Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-10-06
LIFE IN NEW YORK.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE FLAT IN
THE GREAT METROPOLIS.
Some of the Conveniences and the Draw
backs of the New Style
of Living.

New YORK, September %, 1889.
The fat is the result of the boarding
house Of that miserable, mixed up,
meandering mass who boarded, many have
gone into flats.
Formerly, there was no choice for gen
tility between the clearinghouse and the
private house, but since to keep up the
private house required an income of from
$4,000 upwards the general run of un-
fortunates boarded.
A great cry went up, nevertheless, and to
still it flats began to appear. People were
surprised to hear that they might live in
house with more than one bell and not
lose caste. They pricked up their ears,
they looked about, they talked, they won
dered-and all this made the flats grow.
In fact, they grew too rapidly and without
thought. They grew in strings-dark
strings, except at the two ends. Then
people began to growl, and growing
brought Improvement; builders bestirred
themselves; strings became less long and
less dark; shafts darted down here and
there, bringing light and ventilation one
thing replaced another, and by this time
the evolution Of the fiat is complete.
Everybody must know, too, what high
priced fats we have, and how successfully
they compete with private houses, surpass-
ing them in many a feminine mind, by
the extirpation of the staircase, that terror
to and mortal enemy of woman's delicate
frame. High-priced flats, however, ae all
very fine for the fine few who can pay the
rents. Let us take the majority-those
who cannot well overgo $40 or $50 per
month, many persons of refinement, who
dress well on the streets, not wishing to
pay even those figures. For even $40 or
$50 one must avoid central localities, and
be content to expend a considerable sur
plus in car-fare in order to 'get any
where"
Those figures will bring (if sufficiently
out of the way) suite of seven or eight
rooms, with private hall, the chief benefit
of this private hall being that persons can
migrate from parlor at one end to dining
room at the other, without the shock to
gentility that would ensue from going
through a bedroom. In general, it
stretches along blank wall, with rooms
(still for the most part in strings) on the
other.
Ten flats in one house is not an unusual
number, and at the entrance, therefore,
must be ten bells, each with name of ten
ant and letter-box appended on one
side, five ON the other. There are fiat
Uses ten stories or more, but prices there
are quite beyond present figures, and ele-
yators carry passengers up and down who
S.rflld scorn the modest sums above men,
toned. They are a world in themselves
and merit special notice.
Upon ringing the desired bell, let not
the unsophisticated be surprised to see the
door open of itself This is sign that he
must find his way up stairs. What is there
to guide him? Nothing; and elambering
that staircase alone, he must continue 10
Chamber unless, being calculating genius,
he has made careful comparison between
the number of the bell (which is not al
ways numbered) and the staircases. DWELL
ers in fats, however, know the perplexities
that await the inexperienced, and gener-
ally stand with open door to meet the Wis
itor, not waiting till the second bell-iust
without-is rung, since before ringing it
several wrong ones would have stirred up
wrong and perhaps wrathful parties Once
within, let US conclude he is safe, and |
only mention this episode of the self
opening door Because it might be thought
the work of spirit, when only that Of a
wire.
The peculiarities or peculiar convent
ences of fat life are chiefly congregated
about the kitchen. Refrigerators slowed
away in walls are considered extremely
cunning devices, and save newcomers the
expense of buying them and Juggling them
around, for let not the einnocent-mindedsu
pose that taking flat" is synonymous
with staying there. Refrigerators in walls,
therefore, are usually considered master
pieces, and with waste-pipe communicating
directly with the sewers, afford the benefit
of anything going on in those subterra-
mean depths or anything in anybody else's
refrigerator.
The servant girls room is generally an
annex to the kitchen and the ultima
thule of the premises; often there is
private staircase leading from the kitchen,
and one may imagine the pretty little
confabs that go on in the absence of mis-
tresses, security being afforded by the
staircase, up and down which the serv-
ant girls can dart and be at rest, should
step be heard or a familiar ring. More
or less borrowing goes on also, by means
of these staircases. Mrs. So-and-So sends
down her girl to borrow cup of milk"
g little -four" two eggs" "a bundle of
wood" or anything else the domestic i'm
agination may supply. Usually the ac-
quaintance goes no farther. People may
keep up long system of borrowing and
lending and not even know each other
by sight on the public staircase or street,
for II is tho oOrnar-Sfooa oF Got l;fa o.ooJ
the avoiding of other tenants, and where
the opposite obtains it is exceptional.
The great highway and artery, however,
is after all the dumb waiter. 1t opens into
the kitchen, and from the basement below
ice men, grocer boys, butcher boys, boys
about other things, baker boys, and last,
but not least, the janitor operates. On one
side is a whistle for each fiat, the worthless
Just mentioned using it when wishing to
communicate. Whistling, therefore, is a
large part of fat life. The janitor leads
off by whistling in the morning for the
baker boys whistle; ice men whistle
take orders, and whistle again when they
are filled butcher boys whistle; other
men and boys do the same, and the wrong
people often blow through the wrong
whistle.
To each whistle the servant girl re-
spends by opening the dumb waiter and
calling down. Flats having clear con-
sciences often give orders in this way, and
SO one fat knows Just what the other fiat
buys; or, again, there may be tilt between
the occupant of the fifth fat and grocer
or butcher below, all the other fats being
entertained thereby. Taking these numer-
Gus episodes, in connection with the con-
slant going mp and down of the dumb
waiter, as it waits on FIVE or six families =
If double house, on ten--the inference
will be that fat life near dumb waiter is
anything but dumb True, there is gener-
ally speaking tube beside the dumb
waiter, and persons Of strict propriety are
81 posed to use it. But how many people
are there Of strict propriety2 And some
how it seems more in accordance with ma
tprI law to bawl down great open space,
when communicating with distant un-
seen or unknown, than TO whisper. Bell
ringing, legitimate or illegitimate, gives
variety and completes the kitchen concert.