
series of small rooms. The obvious
adaptability of this large living room 'o
fs^stive occasions must be recognized, for
it, with its grouped dependencies, exactly
—meets the requirements of the case.
Quoting from "Architecture of Country
Homes," in "Carpentry and Building";
"To meet the more advanced demands of
domestic service, the sleeping rooms of
the servants should be separated from
those of the family, and separately approached as well. The family is one
community and the servants another;
whatever may be their mutual regard and
confidence as dwellers under one and the
same roof, each class is entitled to close
ita doors upon the other and be alone."
It however is only in the larger and
more extensive homes that this separation
is necessary or even advisable. In the
well planned city house the serving pantry
isolates the kitchen from the rest of the
house, and a servants stairway adds to
the privacy of the front halls, as well as
increasing the general efficiency of the ser-
Tice. I can't see why these necessities
in a city house would not be decided advantages in a farm home.
The kitchen is certainly the most
important room, and its floor must be on
a level with the principal floor, and for
strong light and good ventilation it should
have plenty of windows.
The serving pantry should of course be
between the kitchen and dining room, and
be easily accessible from both.
Leading from kitchen to cellar should
be an easy flight of stairs, and also an outside flight into cellar, to admit boxes, barrels, fuel, etc.
All outside entrances, except to the
kitchen, should be through vestibule or
hall, to exclude cold air in winter, and
afford seclusion.
Access from the main living room to
other parts of the house should be as direct as possible, to prevent the common
evil of passing through one room to enter
another.
Stairway leading to second story sleeping rooms should land in hallway near
central part of house, from which each
■cd room is directly accessible, and of
course strictly private.
The partitions of second floor should
**st directly over those of the first, as
■early as possible,   to secure firmness and
solidity.
In designing and planning a house it
should also be remembered that it must
prove a comfortable haven under opposite conditions and extremes of climate;
but as indoor life is so much more essential in winter than in summer, it will be
well to consider the house rather as a protection from cold and storm than from
heat and sunshine, and eaeh room should
be designed with a view to its possible
comfort under the most adverse circumstances. Let there be in one room, at
least, a fire place where the family, particularly the children, (for home as au institution is certainly a blank failure without them) can gather round and watch
the   Bickerings,   sputtering   flame   of  the
Xow, our doors and windows are usually
tight, and our rooms are over-heated with
the unsanitary stove, or an improperly installed furnace.
'Phis improvement in construction has
made some system of ventilation nec-s
sary. But before considering this subject, it will he necessary to consider briefly
the four methods of domestic heating in
general use, together with their advantages and disadvantages.
The fire place has the advantage of being very cheerful: it is. too, a fine center
for decoration, and produces excellent ventilation for a moderate number of persons,
say five or six; and low fires mny be maintained in spring and fall when required.
On the other hand, it is dirty; most ex-
rooms.
The following points should be considered in arranging pipes and registers.
Benton Steele, Architect.
Pendleton, Ind.
To be continued.
On the Farm of I. D. Reed, Clinton Connty.
hickory log, or, in the absence of this,
the bituminous coal, and by all means
let the tire place be of generous size. It
is not often that we see, or even read of
the rousing open fires of the former generation. They are of course not an actual necessity as a means of affording
necessary ventilation, for modern science
has provided other and more efficient
methods of counteracting the influence of
the elements. But if these open fires
are no longer nn actual neceessity, as a
means of affording warmth, are they not
necessary as promoters of ventilation,
cheerfulness and gladness in the home?
Let every man, then, who builds a house,
particularly if it be in the country, see
that he has at least one open fire place, or
grate, for either wood or coal. If he
has any desire that his children shall ever
have happy associations with home, and
that iu nfter years their thoghts shnll revert with pleasure to the scenes of their
youth, let the family fireside be something
more tban a mere name.
— High Ceilings. —
Many a hsiuse Tins t>een ruined by high
ceilings, whicli necessarily mean long
Mights of stairs, high doors and windows,
and volumes of cold, stagnant air.
Spaceousness and ample superficial area
are very essential qualities in a good
room, the effect of which excessive hight
tends to limit and destroy. Let it be remembered that, to make rooms healthful
you nes-sl circulation of air, not space for
foul nir to collect in.
Time wns when our buildings, both public nnd privnte. were so built that ventilation existed as n matter of course.
Doors and winslows rattled with their
looseness. The broad fire places carried
off the foul air as fast as it accumulated.
pensive of fuel; does not warm a room uniformly, and creates cold draughts,
especially when heavily fired in severe
cold weather.
— Hot Air Heating. —
The simplest and most common method
of mechanical heating is the hot air furnace. This is simply an improved
stove, incased in sheet iron or brick wall?.
The furnace heats the air within this in-
closure, and it arises to the rooms above
through tin or sheet iron pipes. To keen
this current of hot air rising, a cold air
duct or inlet connects the lower side of
the furnace with the outside air; this duct
being generally provided with a damper
with which to regulate the supply of air
to  the   furnace. The  cold   air  should
never be entirely turned off while there
is tire in the furnace; otherwise the fu.r-
n.isc will become overheated, the fire pot
broken or sprung, nnd some of the rooms
ovHiln»;it"il. while other may become cold
because (lie furnace is taking its cold air
frsm them instead of from the outside.
Regulating cohl nir supply is not an easy
matter, for the heat of the furnace .«
constantly chamiing. and on account of
currents and counter currents of the nir
influencing draft of flue, as well as cold
air supply.
Tho common expedient of taking the air
supply from within the house and recirculating it. to be breathed again and again,
cannot be too strongly  condemned.
The cold air duct should have according tsi "Wilett," an area equal in square
Inchea to 40 times the number of bed
rooms in a residence," the number of bed
rooms, being a fair criterion of the nnmber of occupants in the honse. and therefore, the amount of air needed for ventilation may be expressed in terms of bed
THE TONGUE.
Editors Indiana  Farmer:
The Jewish Rabbis tell this story. A.
certain man sent his servant to market
to buy some good food. The servant returned, bringing with him some tongues.
Again he sent the same servant to buy
seme bad food. The servant again
brought tongues. The master said:
"What is the reason thnt when I sent you
tc buy good food, and ngain to buy bad
food, you both times brought me tongues?" The servant answered: "From
the tongue both good and evil come to
man. If it be good, there is nothing
better; if it be bad, there is nothing
worse. It is the best and the worst
meat   in   the   world."
To have bad meat in the smoke-house
is bad, to have bad meat in the stomach
is worse, but to have bad meat constantly in tbe mouth, to poison the possessor
and likely many others is by far the worst
of all. The Bible says that a bad
tongue is "an unruly evil, full of deadly
poison," while "a wholesome tsstigue is a
tree of life;" that "death and life are in
the power of the tongue." I must consider this.
What kind of a  tongue  do I  have  in
my mouth; am I blessing or cursing with
it,    and is it wholesome at all times?
"Words are things of little cost,
Quickly   spoken,   quickly   lost.
We forget them,    but they stand
Witnesses at God's right hand,
And a testimony bear
For us or against us there."
Great    and    far-reaching    results,    for
good or evil,    come from the "little member;" we see and feel this plainly iu this
world.
In God's Word we see much said about
the tongue; it shows us the baleful effects
of all evil speech, and our duty and privilege to bless with and to be blest by goodly speech; for God knows the great importance of tbis matter to us, and He would
have us to consider it much, realize it
fully,    and enjoy good supremely.
"The tongue can no man :ame." We
must have Divine help and all human cooperation and aid should be very acceptable, thnt we speak pure and pleasant
words only. There is one thing that has
helped many in this: A worthy movement originated by a worthy man, John
Beal Mead, of Pekin, Ind., an invalid who
has long Iain entirely helpless, but who
wants to do what he can for his fellow
man. It  is called:       "The  Fellowship
of Sealed Lips," meaning the "sealing of
the lips" against all evil, corrupt aud idle
utterances. The object is to combat the
demoralizing practice of perverse and
froward speech. The keynote is: "Evil
communications corrupt good manners."
The requisite to membership is: An earnt
est desire to be delivered from and kept
from the evil of unbridled speech. That
is manifested by this decisions nnd declaration: "I nm purposed that my mouth
shall not trangress. (Ps.) The criterion
is (right words): "I sny unto you that
every idle word that men shnll speak they
shall give account thereof in the day of
judgment; for by thy words thou shalt be
justified, and by thy words thou shalt
be condemned."    (Jesus.) '•
The  invocation  is:      "Set  a   watch,   O