New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-04-30
EF.STRUYLDJNE.

AS ApTl SKIES put OH tnc Diuc VI May Ino
feathered citizens of parks and public squares
are very busy. The other day, curious, inter
ested spectators lined the outer edges of the
City Hall Park, where the housekeeping spar
rows were eagerly picking up tufts of cotton
provided by some thoughtful SOUL Some OF
those on-lOokers were, doubtless, thinking of
the little play of the birds which is so exact
an imitation of the human drama acted IN
every street of households. In the country,
with much twitter, chatter and animated dis
cussion, the birds are arranging and
settling = their building plans fhe
oaks and naples are alive with polite
debate, where the robins and brown
thrushes are arranging their Summer quar-
tiers. In the denser frs and spruces the
century-liying crow is repairing the family
mansion, or the younger generation, with
much unnecessary cawing. gather the rude
materials for a new village. The bob-o-llnH
have not made their noisy remittance yet;
they are unayoidably detained in the reedy
savannas of the Carolinas. But the blackbirds
are making prodgious clatter as they agree
upon the terms of their new partnerships.
Wherever the birds are gathered together
the anxious cares of housekeeping. Nature is
"sctting the solitary in families"
Whether melted by the provident and
frugal example of the feathered citizens of
parks and groves, or moved by more practical
considerations, many young families of
human kind are turning their thoughts house
ward. Real estate agents, who feel the hidden
pulse of the currents of city lite, say that
the inquiry for small dwelling-houses is this
year very marked. The annual hegira of
Summer tourists vacateS many fine houses in
what are called fashionable quarters The
same causes which bring picture galleries
under the auctioneer's hammer, are offering
Murray Hill mansions at the usual fright
full figures. The traditional "fOur-stOry,
brown-stOne front, high-stOop" house.
with the regulation annual rental OF
four or five thousand dollars, how
ever, is not so much sought for. Hard
times and humber views OF life incline many
minds to less costly regions of the great city.
Our young Adams and Ewes, looking back at
at the Eden of the brown stone fronts, perhaps
go hand in hand to the lateral streets outside
the charmed limits between Fourth and Sixth
ayes, and Thirtieth and Fiftieth-sts. If the
world is not all before them where to choose
their place of rest, they find decent lit
tie homes on some of the side avenues.
This year, if never before, the owners Of COM
Portable houses which may be rented at fifty
and one hundred dollars a month are happy
with many applications from good tenants.
Here and there, too, modest young couples be-
ginning the world (not where their parents
left Off are setting up their household gods
i'll small tenements where twenty-five or
thirty dollars sufiices for the monthly rent.
We really seem to have gotten well past
our shoddy, snowy, age of housekeeping.
Many sensible people are witnessing, as tho
Friends say, against the eXtrayagant style Oh
living which inevitably involved costly
equipage, hveries, velvet carpets, satin dam
ask and marguerite. The vulgar rich have
had things SO far their own way that nice
people say they must live plainly and hand
somely in order to be different from those
whose garniture and furnishings are brazen
with their market cost. Tweed, Fisk, ana
their like have made diamonds and brOcade
too cheap to be good. The age is not as
extrayagant as it was. By and by, 1t may Do
even fashionable for people TO live
within their income aud possibly
save something. There are young
people of culture, refinement and good taste
who are seriously considering cherry taoies
and flag bottom chairs. The nest-buldng Oh
these happy yonng ones may seem tribe TO-
mantle to blase s0ciety-people, but there v
suspicion of practical wisdom about u wln sa
ia refreshing because novel. Whatever may
be- the intent of these youthful experimenternJ
tbe;r beginnings are hopeful. The nation anu
the worla are richer for each additional honeSt
and happy home established. If the small
dweings which are in such demand are ten
anted by cheerful young families content win
a modest nest-suilding, we have set so ms"
fresh fountains of purity. The signs Oh
better day for the family are auspcious' ~
spite of the croakers. We can cheeriuliy pcdi
the pressure of the money market IL IL sis 81
result in nobler and more honess sy'0 W
living.