New-York tribune., 1878-07-05
REWARDS OF ECONOMY.
A COUNTRY HOME FOR CITY PEOPLE.
EXPERIENCES OF SOME PERSONS WHO GET GREAT
SATISFACTION IN SMALL wAY-sEEKING A

SIR: When friends came round to spend
the evening the question has been usual Where do
you intend to go this summer-just as people ask who
have 10 choose between the French Exhibition and OF
tawa gayeties rush 10 the Pacific Coast-he
most sensible way to my mind for rich people to pass
their season. since it gives them six months OF June IN
their year, and no thunder-storms
There are six Of u.s. little and large, and only two are
bread-winners. There are three others who might do
something for the family, If they only knew how. In
this artistic day. roast and dessert, cheylot ana eash
mere are not enough to satisfy anybody with eyes and
tastes as well as bodily hungen. To mention mere ne
there are the Mercantile Library ticket and the
magazines, extra and season ticket TO the loan eNh
btion-thau 20 without which l would rather have
lunched on brown bread and cider for the Whole Six
weeks il asted-and Modieska twice, and charity OF
two Besides there such ndugences as photograph
and a Dot OF flowers, and materials for drawing, ANA
tLe French ESSAYS and the German novel; and Brahmss
symphony and the Messiah" at Christmas-wil'h
wouldn't seem Christmas without It's feast oil music
and the vapor baths and the morning lectures-Wh'ch
one doesn't forever want TO attend on free tickets II
friends are so kind. may well confess the mis-
doings and cxtravagances as well how ] bought
Japanese china at Leayitt's sale, and picture-how
could one help losing ones head when water coors were
going for the price OF flames alone II was neXcnsabe
but kept away from afternoon sales aer that once
aud wore an old cloak all Winter by way OF pcnnncc.
and got snubbed for it a good many times What busi-
with family, to throw away so pictures or chDaf
What business have poor people with tastes anyhow
We were tired last Spring Of working and thinking
hard and stnting every to nay every dollar for
house rent expenses with nothing TO show for ut
the end Of the year, with the cheapest com.
Portable fiat at $40 month, and beef steak
twenty cents u pound, aud Nora every Monday
bringing In such a grocer's bill for cooknlb lbuter and
starch ana sapoo macnroui and canned tomatoes and
peaches, ana the milk bill always coming az the
wrong time, and Vienna bread high. We could have
hreakased on bread and salad, and liked II II we ad
been alone, bat with servant the thing was not to be
thought Of one must do something TO Keep MP the re-
spect OF the kitchen. II was horrible to be working
ones life away with eating the heart out OF every
pleasure-;o have the dollars that meant so much
pleasure and washed down the drain In soap
suds fried away IN butter. or sigued away for an
agents rent receipt We took a bold step aud resolved
TO move into the country There at least, we should
have fresh air, and cheaper rent and living
We took private trips TO Newark looking az the pretty
houses in the new quarters, houses with cupoas and
bay-wiudows and brackctcd roofs, and soddcd yards
with ccdartcc Ia front and circular clohes-dyer NJ
the back Aud these inviting places were to be
$500 year We hunted about for something at our old
price and found mechanics cottages with gothic roofs
and bay-wndows to be sure but without bathroom or
sign II modern convenience, except the pump and sink
In the kitchen and those narrow, pnchcd houses
painted lovely sulphur tint, with the dningToom look
ing directly into the next neghors bay window 50 close
that We could the pattern % the cups and sauccs on
the tabcvth the twenty-five feet lot uncnihcllished
save by the shayngs the carpenters left. crowded 30
closely together as to shut the from the Tide win
dowa-u short with all the Disadvantages Of city house
and none Of Its convenience TO let at $40 month
As lot aud building together could not have cost over
- 600 clear this asking suhcienily high Interest
for the owners money Aui yet such houses are hlcd
by haul-WOTkug mechanics, VIII" should nave thIlt anu
c0utrtyancc enough 20 avoid paving exactly onc-haa
their average earning for the roof that covers them
We went down 10 Orange and ic ~ loFt ~ once WIN
ITS ree-ned streets, s flower borders aud trim cot
ages Just the right distance from Tie city with mar@eS
and ras all the prosac necessities when make ne
smooth, 20 ones hand But, II You Dre'c me-; lhs s
the reception had. one acquniuttnce was looking
very delicate. She had had the fever IN tue th ana u
had run into chLs through the ihteF, ~ ln' h|N
house chsrminay npologised to i9r not hclng
admitted further than The dooInai a, me ne lI,c s'
child had the measies another was lnsl getting over
OF scarlet fever. We concluded the air Of the place
wouldn't suit us There WAS too large snpny 81 cry
ark, they would all be the better for heo!c exhibition
Of drain tile.
We weuLio the Hudson side. People with incomes OF
$1,000 a year aud upward can live charmingly these
time. anywhere between the city and Poughkeepe, but
there be lac" there. more than any
where else the small people who want their share Of
the best things oi life as wei and urgently as II
they were mionaires. Who docsnti We wanted
space we wanted pure air. shade, fruit flowers pleas
ing prospects, decent uei.hOors, aud civilization.
Neitr cruped houses nor dooryards would do for NJ,
nor house fronts abuttng on the dusty sdeWa <; nor
would gravel walk aud one cedar answer our dehni-
tom OF srubbery. We were 10 10 cry with yeXaton on
being sent by agents twenty miles out oi town 10 look
Rt "A Kaunt, announcement village house standing dl-
recty un the pOWdeiy street with patch Oi NANCY
and hen-cultyatcd grass at the side, by way oi
country cottage"
We went TO westchestcr County, and fancy. know
pretty well every Of house rent from Mount Yer
non TO the Connecticut line. There are the boxes TO
rent for the Summer only, ofen dapdated shelis with
low hot chambers, where must realize wildly the
story Of the Hebrew children In the fiery furnace;
old-inshoucd n-houses. "ow studded" with wonder
fully ruinous kitchen parts and smell OF by-gone
generations cnging every roonnhn odor Of feather
beds and funerals and longkcpt clothes romantic look
ing houses with their owbrowed portals and protecting
trees and crystal streams flowing TO some whitewashcd
cell which might be hcrmts grOt, only II happens to be
the mill-room instead There are hnli-won houses,
with odd octagOn wings and lattccd windows with
vines clingng 10 them, and garden gone TO wilderness
about them; places where some dreaming spirit,
q Hawthorne or a Poe may have paced ana planned
nghts OF fOulnn"' dn.y "J h,pt w.. l,tcScn
and d.ungroOm, being given over 10 damp and cock
roaches There are the modern cottages spruce French
roofed painted auy two shades YOU Ike e-nOsfly the
you don't hke,yith bay windows and cSierns Dnt
total ignoring of other domestic essentials. Why land
should believe that people coming into the country
IenOunce the habit of bathing is an open question.
house with bathroom IL seldom found IN the country
at less than 81 900 year. IL s matter OF only 500
10 III up bathroom In any house where there Is |
pump and drain ana the luxury is even greater III hn
country where dust free and gardening not lest art
Than In town. Not pretier country lies out OF DOOR
than this County OF Weschesler, with It's woodland
views and sunny knobs. and Enslish-ke pictures OF
mead and elms, pierced by church spires. with |
streams winding through the foreground Has any artist
yet gone through II with poruolio, hunting Its gra-
nOOksi II not, then ne need 20 no farther
from his sndio for the coming Summer for pictures
Of rurS lOyclincss.
Truth and experience compel the observation that
MI parts OF the county not decidedly whole
some as they win be when well underlaid with drain
tle all building country ought 20 be- but 1t is the
destined residence Of New-YOrk City, that rapid
transit accomplished. modern house carefully
selected site OF the HIGH sunny knolls which abound
avoiding swampy vicintes, and close, cOnsumptlOn !