s will
not only draw better than those made in the usual way, but there will
be less danger from 'defective flues.' A four-inch wall of bricks
between us and destruction by fire is a frail barrier, especially if
the work is carelessly done or the mortar has crumbled from the joints.
To build the chimneys with double or eight-inch walls makes them very
large, more expensive, and still not as good as when they contain the
smooth round flues. To leave an air-chamber beside or between them for
ventilating (Fig. 2), is better than to open directly into the
smoke-flue, because it will not impair the draught for the fire, and
there will be no danger of a sooty odor in the room when the
circulation happens to be downward, as it will be occasionally. The
outside chimney, if there is one, should have an extra air-chamber
between the very outer wall and the back of the fireplace to save heat
(Fig. 3), a precaution that removes to a great extent the common
objection to such chimneys. Whatever else you do, let these 'windpipes
of good hospitalitie' have all the room they need. I shall not
willingly carry them off by any devious way to be hidden in an obscure
corner or dark closet, nor yet to give them a more respectable and
well-balanced position on the roof. Like the wild forest trees they
shall grow straight up toward heaven from the spot where they are first
planted. If we happen to want a window where the chimney stands in an
outer wall we will make one between the flues, as one might build a hut
in the huge branches of a mighty oak. It isn't the best place for the
window or the hut, but circumstances may justify it; as, for instance,
when we must have the outlook in a certain direction, but cannot spare
the wall-space for a window beside the chimney. The jambs beside a
window so situated will be very wide, and you may, if you please,
extend the view of the landscape indefinitely by setting two mirrors
_vis-a-vis_ in the opening at either side. This will also send the
sunshine into the room after the sun has passed by the other windows
on the same side of the house. It is rather a pretty fancy, too, when
the outside view does not require a clear window, to set a picture in
colored glass above the mantel, and the same thins: may be arranged in
the sideboard, if it happens to stand against the outer wall. These are
_fancies_, however, which lose their beauty and fitness unless they
seem to have been spontaneously produced. There sh