 | I. Mrs. Skaggs's husbands, and other sketches |  |
1. I.
A BAY-WINDOW once settled the choice of
my house and compensated for many of its inconveniences.
When the chimney smoked, or the
doors alternately shrunk and swelled, resisting any
forcible attempt to open them, or opening of themselves
with ghostly deliberation, or when suspicious
blotches appeared on the ceiling in rainy weather,
there was always the bay-window to turn to for
comfort. And the view was a fine one. Alcatraz,
Lime Point, Fort Point, and Saucelito were plainly
visible over a restless expanse of water that
changed continually, glittering in the sunlight,
darkening in rocky shadow, or sweeping in mimic
waves on a miniature beach below.
Although at first the bay-window was supposed
to be sacred to myself and my writing materials,
in obedience to some organic law, it by and by
became a general lounging-place. A rocking-chair
and crochet basket one day found their way there.
Then the baby invaded its recesses, fortifying himself
behind intrenchments of colored worsteds and
spools of cotton, from which he was only dislodged
captivity. A subtle glamour crept over all who
came within its influence. To apply one's self to
serious work there was an absurdity. An incoming
ship, a gleam on the water, a cloud lingering
about Tamalpais, were enough to distract the
attention. Reading or writing, the bay-window
was always showing something to be looked at.
Unfortunately, these views were not always pleasant,
but the window gave equal prominence and
importance to all, without respect to quality.
The landscape in the vicinity was unimproved,
but not rural. The adjacent lots had apparently
just given up bearing scrub-oaks, but had not
seriously taken to bricks and mortar. In one
direction the vista was closed by the Home of the
Inebriates, not in itself a cheerful-looking building,
and, as the apparent terminus of a ramble in a
certain direction, having all the effect of a moral
lesson. To a certain extent, however, this building
was an imposition. The enthusiastic members of
my family, who confidently expected to see its
inmates hilariously disporting themselves at its
windows in the different stages of inebriation portrayed
by the late W. E. Burton, were much disappointed.
The Home was reticent of its secrets.
The County Hospital, also in range of the bay-window,
showed much more animation. At
certain hours of the day convalescents passed in
This spectacle was the still more depressing
from a singular lack of sociability that appeared to
prevail among them. Each man was encompassed
by the impenetrable atmosphere of his own peculiar
suffering. They did not talk or walk together.
From the window I have seen half a dozen sunning
themselves against a wall within a few feet of each
other, to all appearance utterly oblivious of the
fact. Had they but quarrelled or fought, — anything
would have been better than this horrible
apathy.
The lower end of the street on which the bay-window
was situate, opened invitingly from a popular
thoroughfare; and after beckoning the unwary
stranger into its recesses, ended unexpectedly
at a frightful precipice. On Sundays, when the
travel North-Beachwards was considerable, the bay-window
delighted in the spectacle afforded by unhappy
pedestrians who were seduced into taking
this street as a short-cut somewhere else. It was
amusing to notice how these people invariably, on
coming to the precipice, glanced upward to the
bay-window and endeavored to assume a careless
air before they retraced their steps, whistling ostentatiously,
as if they had previously known all
about it. One high-spirited young man in particular,
being incited thereto by a pair of mischievous
bright eyes in an opposite window,
than return, to the great peril of life and limb, and
manifest injury to his Sunday clothes.
Dogs, goats, and horses constituted the fauna of
our neighborhood. Possessing the lawless freedom
of their normal condition, they still evinced a tender
attachment to man and his habitations. Spirited
steeds got up extempore races on the sidewalks,
turning the street into a miniature Corso; dogs
wrangled in the areas; while from the hill beside
the house a goat browsed peacefully upon my
wife's geraniums in the flower-pots of the second-story
window. “We had a fine hail-storm last
night,” remarked a newly arrived neighbor, who
had just moved into the adjoining house. It
would have been a pity to set him right, as he was
quite enthusiastic about the view and the general
sanitary qualifications of the locality. So I did n't
tell him anything about the goats who were in the
habit of using his house as a stepping-stone to the
adjoining hill.
But the locality was remarkably healthy. People
who fell down the embankments found their wounds
heal rapidly in the steady sea-breeze. Ventilation
was complete and thorough. The opening of the
bay-window produced a current of wholesome air
which effectually removed all noxious exhalations,
together with the curtains, the hinges of the back
door, and the window-shutters. Owing to this
circulation and publicity in the neighborhood,
which years in another locality might not
have produced. Several articles of wearing apparel,
which were mysteriously transposed from our
clothes-line to that of an humble though honest
neighbor, was undoubtedly the result of these
sanitary winds. Yet in spite of these advantages
I found it convenient in a few months to move.
And the result whereof I shall communicate in
other papers.
| I. Mrs. Skaggs's husbands, and other sketches | |