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Show We often hear people complaining that fortune had not treated then: kindly, but when we (fiance at the lift of our remote ancestors we must concede con-cede that fortune has done a great deal for every person born in our day nnd generation. SIS OX THE LAKE HOMES OF OUR RE-ANCESTORS. RE-ANCESTORS. Br. th. va T"n th Korman .. Br mt Ihd Back. In -Thr.. Th. Md MU lh. ,rl t pu M I We naturally l-'-'f deeP Interest in ,our lineage. Vlf "e t0 t,lke UP the genealogical thiV4 nd follow it back just as tar as poVlb4e. He is a proud American that t'fn trace his descent to the good old Puritans, who came to the wilds of Xew England for the sake of religious freedom, and then compelled com-pelled all other immigrants to adopt the Puritan tenets. Some of us can trace the family line back three hundred hun-dred years or more to Great Britain or j tho continent of Europe. But perhaps it is jus, as well that we lose the genealogical line before wo get back very far. Many of us can trace our ancestry to the time when it was customary for diners to lish food out of dishes with their lingers a cus- torn that would hardly pass for "good , form" in our day. Suppose, however, that we were able to go back two or three thousand instead of two or three hundred years. It would certainly be interesting to know how our ancestors lived so long ago as that but if they could bo with us now we might hesitate before introducing in-troducing them in the parlor or escorting escort-ing them to the opera. In Northeastern Europe, where most of the ancestors of Americans lived from two to four thousand years ago, domesticity was uttended by many drawbacks. Housekeeping in those days was not merely the caring for things in or about tho house. It was literally keeping or protecting the house from savago nomads, who roamed roam-ed about skulking in the forests near a habitation, and waiting for a chance for murder and pillage. Mankind were born fighters in those days. It was as common for two strangers to try to kill ono another as for two strange dogs to fight Tribal warfare was constant very much liko that which existed among the Indians of our country two hundred years ago. Tho consequence of this savagery among our ancestors, says a writer in the Phildolphia Times, was tho build-iug build-iug of homes whose chief and primary object was safety. Theso homes wero often made on lakes, in clilTs and in caves. We know a good deal about theso structures and also the habits of the people, for remains of the dwellings dwell-ings and all sorts of housekeeping appurtenances have been found within a comparatively few years past. In ono lake, in Switzerland, the remains re-mains of about forty lake villages have found. So well preserved are some of the remains of the buildings that we can toll just how the structures were built, and from tho various household thhigs discovered we learn much about the home life of those primitive people. peo-ple. When the late dweller sot about building a house, he found it no easy matter. He lived in a village built on top of the water, and every house had to bo erected on poles. Tho whole village, sometimes several hundred houses, was connected with the shore by a bridge that could be quickly swung around in case of danger. The houses were joined to one another by narrow bridges. So tho builder first had to cut poles on land, carry them out to the water site of his house, and drive thera into the lake bed as far as possible. He had no ponderous pile-driver for this work, and it was impossible to embed tho pole3 deoply enough, he was obligod to bring groat quantities of stone from tho shore and heap them about the piles at the bottom. The tops of the poles wen then joined by girders or cross pioces, and the foundation founda-tion of the houso was finished. The house itself was made. of poles, the interstices on both sides being filled with clay, very much as the early settlers in our country used to build log cabins. When the time came to furnish the house the owner was not much worried wor-ried about the decorations of the various rooms. There was only ono room and nothing to decorate that with. The bed was a pile of furs, the ehalrs had neither seats, rungs nor backs, and there was no need of a table. But there were cooking utensils uten-sils and bowls and platters. In the latter part of the lake-dwelling era, say twenty-five hundred yoars ago. the use of iron had been discovered, from which were made rude pots, kettles and other utensils and implements. Before the bogining of the iron uge bronze was used for many purposes. Being tnado of soft motals, chiefly copper, it naturally antedatod iron. But if our lake-dweller lived in the stone age, say four thousand years ago, his cooking and dining appliances consisted of only a few clumsy stone and wooden articles. However, his wants were as simple as his supplies were meagre. What he had never seen nor heard of ho couldn't long for. Another device for safoty dwellings, almost contemporary with the lake houses, was the making of houses in cliffs, which could be reached only by ladders. We have examples of cliff dwellings in our own country, although they evidently belong to a much later era than those of Europe. In Xew Mexico, Arizona and Southwestern Colorado there are remains of many villages built In tho cliffs and canyons. In Walnut canyon, Arizona, there is a row of cliff dwellings extending more than five miles. Before te lake and cliff era of dwellings our ancestors in Europo often lived in caves, the mouths of which were obstructed.by heavy stones, excepting a hole big enough to crawl through.- This was also for protection against human savages and wild beasts. . |