Show from the independent A brownstone browns brown S stone tone front as the iveans of grace BY henny HENRY WARD there are many persons who suppose that people who live in first class houses gitil wit lall all ail modern improvements improvement si must of course be much puffed buffed up and that they become quite grand in their own eyes oyes it is true sometimes that fine houses have i proud people in tham but vve we suspect the same of very poor tenements W we ibin can i imagine in a 1 I e a pride so reluctant of discipline and so ind indocile i e as to survive in spite of the experience of a first class house when we moved into a capacious brownstone brown stone dwelling our better nature with grea great simplicity whispered beware deware of temptation 21 and with willi all an ignorance quite as simple we supposed that the thieves of grace would be found lurking in large rooms at ambush behind cornices cornicks cor nices reproduced from old rome or in stately appearances how little did we suspect that these chese were harmless and that very different elements were to moth our patience but let a little preliminary exultation of a new man in a new place be forgiven ye yo who are now established I 1 remember your own household fervor on first setting tip up while we recount our economic joy and anti ahti anticipations of modern conveniences ven lences that would take away all human care and speed life upon a downhill down hill bill path where it was to oe easier to move than to stand still I 1 every thing was admirable the attic had within it a tank so large as better to tobe lobe be called a reservoir down from it ran the tiie serviceable pipes to every part of the dw dwelling Oling each chamber had its invisible water maid in he file wall ready to spring the floods upon you by the mere turn of your hand then tila ilia he bathroom bath room with tub douche shower and indeed various and universal squirt up down an I 1 promiscuous the kitchen too lle ile lie the tubs with water waiting wailing to leap into them tile the long cylinder by the side of the fire as if the rang range a had bad jis baby wrapped lip up and set perpendicular in the tile corner to nurse but greatest of all ail was the ilia furnace this too was inter fra framed med with the tile attic tank lank forit for fon it was a hot water waler furnace for a time lime this was our peculiar pride tile the water flowed down into inlo a system of coiled tubs tub which were connected with willi the boiler surrounding the furnace fire the tiie idea was when the water got as liot hot as it could well bear that it should flisk out of one end of the boiler into the pipes and round through ell ali tile the whole system and come back into the tiie other end cooled off thus a complete arterial system in was established ahe boiler being the heart the water the blood the he pipes at the hot end ena the arteries and the return pipes at lle ile lie tire cool end the veins the whole in a b rick brick chamber from which tile the air warmed by this liquid heart was given off to the dwelling dwelli rg it was was a day of great glory when we wo thought bought the chill in the air required a fire in the he furnace the fact was that we wanted to party pithy with our cur pet and were half vexed with the old conservative thermometer that would not come comedown down and admit that it was cod co 1 enough for afire a gire fire however we do not recollect ever afterwards to have been so eager in the first place we never could raise enough heat to change tile tiie he air in the house more than from cold to chill we pile I 1 in the coal and watched the tho thermometer ran down for coal again and ran back bacelo I 1 0 watch th the thermometer we brought t home coal charged ex glances over the bill with the consulting I 1 partner and made silent estimates of the expenses of the whole wip vip winter ter if this was but the begin beginning nim but thele there was the old red dragon in tile the cellar devour devouring ing coal remise lessly with his long iron tail folded and coiled in the furnace furnare chamber cli cil amber without heat thus for a series of weeks we fired off the tile furnace in tile tiie cellar at the thermometer in hi the parlor and never dever hit but we did accomplish other things once themire tiie tile fire was driven so hard that hat steam began to form and rumble and blow off 3 very innocently but the girls did not know th that a t and took to their heels for fear of being blown up when the cause was ais als discovered covered the remedy was not easy for the furnace bottom was immovable and fire could not be let down but one jeanor ARC assailed the tile enemy in his own camp and threw a bucket of water into the fire this produced several effects it put out tiie the fire it also put out so much gas steam and ashes that the maiden was quite pu put out also aiso and more than all it cracked the boil boiler r but this we did not know till some time afterwards there were a few days of comparative rest the weather was mild out of doors and cold within it was soon reported that one of the pipes was stopped up in the chambe chamber tor lor the water would not flow the plumber was sent for he was already well acquainted with the way to the house he brought upon himself a laugh 6 of ridicule ridi cule cula by suggesting that the water had given out in the tank water given out we turnell inwardly pale behind the outward red of laughing we thought we had a pocket packet ocean oceail upstairs up stairs up we marched climbed up the sides peered down to the he dirty bottom of an emptied tank alas the whole house was symmetrically connected every everything ill ili hig eig depended upon this tank the furnace jn in the cellar the range in the kitchen the laundry department all the w washing apparatus 6 bf the chambers the convenient china closet sink where things were to be washed without going goin down stairs the entry closets and almost everything else except the door bell were made to go by water and now the universal motive power was gone A anew new system of conveniences was now developed we stationed au an irish irita engine at the force pump to throw up water into the tank from the street cistern Bless irga be on that cistern in the street no man knew how deep that was like the pond in every village nobody had eyer ever found bottom and so 0 o we limped along for a few days mean while the furnace having been exa examined mired the secret of all this trouble was detected the lifeblood life ife blood of the house had been dozing and flowing away through this furnace fur how much aou would d it cost to repair ita it more money than a hot air fornace furnace would cost and half more than that so we determined to clear out the pet alas awa aga again iii how we fondled the favorite at first and h how contemptuously we kicked hacked it at last it is said that no one is a whole man we have partial gifts in our own case the gift of buying was liberally bestowed but the talent for sellin selling was either withheld cr or lay an undeveloped embryo how flow to sell the he old furn furnace ace and to get a new one there is a great psychological experience there we aroused ourselves gave several days to contemplation la lad lad jad d as ide all other care cares ran from furnace to fl furnace Arnace saw six or eight emplit patterns each one of which was better than iii lii jail all the tile others and all of hem them were able to evolve vast quantities of heat with all an imaginary amount of fuei luel but fortune that had so long iong ion lon persecuted us did not presume to destroy ils irs us yet and as a cat with a rat let us out of its paws for fora a mon rents ease in other words we arran arrah arranged arrand d with richardson bovnton BOYNTON to iut put jut their furnace in the place of tile hot air gentleman in birck birek A and iid lid to this hour we have been glad of it A winter and a half on brooklyn heights will wi 1 l p put ut ally any furnace to proof and arid we are prepared to defy the north wind the hie west or tile the boisterous southwest they may leap winter as hiigli as they please without we have summer within but oil oh the changing it was mid the tile mild weather took this chance to go south and got in its place the nigg ardest fellow that ever stood sentinel in the cellar was divided from flom the kitchen in part by tl is furnace for two or three weeks they were chiseling chi the tubes apart and getting the rubbish out of the way ma masons sorts tenders hon bon hon non men old iron and new iron tin till pipes carpenters and then new ai boxes gh gills Is and dilmer dinner tile the it ishman wheezing at the pump all mixed in such confusion that language lar at guage under the tower of babel was wis a ious literature in ili comparison sometimes as we walked out our good and loving deacons in a delicate way would warn us of tile tiie danger of be bej bei j ing puffed up try with tile tiie vilde pride cf ef a styish siy sty ish house at length after nearly six ix weeks of tile the coldest we weather alliet of the ibe season tiie the new furnace took charge of the he house water returned to lle ile lie the attic the girls no longer dreaded beir belt g blown up bj by the boiler at the range but tho the he report came cam up lip that the sinks finks were stopped after afler the kitchen floor must be ripped up tip tle the tie tio great waste pipe reached by dig digging gring and laid open broken tumblers plates and cups cup stopped up tip the he pipes another week for thi this k As we were sitting down to 0 o a dangerous peace we walked to the tile window ode one morning to see that cur yard ard had bad disappeared tile tiie roof of the store on oil it was laid had given way and carr earned i ed down all the earth cras crashing through the four roun stories to the ground just one birg morp corp was needed 4 that the house itself should slide ehde off 1 bodily and dump itself into tila the east river yet tile the misfortune was not without comfort the store was used for grinding drugs tell ten thousand pounds of salts ipecac rhu barti bartl sarn clinine and such like delicacies were hidden beneath a lidh hundred tons of earth the medicine being where many people for whom it was destined would have been buried under ground for several weeks afterwards I 1 think uie bills of ni mortality improved in it tile the region around there were a great number of other thir s exceedingly cee convenient in it our house the water waier pipe ft flom from orn the roof to 0 o tile the front cistern was carried ried nned down tho ilia wall wali to the ground tile the bitter cold froze it up nobody aoud get at it we salted it we poked hot irons into the tap we took counsel and finally let it alone the tile cornice leaked the tiie w wails walla ails alls were damp lle ile lie tire ceiling threatened theat threat ered to come off our cur neighbors pipe discharged so much of its contents on the tile ground as to saturate tha the wall in our base basement entry the area overflowed into tha tile cellar we dug a cess cees pool to let it off and cut through tiie tile the cistern pipe leading lea iea dirig to the kitchen kitchan pump it could not be soldered will with water in it and he be cistern must be run lun dry before that could be fixed the attic tank gave gae out ah again in no water water water everywhere and not a drop to wash w ash asb wilh wilb then came on a system of begging we took the neighborhood in order and went fram tram house to house till we exhausted the patience and the cisterns of every friend within reach then we betook retook ourselves to the he street pump and for two months we and the mil mii milkmen filmen men subs subsisted sted upon that there was a grand arrangement of bells at our front door which abich seldom failed to make everybody outside mad because they would not ring or everybody mad inside because they rang so furiously filon riou rlou on sly siy the contrivance was that hat two bells should be rung by one wire wire a common bell in the servants entry and a gong gon in the upper entry the bell train was so heave to draw that itneyer one ode operated rated till the man got mad and pulled with thie ifie he astren streng strength I 1 lb fh of an ox but then it went off with such a crash and jingle that one would think a band of music with a all ali 11 its cymbals had fallen through the skylight do down pvn into the entry thus women chil chii children drem drew and modest men seldom got ot in and sturdy beggars had bad it all their own way it was quite edifying to see seel experiments performed on that bell A iban man would first give a modest pull and then reflect what he was about to say sky N no 0 one ore coming he be zave gave a longer pull and returned to waiting and meditation A third pull was the tha preface to stepping back surveying the windows looking into the area when seeing signs of unquestionable habitation lie he returns with flushed wished face to the tha bell now for it lle lie pulls as it if he held a line by the side of a river with a thirty pound salmon on it while all the bells go off up un and down dowd till the house seemed earned full of bells things gs are not mended when he lie finds the gentleman of the house is not at homel home we fear that much grace has been lost at the tile front door ili in tile the midst of these luxuries of a first class house we sometimes would look wistful wistfully lv out of the window tempted to envy the HIP unconscious happiness of our two story neighbors they had no lio conveniences and were at peace while we had all manner of conveniences hat that drove us up anu ana down town stairs stair now to keep hiep the tile flood out and then to bring it in naw now to raise a heat then to 0 o keep off a conflagration so that thai we were but bat little better off at home igme than are those innocently insane people who leave home every summer and go into the cou country to take care of twenty trunks for two months but the ci cruelest ue I 1 e st t tiling 11 ing of all as we stood at the hie window was the iha pious looks looka of passers by who to say with th their air i eyes A man cannot expect much grace that lives in such a fine house it has certainly been a mears of grace to 0 o us never such lucli a field for patience such chumbl expectations lind and high looks if it would not seem like trifling rifling with selious sellous subjects when asked how one inight attain to perfection we w should advise him to buy a first class house with modern improvements and live in it for a year if that did dd not fit him hirn for translation lie he maht well weil depaur s ir of any chance Y ye w who 0 envy us will you ge with us ye who laugh at ministerial luxury will you yon on lend us your sackcloth aid take lake our conveniences but those who do live in hliwa bullof full fuli of conveniences s will henceforth be our last fast friends they will say say fay s f ay what if lie he is abolitionist ard and we pro slavery what if he is radical and we conservative the poor fellow lives in a first class hous bouso and is punished enoa enon enough r 11 without our adding to 0 o his misfortunes meanwhile we practice the file sama yama charity we rail rall no more at fifth avenue and adnire what saintly virtue enables so many to carry cheerful cile clie erful faces who live in houses with even more couve wences than ours we are grateful for our happier lot though wa we are worse off than people in two story houses how much better are we unlaced than if we lived in fifth avenue we bear our burden patiently knowing that in the very moment of despair persons are at the tho very point of deliverance who knows but he lie may have a fir fine fire as well as his liis neighbors one hour would mice lice to set a mail man flee from all his trouble troubie tro tible and permit him to walk the streets at liberty lib eity by |