Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-03-01
A DREAM OF COMFORT
Ideal Towns and Houses Built
on Millennium Plans.
MAKING THINGS PLEASANT.
A City Of Rest and Quiet-Model School
H0uses-Im the Homes Of the Middle
Glasses - Comforts In = Boarding
HOuse-Markets,

fSVEWHneeolng explanation, II 1t were not
90 obviously wrong or in bad TASTE One
might stop short in the street to admire the
grace Of q vine-draped church spire or the
heavy cornice of a building without drawing
crowd or even bringing contemptuous glance
from some matter-of-fact passer. A man hur-
rylng by made misstep and fell, his hat roll
ing on into the street; but nobody laughed,
though he was a caricature for q moment In
long stroll down Broadway one was neither
jostled or crowded. To be sure the street was
wide, but the principal reason was that nobody
tried to walk on both sides of the way at once;
but the uptown and downtown stream flowed
side by side as distinct as two brooks. When q
street car stopped, or An elevator or shop door
opened, people did not try to get in and out at
the same instant in their present idiotc fashion.
Those entering waited till the others got out
and left the way clear; it was estimated at q
saving of quarter Of a minute each time over
the ancient struggle at the door of lift or
street car; adding at least a year and half
available time to the life of each man. Truth
to tell, there began to be a terrible sense of
something wanting everywhere. No jingle of
street car bells, no thunder of drays and ex-
press wagons over the pavement When one
entered a steam car he missed
THE FAMILIAR SLAM OF THE DOOR.
after each passenger, which had once kept the
sense alert for its torture. 1t had been found
that small cushions Of rubber along the casing
obviated all slam, and that deafness was much
rarer in consequence. People used to think
that it was best for all sensibilIties to treat
them as coarsely as possible, stunning the ear
with crash, piercing it with keen sounds, jar
ring the spine out of one every time car
coupled or a front door closed. The house
fronts were broad easements to admit sun and
light; but the windows never ratified in a storm,
nor did any draughts sing in the crevices.
Every house was jointed closely as a ladys
work box; intolerable beading and molding
giving way to plain doors, made like one
smooth, broad plank of wood and decorated
with paintings or hung With enamels. Warmth
and ventilation were the first things attended
to in the houses. which were not half so ornate
outwardly those of $780, The yards, the
balconies, the roofs, were the most luxurious
or rather with huge, clear sheets OF thick gela-
tine, which had come to take the place Of glass
for hundred uses.
INA SUBURBAN TOWN
the school house took the beholder's eve be-
fore any of the other town buildings. 1t was
only the old house after the designs of 1890 re-
modelled, and the outside was simple as ever.
Perhaps the roof had a better studied pitch
and the proportions satisfied the eye, which
the old could hardly be said to do. Still it was
a kindlier edifice than the picturesque English
Gothic school buildings with hooded roofs
which shut the sun from the rooms and
cramped the class rooms to suit the angles of
the architects fancy. There were roof lofts
to keep out the baking heat of midsummer and
the cold of January; there was ventilation with
out draughts and careful warmth provided
The 'school-room smell' was unknown and the
prevailing impression was not that of a manu-
factory of graduating classes but a pleasant
place of learning. The seats and desks were
absolutely as comfortable as the chairs at the
newest theaters, the school books were large
print with pictures and maps which pupils
would remember as helps in after years. The
teachers were polished, sincere friends to the
boys and girls. Lessons positively closed for
the day at O'Clock, and a troop of happy,
hungry creatures streamed home to another
sort OF training in music and tool work, garden
or florist work of some kind, followed by
GAMES ON THE TOWN GREEN,
where half the village met in warm weather
daily, the younger ones to amuse themselves,
the older to look on and be still more amused.
Instead of gymnasium work the games pro-
vided all the exercise for the full development
of muscle and grace, with all the stimulus and
play of spirit afforded by this fun. Discipline
saved them from a hundred follies which eat
the fairness from the cheeks of children, and
love, watchful and sincere, gave them a hun
dred pleasures unknown to common house.
holds. There was the great fact of affection
and being made much of, which lends an ex-
quisite charm to faces, and is the divinest in
spiration of beauty and health for souls and
the old time had hardly time to tell their chill
dren they loved them, not time to sit in the
fire light with their hands locked or straying
upon their flowing hair, things SO slight and yet
SO long remembered.
IN THE HOMES.
There were very few six-story buildings with
deliberately carved fronts, in the insurance
style, but all were well lighted and airy, built
on strong, simple, noble lines, the lines of use,
which ran into beauty unaware. But the in
terror homes of the suburban were in singular
and pleasing contrast to those 1 had entered
but yesterday, that yesterday which seemed SO
far away.
There was a mere leaving off of superiuous
scallop and flower in the figure of the carpets
and fourishes in the carvings Of the furniture,
a choice of mellow instead of crude colors.
simple lines instead of tortured arabesque, and
where people could not afford d good picture,
thank Heaven, they were willing to go without
one. The rooms were all larger than l had
been used to seeing yesterday, the paint fresher
anu WdilS III Dttter Inc cur
tains were softly figured washing stuffs, of
lovely dyes, and the difference in price over
the hideous plush and brocade gave some ad-
mirable devices for ventilation and relays of
house plants in blossom, which made the air Of
the house delightfully."- soft and pure. There
was no carved hall screen or paneling in the
entry Of the middle-class house / was examin-
ing, but in one corner ran lift for sending
persons and things to the upper stories.
EACH HOUSE HAD ITS ELEVATOR,
on the plan of a strong dumb waiter, just as
much as its stairway, and lift to bring wood
and coal for the fireplace. All the food from
the kitchen was sent to the dining room by a
little tramway running on a shelf through the
intervening pantry. A small electric motor
turned the ice cream freezer, sawed wood and
pumped water from the great house cisterns
which proved after all the best way of supply
ing pure water to private homes in the country.
1t was remarkable that in all my adventures
in the pleasant region did not once hear a
woman complain of a weak back or Of trouble
with her hired help. The void left by the dis
appearance of these two good old topics
from conversation is not to be imagined.
ALMOST COMFORTABLE IN BOARDING HOUSE.
Do you know the strangest thing I came
across in my dream was q boarding house
where people were almost comfortable? It
was the outgrowth and contamination Of the
new order of things For instance, the par.
lor one was shone into was not stuffy, dark or
in hideous taste. Absolutely the windows
were down at the top, and the shades, set
below the head of the SASH did not quite keep
out all the air and light approachable. There