ystems that prevent confusion and follow them rigidly.
Likewise, since old house lumber when taken apart and stored warps and
splits so badly that it can only be used again with difficulty, they
leave their houses standing wherever possible until sold. They are far
from impressive in this state and it takes both imagination and
enthusiasm to inspect the assortment offered. Usually the roof and
possibly one or two of the sides will be covered with prosaic roofing
paper. The doors and windows will be securely boarded with coarse
lumber.

The depredations of nature lovers who uproot shrubbery and rend such
flowering trees as dogwood are as nothing when an amateur antiquarian
finds an early 18th century house unoccupied. Such enthusiasts steal
and wreck like Huns. Nothing is safe from them. Door knockers, H and L
hinges, fireplace cranes, wavy old window glass, whole sections of
paneling and even hearthstones are wrenched from place with
light-hearted abandon. What they don't make away with, they generally
ruin. One visit from such a relic hunter may leave an old house a
shambles. How otherwise upright people with a modicum of interest in
antiques will glory in looting old houses is truly remarkable. We knew
one whose pride was a collection of fireplace cranes so filched.

Knowing this, the old house dealer, immediately he has bought a
structure, makes it as weather-tight and marauder-proof as possible.
Sagging floors and weak stairways are braced, as are fireplaces
injured by dampness and frosts. Paneled partitions are stripped of
layers of disguising wall paper. Any efforts to modernize that hide
original conditions are torn out and the house cleared of the rubbish
left by its last tenant. Even then such a house is not overly
attractive to particular housekeepers.

To offset this, the old house dealer first shows one or more albums of
pictures of the houses he has for sale. These contain complete
snap-shots inside and out, together with plans and dimensions. If he
is wise, he also has simple typed statements, giving all the data he
has been able to gather concerning each house, approximately when it
was built, its connection with local historical events, and, if
possible, the names of prominent personages who dwelt in it or were
guests there. Knowing that buyers are much impressed by such facts, he
often makes a careful search of recorded deeds and books of local
history for those few interesting facts that he may use