Let us
be sure that however great a mystery death is, the pure love of the
heart can never die, and that though the stars may fade with weari-
ness from too long a vigil in the sky, the heart of the child will still
turn to its mother and nestle to her breast, and that in heaven's
nursery it will sit waiting patiently until "mamma" comes home.
24
HOME ARCHITECTUl^E.
iHE desire to build a house for our own home and that
of our family is a noble and humane ambition. It
needs capital to do it, and capital is what the vast
majority of human beings do not possess. The plan
of gaining a freehold of property, little by little, as
Israel of old gained possession of Canaan, is, however, becoming
general everywhere, and is one of the progressive social aspects of
the age and country in which we live. So much is this the case that
both the United States government, the legislatures of single States,
and many wealthy corporations formed by capitalists are either giv-
ing grants of land in sections of the country that need population
and industry, or are selling them on the terms of easy periodical
payments.
The great question, however, and one which is not sufficiently con-
sidered by the prospective settler and house builder, is whether the
plot of land is worth building upon, and whether its sanitary condi-
tions make it desirable for. a habitation. Many have built a tomb
when they thought they were building a house. Instead of a home
to live in, they have made a miniature hospital for themselves and
their children to fall sick and die in. Bad drainage, stagnant water,
whose poisonous exhalations and moisture have saturated the soil
upon which the pretty house is built, have caused typhus and typhoid
and the other forms of hydra-headed fever, chills and shiverings,
malaria and ague, rheumatism, sick headaches and faintness, loss of
appetite and strength, diphtheria and pneumonia, throat troubles and
consumption. Whole families have died off, one by one, though the
sky above them has been clear and the landscape around them beauti-
(370)
HOME ARCHITECTURE, 37 1
ful, because they have built their dwelling on malarial soil and pesti-
lential marsh land. Beneath the ground on which man walks there
is sometimes hidden wealth in veins of minerals, and there is some-
times also the damp and poison that will turn the little paradise into
a graveyard. The first thing, therefore, is to dig before you plant;
to know thoroughly the nature of the soil ; to remedy all defects of
drainage if you can, and if you can't, to pitch your tent elsewhere,
although land agents tell you it is the finest and healthiest spot in
creation and that your home would be a very palace of Aladdin.
Page 243
Presented as published in 1883. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Let us be sure that however great a mystery death is, the pure love of the heart can never die, and that though the stars may fade with weariness from too long a vigil in the sky, the heart of the child will still turn to its mother and nestle to her breast, and that in heaven's nursery it will sit waiting patiently until "mamma" comes home.
THE desire to build a house for our own home and that of our family is a noble and humane ambition. It needs capital to do it, and capital is what the vast majority of human beings do not possess. The plan of gaining a freehold of property, little by little, as Israel of old gained possession of Canaan, is, however, becoming general everywhere, and is one of the progressive social aspects of the age and country in which we live. So much is this the case that both the United States government, the legislatures of single States, and many wealthy corporations formed by capitalists are either giving grants of land in sections of the country that need population and industry, or are selling them on the terms of easy periodical payments.
The great question, however, and one which is not sufficiently considered by the prospective settler and house builder, is whether the plot of land is worth building upon, and whether its sanitary conditions make it desirable for. a habitation. Many have built a tomb when they thought they were building a house. Instead of a home to live in, they have made a miniature hospital for themselves and their children to fall sick and die in. Bad drainage, stagnant water, whose poisonous exhalations and moisture have saturated the soil upon which the pretty house is built, have caused typhus and typhoid and the other forms of hydra-headed fever, chills and shiverings, malaria and ague, rheumatism, sick headaches and faintness, loss of appetite and strength, diphtheria and pneumonia, throat troubles and consumption. Whole families have died off, one by one, though the sky above them has been clear and the landscape around them beauti- (370)
ful, because they have built their dwelling on malarial soil and pestilential marsh land. Beneath the ground on which man walks there is sometimes hidden wealth in veins of minerals, and there is sometimes also the damp and poison that will turn the little paradise into a graveyard. The first thing, therefore, is to dig before you plant; to know thoroughly the nature of the soil ; to remedy all defects of drainage if you can, and if you can't, to pitch your tent elsewhere, although land agents tell you it is the finest and healthiest spot in creation and that your home would be a very palace of Aladdin.