AN ENGLISH PREJUDICE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1700, 1 August 1879, Page 2

AN ENGLISH PREJUDICE.

The English predilection in favor of an open fire is one of the most unreasonable of prejudices. An open fire docs not heat a room so well as one-tenth of the fuel burnt in a stove would do, and it would appear that the desire for something to look at has its origin in the fact that the thing gives oat hut little heat. There would he no smoky houses if good stoves were substituted for the open fire. Notwithstanding the thousand and one cures for smoky chimneys which have from jtime to time been recommended, there is quite as much smoke as ever. An open fire is, to some extent, a good ventilator, for while it fills the room with smoke it also inundates it with cold air, by no means a pleasant mixture. To make the smoke go up a chimney it is necessary either to have an open door or window, or to have those so badly fitted that they are always practically open. The English prejudice in favor of an fire is only a degree better than the Scotch Highlander’s prejudice in favor of a fire in the middle of the room with a hole in the roof. Although climbing boys are no longer employed to dean chimneys, it is a curious fact, illustrative of English conservatism, that the vents are still built of the dimensions suitable for the ascent of a small boy rather than for the passage of the smoke. Of course Englishmen must carry their prejudices with them to countries where fires are less of a necessity than they are at home, and where of course there is less excuse for indulging in the “cheerful sight a sight, by-the way, which is exceedingly injurious to the eyes. To warm one’s self at aa open fire, it is requisite to hake one-half of the body while the other half is chilled by a fierce blast of cold air rushing towards the opening, the greater part of it going up the chimney without passing through the fire, thereby destroying instead of increasing the draught. Nine-tenths of the sufferings of the poor of England from cold is caused, not by their inability to buy coals, hut from the wasteful use of what they have. If those benevolent ladies who servo oat coal in winter months as a charity would make a family the present of a stove and teach them how to use it, they would confer a blessing which would be felt for many winters to come. The news of the late severe winter in England has stirred up those thoughts, hut they may not be without a value even here.