The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-06-01
" ANY CHILDREN"
Margery Answers A. X. C. to Her
Own Satisfaction at Least.

r. HE subject of renting houses, fats or
SsTS rooms to families with children is,
c}sSS as a. K. c. says in an article in last
serious one. But ! don't agree with the
writer, and this question, like all others,
has two Sides. And, as the writer argues
from the point of one having children but
no house, propose to answer on the basis
that have house and no children.
Probably, if L had any little ores.
1 would be as blind to their faults
as other parents are to their chill
dren's. There is 30 denying the fact, chill
dren will damage a house. furniture or
flower garden more in one year than a
dozen families of mature years. and as peo-
pie build houses to realize something from
them by rental, is it to be wondered at if
they prefer the class who will injure them
the least?
Take, for instance, poor, Woodworking
lady, who, by strict attention TO SAVING
every cent, al last manages to. tEs7SI herself
a little home, which, is she is successful in
renting TO good tenant, she can save
something But if she has rented it to
children it generally takes all she has to re-
pa If the house and put it in proper eondi-
tion for the next tenant. The front gale
will no doubt be found without its hinges
or one OF two of the Stats viii be missing
doors, windOw-sills and the woodwork gen.
orally will suggest the idea that wood
chopper has been around. The handles of
the doors will be SO looSened as to be
almost unable to do their work, plastering
will be broken where swings have been
constructed, window panes smashed from
misguided ball or kite, while the pure
white walls or handsomely papered ones
viii be boydered with prints of dirty
|, fingers, ranging all the way from two to
four feet from the floor. Children have no
respect for fine mirrors, water faucets, fine
shrubbery, etc. Is it to be wondered
at then that owners ask the question, ANY
| childreD?'' Or is it to be wondered at also
if clearinghouse or lodging house keepers
ask the same question? People who keep
such houses are generally poor, and it is
only by diht of strict economy that they
manage to make any kind Of living They
know the exact price Of every article of fur
nlture in their house and just how much it
will cost to replace 1t. and where
is the child that is not constantly
tramping through the house with hands
either besmeared with butter or
moiasses or who is not hammering tacks or
| nails in the carpet or furniture? The land
| lady or landlord may not be "soured or
| chjldess," but may have quiet people who
only stay because the house is quiet. 1t is
! not pleasant for one, writer especially,
who has worked all day, to be disturbed of
| the needed rest at night by shriekiDg babies
or boisterOus half-grown children. It's not
agreeable either when clustered around the
dining table 10 have an instructive and
pleasant conversation interrupted by a
child's prattle. Nor is it pleasant TO be a
witness to correction bestowed upon these
little ones.
A very strange thing connected with peo-
pie who have children is that when making
a contract for boarding they invariably in
sist upon paying half or quarter price for
their children, when in reality they should
pay more for the annoyance of them and
what they waste. These very people, too,
will generally shun house where there are
children, or when renting will try to find 4
location where there are no children on the
block.
A. K. c.. asks what is man to do who
has family of children and who does not
own house. / would advise such man to
save his money, build himself home be-
fore he enters into matrimonial ties, and Sc
babies and the fumes of paregoric.
| don't think there Is much danger OF this
! great and glorious country" becoming in
| the near future as dead and desolate as
| Babylon, or the pl0wshares rusting in the
| burrows, the ships rotting upon the ocean
| or the streets silent and deserted, so long
as immigration holds the sway it does
| After ALL don't think that children are
so much to blame; 1t is the parents. Chill
| dren come into the world ignorant alike of
good or bad behavior. They are easily
| nodded into any form of conduct, and If
they are Stunned by all law-abiding and
| quietly disposed citizens as community to
be avoided let them rise up, mighty in
their anger, and teach their would-be
teachers, their indulgent parents, to rear
them in such manner that landlords will
not be forced to shun them as they would
the grip or street-organ. MARGERY.