Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-03-03
THE HOUSES WE LIVE IN.
Two Materials That VIII Play LnrEu
Part In tho Near Rasure.

the righteousness of the dwellings of the
rich has become magnified, and more and
more of what once were the Injuries OF
the rich have become the property of the
comparatively poor. Fireplaces, fur
naces, stoves. cheap glass, and ample sash
windows, plenty Of water for the turning
of tap, all the appliances of the plum
Der, and, finally, gas and electricity have
crowded upon US, and make the modern
house, even when intended for family In
moderate circumstances, moro complex
affair by far than the castle OF robber
Baron of the middle ages.
The shortcomings of our houses, writes
Mr.. W. N. Lexington in the Philadelphia
American, arise from the very plethora OF
inventions and complexities crowded into
them. Most of these are SO new that
we have not learned how to make
the best use of them; how to
extract beauty from them-have not, in
fact, digested them. Past ages had fewer
comforts, but they were well-digested,
and beauty was given to the useful artl.
Gle. The Roman candelabrum held only q
rude oil-lamp, yet it was a more aesthetic
object than our modern electric lamps,
because thought was lavished on its form.
When the electric lamp is as familiar to US
as the oil-lamp was to the Romans, per-
haps we may have learned how to make it
an artistic object.
Moreover, our houses are not, as regards
their construction, abreast either OF the
engineering or sanitary science Of the age.
This is largely due to the existence Of the
practice of house-manufacture by specu-
lators, who wish to give as much as posi-
BILE at the smallest possible expense; and
still more largely to the love Of ostentation
and lack of knowledge of construction or
sanitation on the part of the Housekeeping
and house-renting public.
The decadence of style, so much regret
ted by that class of artists who love to
look backward is not worth signing for.
This is the necessary result Of world
wide civilization, and probably the prelude
to universal style. When, after oscllat-
ing from fashion to fashion, we have
chosen, from the styles of past ages all
that is suitable to modern purposes, when
the movement now started toward the
honest use of materials has eliminated in
the most suitable as we'll as most honest
use Of them; and when we have learned
to throw web of beauty around those
new additions to our comfort which our
slider inartistical and unpoetical; then a
new and universal style will be evolved.
In the meanwhile we are crude. We do
not drain our Easements thoroughly, nor
construct our plumbing and drainage as
well as we know how to do it; we neglect
to provide damp courses against the ascent
of damp, or to construct our brick OF stone
walls hollow for the same purpose; we
make our floors Of inch boards laid upon
planks set on edge, though we know that
by so doing we are building harbors for
vermin and laying fuel for flame; we
build crazy, unrestful roofs, full of peaks
and cutters, though we are sure that it
will be hard to keep them weather-proof;
and we line our rooms with matchwood
mouldings and wainscotings in ordeer to
shelter our insect foes end give fire q
free sweep. Partitions between rooms are
still built Of wooden studs though lime
blocks and porous and hard terra catta are
all well-known and comparatively cheap
materials, and would be cheaper were they
more in demand; staircases are built most
fimsily of thin wood, and often rest
against wooden partitions; water-closets
are combined with bathrooms, SO that
only one person can be accommodated at
u
ventilation.
Some of these faults are the result Of
passing fashion for the ways of the eigh-
teenth century, but none of them are in
harmony with the science and progress of
the last quarter of the nineteenth, and
none of them are essentially artistic or
are capable Of a better artistic effect than
can be produced by more scientific and
rational construction.
The age of compo has passed away-we
no longer cover rough brick or stone walls
with consuls and plasters of stucco; the
reign of the American Country vernacu-
lar, of jig-saw scrolls, "rustic" boarding,
clap-boards and painting in assorted
colors, is nearly over, but we have yet
much to learn before stone, brick and
solid wood, terra-c Gotta and other fire.
proof or slow burning materials are used
correctly and artistically, before our
houses are proof against the gases from
ground and sewer: and before our orna-
ment is that which bests suits its situa-
ton.
Two well-known materials, one used at
present to some extent in house building,
the other now chiefly employed as a
decoration, will probably play large part
in the house construction Of the future.
There are glass and paper. The former
is harder and stronger than iron, so much
so that already it has been used for rail-
road beds; it can be made semi-trans-
parent, so as to let in light without per-
hitting clear vision, or entirely Opaque by
proper admixture of its icomponents; and
it is the most clean and impershable OF
substances. Glass may thus come into
IL I14% IL 80 H.
the houses of the relatively poor may be
made more roomy and comfortable by the
general use of slabs or sheets of pulped
vegetable fiber or paper-the cheapest of
materials, and one which is both Clearly
and enduring when, properly made and
treated.