Franz Grillparzer - "Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg"

Wyn Roosevelt - "Frontier Boys in Frisco"

An Old Scout - "Young Wild West at Forbidden Pass"

Emma Lazarus - "The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Vol.I, Narrative, Lyric, and Dramatic"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Rural Architecture

L >> Lewis Falley Allen >> Rural Architecture




The kitchen is the grand room of this house. It is 24x16 feet in area,
having an ample fireplace, with its hooks and trammels, and a spacious
oven by its side. It is lighted by a double window at one end, and a
single window near the fireplace. At one end of this kitchen is a most
comfortable and commodious family bedroom, 13x10 feet, with a large
closet in one corner, and lighted by a window in the side. Two windows
may be inserted if wanted. A passage leads by the side of the oven to a
sink-room, or recess, behind the chimney, with shelves to dry dishes on,
and lighted by the half of a double window, which accommodates with its
other half the dairy, or closet adjoining. A door also opens from this
recess into the closet and dairy, furnished with broad shelves, that
part of which, next the kitchen, is used for dishes, cold meat and bread
cupboards, &c.; while the part of it adjoining the window beyond, is
used for milk. This room is 14x6 feet, besides the L running up next to
the kitchen, of 6x4 feet. From the kitchen also opens a closet into the
front part of the house for any purpose needed. This adjoins the parlor,
and sitting-room, closets. In the passage to the sitting-room also opens
the stairway leading to the chambers, and beneath, at the other end of
it, next the outside wall, is a flight leading down cellar. The cellar
is excavated under the whole house, being 36x22, and 34x16 feet, with
glass windows, one light deep by four wide, of 8x10 glass; and an outer
door, and flight of steps outside, under either the sitting-room or
kitchen windows, as may be most convenient. A door opens, also, from the
kitchen, into a passage 4 feet wide and 12 feet long leading to the
wash-room, 18x16 feet, and by an outside door, through this passage to
the porch. In this passage may be a small window to give it light.

In the wash-room are two windows. A chimney at the far end accommodates
a boiler or two, and a fireplace, if required. A sink stands adjoining
the chimney. A flight of stairs, leading to a garret over head on one
side, and to the kitchen chamber on the other, stands next the dairy,
into which last a door also leads. In this wash-room may be located the
cooking stove in warm weather, leaving the main kitchen for a family and
eating room. A door also leads from the wash-room into the wood-house.

The wood-house stands lower than the floor of the wash-room, from which
it falls, by steps. This is large, because a plentiful store of wood is
needed for a dwelling of this character. If the room be not all wanted
for such purpose, a part of it may devoted to other necessary uses,
there seldom being too much shelter of this kind on a farm; through the
rear wall of this wood-house leads a door into the garden, or
clothes-yard, as the case may be; and at its extreme angle is a water
closet, 6x4 feet, by way of lean-to, with a hipped roof, 8 feet high,
running off from both the wood-house and workshop. This water-closet is
lighted by a sliding sash window.

On to the wood-house, in a continuous front line, joins the workshop, an
indispensable appendage to farm convenience. This has a flight of stairs
leading to the lumber-room above. For the furnishing of this apartment,
see description of Design I. Next to the work-house is the wagon and
tool-house, above which is the hay loft, also spread over the stable
adjoining; in which last are stalls for a pair of horses, which may be
required for uses other than the main labors of the farm--to run to
market, carry the family to church, or elsewhere. A pair of horses for
such purposes should always be kept near the house. The horse-stalls
occupy a space of 10x12 feet, with racks and feeding boxes. The plans of
these will be described hereafter. The door leading out from these
stalls is 5 feet wide, and faces the partition, so that each horse may
be led out or in at an easy angle from them. Beyond the stalls is a
passage 4 feet wide, leading to a store-room or area, from which a
flight of rough stairs leads to the hay loft above. Beyond this room,
in which is the oat bin for the horses, is a small piggery, for the
convenience of a pig or two, which are always required to consume the
daily wash and offal of the house; and not for the general _pork_ stock
of the farm; which, on one of this size, may be expected to require more
commodious quarters.

The chamber plan of this house is commodious, furnishing one large room
and three smaller ones. The small chamber leading to the deck over the
porch, may, or may not be occupied as a sleeping room. The small one
near the stairs may contain a single bed, or be occupied as a large
clothes-closet. Through this, a door leads into the kitchen chamber,
which may serve as one, or more laborers' bed-chambers. They may be
lighted by one or more windows in the rear gable.

If more convenient to the family, the parlor and sitting-room, already
described, may change their occupation, and one substituted for the
other.

The main business approach to this house should be by a lane, or farm
road opening on the side next the stable and wagon-house. The yard, in
front of these last named buildings, should be separated from the lawn,
or front door-yard of the dwelling. The establishment should stand some
distance back from the traveled highway, and be decorated with such
trees, shrubbery, and cultivation, as the taste of the owner may direct.
No _general_ rules or directions can be applicable to this design beyond
what have already been given; and the subject must be treated as
circumstances may suggest. The unfrequented side of the house should,
however, be flanked with a garden, either ornamental, or fruit and
vegetable; as buildings of this character ought to command a
corresponding share of attention with the grounds by which they are
surrounded.

This house will appear equally well built of wood, brick, or stone. Its
cost, according to materials, or finish, may be $1,000 or $1,500. The
out-buildings attached, will add $400 to $600, with the same conditions
as to finish; but the whole may be substantially and well built of
either stone, brick, or wood, where each may be had at equal
convenience, for $2,000 in the interior of New York. Of course, it is
intended to do all the work plain, and in character for the occupation
to which it is intended.


MISCELLANEOUS DETAILS.

At this point of our remarks a word or two may be offered on the general
subject of inside finish to farm houses, which may be applicable more or
less to any one, or all of the designs that may come under our
observation; therefore what is here said, may be applied at large.
Different sections of the United States have their own several _local_
notions, or preferences as to the mode of finish to their houses and
out-buildings, according to climate, education, or other circumstances.
In all these matters neither taste, fashion, nor climate should be
arbitrary. The manner of finish may be various, without any departure
from truth or propriety--always keeping in mind the object for which it
is intended. The _material_ for a country house should be _strong_, and
_durable_, and the work simple in its details, beyond that for either
town or suburban houses. It should be _strong_, for the reason that the
interior of the farm house is used for purposes of industry, in
finishing up and perfecting the labors of the farm; labors indispensable
too, and in amount beyond the ordinary housekeeping requirements of a
family who have little to do but merely to live, and make themselves
comfortable. The material should be _durable_, because the distance at
which the farm house is usually located from the residences of building
mechanics, renders it particularly troublesome and expensive to make
repairs, and alterations. The work should be _simple_, because cheaper
in the first place, in construction, and finish; quite as appropriate
and satisfactory in appearance; and demanding infinitely less labor and
pains to care for, and protect it afterward. Therefore all mouldings,
architraves, _chisel_-work, and gewgawgery in interior finish should be
let alone in the living and daily occupied rooms of the house. If, to a
single parlor, or _spare_ bedchamber a little _ornamental_ work be
permitted, let even that be in moderation, and just enough to teach the
active mistress and her daughters what a world of scrubbing and elbow
work they have saved themselves in the enjoyment of a plainly-finished
house, instead of one full of gingerbread work and finery. None but the
initiated can tell the affliction that _chiseled_ finishing entails on
housekeepers in the spider, fly, and other insect lodgment which it
invites--frequently the cause of more annoyance and _daily_ disquietude
in housekeeping, because unnecessary, than real griefs from which we may
not expect to escape. Bases, casings, sashes, doors--all should be
plain, and painted or stained a quiet _russet_ color--a color natural to
the woods used for the finish, if it can be, showing, in their wear, as
little of dust, soiling, and fly dirt as possible. There is no poetry
about common housekeeping. Cooking, house-cleaning, washing, scrubbing,
sweeping, are altogether matter-of-fact duties, and usually considered
_work_, not recreation; and these should all be made easy of
performance, and as seldom to be done as possible; although the first
item always was, and always _will_ be, and the last item _should_ be, an
every-day vocation for _somebody_; and the manner of inside finish to a
house has a great deal to do with all these labors.

In a stone, or brick house, the inside walls should be firred off for
plastering. This may be done either by "plugging," that is, driving a
plug of wood strongly into the mortar courses, into which the firring
should be nailed, or by laying a strip of thin board in the mortar
course, the entire length of each wall. This is better than _blocks_
laid in for such purpose, because it is effectually _bound_ by the
stone, or brick work; whereas, a block may get loose by shrinking, but
the nails which hold the firring to the plug, or to the thin strip of
board will split and _wedge_ it closer to the mason work of the outside
wall. This is an important item. It makes close work too, and leaves no
room for rats, mice, or other vermin; and as it admits a _space_--no
matter how thin--so that no outside damp from the walls can communicate
into, or through the inner plastering, it answers all purposes. The
inside, and partition walls should be of coarse, strong mortar, _floated
off_ as smoothly as may be, not a _hard finish_, which is fine, and
costly; and then papered throughout for the better rooms, and the
commonly-used rooms whitewashed. Paper gives a most comfortable look to
the rooms, more so than paint, and much less expensive, while nothing is
so sweet, tidy, and cheerful to the _working_ rooms of the house as a
_lime_ wash, either white, or softened down with some agreeable tint,
such as _light_ blue, green, drab, fawn, or russet, to give the shade
desired, and for which every _professional_ painter and whitewasher in
the vicinity, can furnish a proper recipe applicable to the place and
climate. On such subjects we choose to prescribe, rather than to play
the apothecary by giving any of the thousand and one recipes extant, for
the composition.

Our remarks upon the strength and durability of _material_ in
house-building do not apply exclusively to brick and stone. Wood is
included also; and of this, there is much difference in the kind. Sound
_white_ oak, is, perhaps the best material for the heavy frame-work of
any house or out-building, and when to be had at a moderate expense, we
would recommend it in preference to any other. If _white_ oak cannot be
had, the other varieties of oak, or chesnut are the next best. In
_light_ frame-timbers, such as studs, girts, joists, or rafters, oak is
inclined to spring and warp, and we would prefer hemlock, or chesnut,
which holds a nail equally as well, or, in its absence, pine, (which
holds a nail badly,) whitewood, or black walnut. The outside finish to a
wooden house, may be _lighter_ than in one of stone or brick. The wood
work on the outside of the latter should always be heavy, and in
character with the walls, giving an air of firmness and stability to the
whole structure. No elaborate carving, or beadwork should be permitted
on the outside work of a country house at all; and only a sufficient
quantity of ornamental _tracery_ of any kind, to break the monotony of a
plainness that would otherwise give it a formal, or uncouth expression,
and relieve it of what some would consider a pasteboard look. A farm
house, in fact, of any degree, either cheap or expensive, should wear
the same appearance as a well-dressed person of either sex; so that a
stranger, not looking at them for the purpose of inspecting their garb,
should, after an interview, be unable to tell what particular sort of
dress they wore, so perfectly in keeping was it with propriety.

In the design now under discussion, a cellar is made under the whole
body of the house; and this cellar is a _shallow_ one, so far as being
sunk into the ground is concerned, say 5-1/2 feet, leaving 2-1/2 feet of
cellar wall above ground--8 feet in all. A part of the wall above ground
should be covered by the excavated earth, and sloped off to a level with
the surrounding surface. A commodious, well-lighted, and well-ventilated
cellar is one of the most important apartments of the farm house. It
should, if the soil be compact, be well drained from some point or
corner within the walls into a lower level outside, to which point
within, the whole floor surface should incline, and the bottom be
floored with water-lime cement. This will make it hard, durable, and
dry. It may then be washed and scrubbed off as easily as an upper floor.
If the building site be high, and in a gravelly, or sandy soil, neither
drain nor flooring will be required. The cellar may be used for the
storage of root crops, apples, meats, and household vegetables. A
partitioned room will accommodate either a summer or a winter dairy, if
not otherwise provided, and a multitude of conveniences may be made of
it in all well arranged farmeries. But in all cases the cellar should be
well lighted, ventilated, and dry. Even the ash-house and smoke-house
may be made in it with perfect convenience, by brick or stone
partitions, and the smoke-house flue be carried up into one of the
chimney flues above, and thus make a more snug and compact arrangement
than to have separate buildings for those objects. A wash-room, in
which, also, the soap may be made, the tallow and lard tried up, and
other extraordinary labor when fire heat is to be used, may properly be
made in a cellar, particularly when on a sloping ground, and easy of
access to the ground level on one side. But, as a general rule, such
room is better on a level with the main floor of the dwelling, and there
are usually sufficient occupations for the cellar without them.

All cellar walls should be at least 18 inches thick, for even a wooden
house, and from that to 2 feet for a stone or brick one, and well laid
in strong lime-mortar. Unmortared cellar walls are frequently laid under
wooden buildings, and _pointed_ with lime-mortar inside; but this is
sometimes dug out by rats, and is apt to crumble and fall out otherwise.
A _complete_ cellar wall should be thoroughly laid in mortar.




[Illustration: FARM HOUSE. Pages 101-102.]

DESIGN III.


We here present the reader with a substantial, plain, yet
highly-respectable stone or brick farm house, of the second class,
suitable for an estate of three, to five hundred acres, and
accommodation for a family of a dozen or more persons. The style is
mixed rural Gothic, Italian, and bracketed; yet in keeping with the
character of the farm, and the farmer's standing and occupation.

The main body of this house is 42x24 feet on the ground, and one and
three quarter stories high--the chambers running two or three feet into
the roof, as choice or convenience may direct. The roof has a pitch of
30 to 40deg from a horizontal line, and broadly spread over the walls,
say two and a half feet, showing the ends of the rafters, bracket
fashion. The chimneys pass out through the peak of the roof, where the
hips of what would otherwise be the gables, connect with the long sides
of the roof covering the front and rear. On the long front is partly
seen, in the perspective, a portico, 16x10 feet--not the _chief_
entrance front, but rather a side front, practically, which leads into a
lawn or garden, as may be most desirable, and from which the best view
from the house is commanded. Over this porch is a small gable running
into the roof, to break its monotony, in which is a door-window leading
from the upper hall on to the deck of the porch. This gable has the same
finish as the main roof, by brackets. The chamber windows are two-thirds
or three-quarters the size of the lower ones; thus showing the upper
story not full height below the plates, but running two to four feet
into the garret. The rear wing, containing the entrance or business
front, is 24x32 feet, one and a half stories high, with a pitch of roof
not less than 35deg, and spread over the walls both at the eaves and
gable, in the same proportion as the roof to the main body. In front of
this is a porch or veranda eight feet wide, with a low, hipped roof. In
the front and rear roofs of this wing is a dormer window, to light the
chambers. The gable to this wing is bold, and gives it character by the
breadth of its roof over the walls, and the strong brackets by which it
is supported. The chimney is thrown up strong and boldly at the point of
the roof, indicating the every-day uses of the fireplaces below, which,
although distinct and wide apart in their location on the ground floors,
are drawn together in the chambers, thus showing only one escape through
the roof.

The wood-house in the rear of the wing has a roof of the same character,
and connects with the long building in the rear, which has the same
description of roof, but hipped at one end. That end over the workshop,
and next the wood-house, shows a bold gable like the wing of the house,
and affords room and light to the lumber room over the shop, and also
gives variety and relief to the otherwise too great sameness of
roof-appearance on the further side of the establishment.

[Illustration: GROUND PLAN. CHAMBER PLAN.]


INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.

As has been remarked, the main entrance front to this house is from the
wing veranda, from which a well finished and sizeable door leads into
the principal hall, 24x8 feet in area, and lighted by a full-sized
window at the front end. Opposite the entrance door is the door leading
into the parlor; and farther along is the staircase, under the upper
landing of which a door leads into a dining or sitting-room, as may be
determined. This hall is 10 feet high, as are all the rooms of this
lower main story. In the chimney, which adjoins the parlor side of this
hall, may be inserted a thimble for a hall stovepipe, if this method of
warming should be adopted. The parlor, into which a door leads from the
hall, is 18x16 feet, with two windows on the side, shown in perspective,
and one on the front facing the lawn, or garden. It has also a fireplace
near the hall door. At the further angle is a door leading to an entry
or passage on to the portico. E is the entry just mentioned, six feet
square, and lighted by a short sash, one light deep, over the outside
door. This portico may be made a pleasant summer afternoon and evening
resort for the family, by which the occupied rooms connect with the lawn
or garden, thus adding to its retired and private character.

Opposite the parlor, on the other side of this entry, a door leads into
a room 18x12 feet, which may be occupied as a family bedroom, library,
or small sitting-room. This is lighted by two windows, and has a closet
of 6x5 feet. A fireplace is on the inner side of this room; and near to
that, a door connects with a dining-room of the same size, having a
window in one end, and a fireplace, and closet of the same size as the
last. Through the rear wall is a door leading into a pantry, which also
communicates with the kitchen; and another door leads to the hall, and
from the hall, under the staircases, (which, at that point, are
sufficiently high for the purpose,) is a passage leading to the kitchen.

Under the wing veranda, near the point of intersection of the wing with
the main body of the house, is an _every-day_ outer door, leading into a
small entry, 6x5 feet, and lighted by a low, one-sash window over the
door. By another door, this leads to the kitchen, or family room, which
is lighted by three windows. An ample fireplace, with oven, &c.,
accommodates this room at the end. A closet, 7x5 feet, also stands next
to the entry; and beyond that, an open passage, to the left, leading out
under the front hall stairs to the rooms of the main building. A door
also leads from that passage into a _best_ pantry, for choice crockery,
sweetmeats, and tea-table comforts. Another door, near the last, leads
into a dairy or milk-room, 9x8 feet, beyond the passage; in which last,
also, may be placed a tier of narrow shelves. This milk, or dairy-room,
is lighted by a window in the end, and connects also, by a door in the
side, with the _outer_ kitchen, or wash-room. Next to this milk-room
door, in the front kitchen, is another door leading down cellar; and
through this door, passing by the upper, broad stair of the flight of
cellar steps, is another door into the wash-room. At the farther angle
of the kitchen is still another door, opening into a passage four feet
wide; and, in that passage, a door leading up a flight of stairs into
the wing chambers. This passage opens into the back kitchen, or
wash-room, 16x16 feet in area, and lighted by two windows, one of which
looks into the wood-house. In this wash-room is a chimney with boilers
and fireplace, as may be required. The cellar and chamber stairs, and
the milk-room are also accessible direct, by doors leading from this
wash-room.

The chamber plan will be readily understood, and requires no particular
description. The space over the wing may be partitioned off according to
the plan, or left more open for the accommodation of the "work folks,"
as occasion may demand. But, as this dwelling is intended for
substantial people, "well to do in the world," and who extend a generous
hospitality to their friends, a liberal provision of sleeping chambers
is given to the main body of the house. The parlor chamber, which is the
best, or _spare_ one, is 18x16 feet, with roomy side-closets. Besides
this, are other rooms for the daughters Sally, and Nancy, and Fanny, and
possibly Mary and Elizabeth--who want their own chambers, which they
keep so clean and tidy, with closets full of nice bedclothes, table
linen, towels, &c., &c., for certain events not yet whispered of, but
quite sure to come round. And then there are Frederick, and Robert, and
George, fine stalwart boys coming into manhood, intending to be
"somebody in the world," one day or another; they must have _their_
rooms--and good ones too; for, if any people are to be well lodged, why
not those who toil for it? All such accommodation every farm house of
this character should afford. And we need not go far, or look sharp, to
see the best men and the best women in our state and nation graduating
from the wholesome farm house thus tidily and amply provided. How
delightfully look the far-off mountains, or the nearer plains, or
prairies, from the lawn porch of this snug farm house! The distant lake;
the shining river, singing away through the valley; or the wimpling
brook, stealing through the meadow! Aye, enjoy them all, for they are
God's best, richest gifts, and we are made to love them.

The wood-house strikes off from the back kitchen, retreating two feet
from its gable wall, and is 36x14 feet in size. A bathing room may be
partitioned off 8x6 feet, on the rear corner next the wash-room, if
required, although not laid down in the plan. At the further end is the
water-closet, 6x4 feet. Or, if the size and convenience of the family
require it, a part of the wood-house may be partitioned off for a
wash-room, from which a chimney may pass up through the peak of the
roof. If so, carry it up so high that it will be above the eddy that the
wind may make in passing over the adjoining wing, not causing it to
smoke from that cause.

At the far end of the wood-house is the workshop and tool-house, 18x16
feet, lighted by two windows, and a door to enter it from beneath the
wood-house. Over this, is the lumber and store-room.

Next to this is the swill-room and pigsty for the house pigs, as
described in the last design; and over it a loft for farm seeds, small
grains, and any other storage required.

Adjoining this is the wagon and carriage-house; and above, the hayloft,
stretching, also, partly over the stable which stands next, with two
stalls, 12x5 feet each, with a flight of stairs leading to the loft, in
the passage next the door. In this loft are swinging windows, to let in
hay for the horses.

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