party should make their way to a front room, where they will most likely be accessible by ladders or otherwise. The last thing to be thought of is jumping from the window. If there be no ladders, a rope, or sheets and blankets tied together, will afford means of descent. Bedding or carpeting thrown out of the window may be usefully applied by the persons below for the reception of the inmates.

All other means failing, and descent from the window being the last and only alternative, get on the window-sill and drop; do not jump. A carpet, blanket, or even a policeman's coat, held breast-high, will in most cases prevent injurious effects from the fall.

From a careful examination of reports of more than 25,000 fires in the United States and England, there were found to be the following causes ascertained:-Accidents and carelessness, 3171; chimneys, flues, stoves, pipes, furnaces, or other heating apparatus, defective or overheated, 3169; curtains and bedding, 3182; candles and lamps, 1609; gas-lights, leakage, explosions, etc., 1090; clothing on the person, 100; airing or drying, 619; sparks from chimneys, etc., 706; shavings, 431; children playing with fire, matches, etc., 363; matches, 328; ashes and cinders, 134.

With fire accidents may be classed the dangers of chemical toys, which have been devised of late years for teaching children the science of natural phenomena, the service of which is very slight in comparison with the danger incurred. Among these novelties are 'Pharaoh's serpents,' composed of sulphocyanide of mercury, and which, when fired, give out noxious vapours. Larmes du Diable,' formed of metallic sodium, burn with great violence if they are either heated or moistened with water, and are more dangerous than phosphorus. Sunshine in Winter Evenings,' and 'Fiery

6

Swords,' formed of the new metal magnesium, in the hands of children cause nasty burns, through the rapidity of their combination. Will-o'-the Wisp Paper,' ' Parlour Lightning,' 'Fireflies,' ' Aerial Glowworms,' etc., all formed of pyroxilin, or paper rendered explosive by the action of concentrated nitric and sulphuric acids, are highly inflammable and dangerous.

We have in the foregoing chapter more than once spoken of the importance of having chimneys swept with regularity, as the best preventive of fires. It may now be as well to say a few words upon those persons to whom this labour is allotted; and it is gratifying to add that, in our time, no pains have been spared in lightening the irksome employment.

By the Act of Parliament passed in 1840, for the regulation of chimney-sweepers and chimneys, the practice of their being swept by 'climbing boys' is declared illegal, to the satisfaction of every humane person. Hence chimneys must now be cleansed and swept by machinery, the perfection of which has accordingly become of greater importance. For this purpose has been formed a society entitled 'The Patent Ramoneur Association,' who have invented a machine consisting of brushes arranged in a square form, and which collapse by means of spring-tubes, and adjust themselves according to the horizontal and varying directions and sizes of chimney-flues. This machine may be used by a labourer as well as by a regular sweep; it succeeds equally in straight, crooked, or angular chimneys, and may be effectually used, in the immediate extinction of accidental fire in chimneys. There are, however, persons who gainsay the merits of the Ramoneur,' and prefer 'Glass' machinery,' consisting of a round brush fixed in a round stock or centre, of sufficient dimensions to fill the chimney, and apply itself irresistibly to the four corners.

The cruel practice of employing boys to sweep chimneys has been thus smartly satirized: A large party are invited to a dinner; a great display is to be made; and, about an hour before dinner, there is an alarm that the kitchen chimney is on fire! It is impossible to put off the distinguished personages who are expected. It gets very late for the soup and fish; the cook is frantic; all eyes are turned upon the sable consolation of the master chimneysweeper; and up, into the midst of the burning chimney, is sent one of the miserable little infants of the brush! There is a positive prohibition of this practice, and an enactment of penalties in one of the Acts of Parliament which respect chimney-sweepers. But what matter Acts of Parliament, when the pleasures of genteel people are concerned? Or what is a toasted child compared to the agonies of a mistress of the house with a deranged dinner?'

The following suggestions, if carefully followed, may be the means of preventing numerous fires :-Keep matches in metal boxes, and out of the reach of children; wax-matches are particularly dangerous, and should be kept out of the way of rats and mice; be careful in making fires with shavings and other light kindling; do not deposit coal or wood ashes in a wood vessel, and be sure burning cinders are extinguished before they are deposited; never put firewood upon the stove to dry; never put ashes or a light under a staircase; fill fluid or spirit lamps only by daylight, and never near a fire or light; do not leave a candle burning on a bureau or a chest ; always be cautious in extinguishing matches and other lighters before throwing them away; after blowing out a candle, never put it away on a shelf, or anywhere else, until sure that the snuff has gone entirely out; a lighted candle ought not to be stuck up against a frame wall, or placed upon any portion of wood-work; never

take an open light to examine a gas-meter; do not put gas or other lights near curtains; never take a light into a closet; do not read in bed either by candle or lamp light; stove-pipes should be at least four inches from wood-work, and well guarded by tin or zinc; rags ought never to be stuffed into stove-pipe holes ; openings in chimney-flues for stove-pipes which are not used, ought always to be securely protected by metallic coverings; when retiring to bed at night, always see that there is no danger from your fires, and be sure that your lights are safe.

Fires are continually said to occur by accident,' or, as they are termed, 'accidental:' it has been said by persons conversant with the subject, that ninety-nine fires out of every hundred are preventible, and may be divided into two kinds-those which are wilful, and those which arise from carelessness.

THE HOUSE AND OFFICES.

H

OUSE-PLANNING is generally considered the most difficult branch of the building art. It consists in the arrangement of the apartments in a house so as to provide for the comfort of its several inmates, from those of the drawing-room to the servants' hall.

The points to be studied in the arrangement of a house are quiet comfort for the family and guests, and thorough convenience for the domestics. These subjects have been very ably treated in a large volume by a Professor of Architecture,1 who has founded his work upon the experience of practice and the study of years, directed to all examples, good or bad, which have come within his reach.' inquiry contained in this volume is a most comprehensive one; but all that we shall attempt here is, by aid of this work, to present to the reader, in a condensed form, the points most to be studied in the several apartments of a convenient and comfortable English residence, more

The

1 The title of the work is, The Gentleman's House; or, How to plan English Residences, from the Parsonage to the Palace; with Tables of Accommodation and Cost, and a Series of Selected Plans. By Robert Kerr, F.R.I.B. A., Architect, Professor of the Arts of Construction in King's College, London. 1864.