 | Life and sayings of Mrs. Partington and others
of the family |  |
MRS. PARTINGTON ON VENTILATION.
“We have got a new venerator on our meeting-house,”
said Mrs. Partington; “but how on airth they
can contrive to climb up there to let the execrations go
out is more than I can see into. But it is sich a nice
intervention for keeping a house warm!”
“What sort of a ventilator is it?” asked we, anxious
to get an inkling of the old lady's philosophy.
“It is one of the Emissary's,” replied she, sagely,
“and it is ever so much better than Professor Epsom's,
because a room is kept so warm and comfortable by it, —
not the least danger of taking cold from draughts of
too fresh air. It will be a great accusation in cold
weather.”
“But how will it do in summer?” we again asked.
The dame, for a moment, was puzzled. She had not
thought of this contingency.
“O!” cried she, after a few moments' reflection, aided
by the merest trifle of maccaboy, at the same time proffering
us the box; “I suppose, then, they will stop it
up altogether, and open the windows.”
It was an idea worthy of the profound black bonnet
and far-seeing specs before us. She left us then. We
watched her from the window, and felt anxious about
her rheumatism, as we saw her right foot sink in
a puddle, in an attempt to reach a Canton street
omnibus.
Any one who breathes the suffocating air of our concert
rooms, will be reminded of Mrs. Partington's “venerator”
for keeping a room warm.
| Life and sayings of Mrs. Partington and others
of the family | |