New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-02-10

o1tos
But We have few rich ctizens-nany Of
whom have suddenly (or, at least, rapidly be-
come rich, who are building themselves very
good houses. Ought they 10 be eensurei, or
lectured, for SO doing
They certainly might make more benet-
cent use Of their wealth They might do more
good with it. Bat IF they are to use it at all
for personal rather than philanthrOPic ends.
we can hardly imagine better application of
it than that OF building spacious and elegant
houses. This use does not tend to enhance to
poorer men the difficulty Of earning liyeli-
hood, as does the buying up by rich men OF
large tracts Of land near a great city; it does
not perish in the using lie the wealth ex-
pended in sumptuous eqIipages and entertain
ments and nearly every dollar expended in
house-building finds its way directly into the
pockets of American labOrers, as the wages OF
numbering stone-cutting, brick-Inaldng. lime
burning, mason-work, &c. And, even should
an ambitious citizen oyertax his means and
swamp himselfin building too costly house,
the edfce remains, though be sinks into OBJ
security and so passes away. HOuse-ballding
may often be unwise in the individual, and yet
benefcialto the community.
If it be regarded as O folly, it must DC
deemed a very natural one Here is a schem.
ing, stirring man Of business, who has been all
his adult life striving for wealth, with perhaps
moderate and tant0liziDg success, perhaps
boarding at Mrs. Smiths or hiring the upper
part Of JoEes's twO-story house, and often
driven from pillar to post By the fluctuations
Of the Smith or Jones fortunes, until, finally
he was enabled, q few years since. to hire or
buy a house TO himself--not such house as he
would have chosen, but such one as he could
get. But at length Fortune has smiled upon
him uDgrudgingly; he has sold for a round
price some suburban marsh, or Western village
plot, which be took for bad debt and has tena'
ciOusly held for twenty years, and finds him.
self worth several hundred thousand dollars in
solid cash. What more natural than that he
should Say to himself will build me a house
after my own idea, and amply large enough TO
hold all my children while they choose to
stay with me, even after their marriage?' If
the man is to enjoy his wealth at all, this seems
very natural and innocent disposition Of it
perhaps not the best, yet much farther re-
moved from the worst.
Yet new house, especially an expensive
one, ought TO embody a new thought. 1t
should justify itself to the world, by teaching
mankind some thing before unknown. And ac'
cordiDgly We find most of our rich men who
build striving TO introduce some improvement
on their predecessors, either in lighting, or in
heating or inventilation, or in plumbing, or in
culinary arrangements, or somewhere else
they DO not all succeed, but many do; SO that
the art Of House-building for the Million is to.
day very sensibly advanced by reason of these
efforts. The standard of convenience, and
hcalthfulncss, and comfort, in all our ordinary
houses, is gradually, insensibly elevated by
these cOst!ier structures which so many of Us
decry as ostentatiOusly, uselessy extravagant.
And il is for this reason mainly that we fire.
quently speak Of them and regard them with
favor.
One of the latest improvements we have
noted in the mansions of wealth consists of
the devotion Of the highest story entirely OF
gmnastic exercise and recreation. Ii is fin
ished of in one spacious apsrtment-say p by
20 to 80 feet in area-with a bowling alley on
Ia nd oil Of eu-spvs band lad.
ders, elastic balls, &c, suspended at various
elevations throughout so that each member Of
the family mayhere be exercising at once, or
the men, women and children may appropri-
ate il in turn. Any one, by rising half an hour
before breakfast, may here put himself in
heslthful condition for the day; or, ii he feel
jaded, dyspeptic or inclined to headache at
/ bedtime, by halfhOur's vigorous exertiOn in
I the gymnasium he may qualify himself for
sound ard refreshing slumber. The idea is of
+ inestimable value. Public establishments for
/ gmnastc training and exercise will never be
/ frequented by men Of busneSs-they cannot
find time-but gymnasium over a sedentay
mans bedroom is worth more than sn apothe-
cary's shop on each corner and nineteen M.D.'s
just across the way
And this private gymnasium brings us afresh
to the topic of House building for the Poor,
which is or should be one of the foremost
questions of the age. The laboring class of
this City pay more for inconyenient and
wretched lodgings than they should pay for
good ones. We think the average yearly rent
Of small room and bedroom paid by hOd-
carrier or dsy-labOrer is not less than 800
(Which is about two-ffihs of his yearly earn
ings,) while carpenter or bricklayer. earning
from $500 TO 500 per annum, pays $3.50 of