Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-02
MAKING IT ITPLEASANT.
More of Shirley Dare's Day Dream
About the Future Utopia.
REFORMS IN THE SCHOOLROOMS.
Electricity Chained to All Work That
Makes Women's Backs Ache.
THE BOARDING HOUSE AND MARKET
,wR1TrzN FOR THE D1sPATcH.l

bad taste. One might stop snort IN the
street to admire the grace of vine-draped
church spire or the heavy cornice OF build
ing without drawing crowd or even bring
ing q eontemptuous glance from some mat
ter-of.fact passer A man hurting by made
a misstep and fell, mis- hat rolling off into
the street; but nobody laughed, though ne
was caricature for moment.
In long stroll down Broadway one was
neither jostled or crowded. To be sure the
street was not wide, but the principal reason
was that nobody tried to walk on both sides
of the wav at once: but the up town and
downtown stream flowed side by side as dis
tinct 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 idiotic
fashion. Those entering waited till the
others got out and left the way clear; it was
estimated at a saving OF quarter OF a min
ute each time over the ancient struggle at
the door of q lift or street car; adding at
least year and half available time to the
life of each man.
THERE WAS SOMETHING WANTING.
Truth to tell, there began to be terrible
sense of something wanting everywhere.
No Jingle of street car bells, no thunder of
draws and express wagons over the pave
ment. When one entered steam car he
missed the familiar slam of the door after
each passenger, which had once kept the
sense alert fer its torture. 1t had been
found that small cushions of rubber along
the casing obviated all slam, and that deaf
ness 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, pierre
ing it with keen sounds, jarring the spine
out OF one every time a car coupled
or a front door closed. The house
fronts were broad easements to ad-
NIT 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 lady's workbox; in
tolerable beading and molding giving way
to plain doors, made like one smooth, broad
plank of wood, and decorated with paint
ings or hung with enamels. Warmth and
ventilation were the first things attended to
in the houses, which were not half so ornate
'outwardlv as those of 1890. The yards, the
| balconies, the roofs were the most luxurious
little gardens shut in with glass for the win
ter, or rather with huge clear sheets of thick
gelatine, which had come to take the place
of glass for hundred uses.
SCHoOLHoUSE REFORM.
In suburban town the schoolhouse took
the beholder's eye before any of the other
town buildings. 1t was only the old house
after the designs of 1890 remodeled, and the
outside was simple as ever. Perhaps the
roof mad better studied pitch, and the pro-
portions satisfied the eye. which. the old
could hardly be said to do. Still it was q
kindlier edifice than the picturesque En-
glish- Gothic school buildings with hooded
roofs which shut the sun from the rooms
and cramped the classrooms 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 without draughts and care
full warmth provided. The ''schoolroom
smell' was unknown, and the prevailing
impression was not that OF mandatory of
graduating classes, but 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, and public opinion was
against those scholars who would not study
and obey in school hours. In consequence
of this class spirit, lessons positively closed
for the day at o'cloca. 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 develop
ment Of muscle and grace, with all the stim-
ulus and play of spirit afforded by this fun.
HOW THE CHILDREN LOOKED.
The children wore a thoroughbred look.
and an ideal beauty which surpassed the
marbles OF sculpture. One thought the
Golden Age restored, and in some sort it
was, or rather the happy age. in which one
thing was notable, that all wore that crown
ing grace of wide-eyed candor, the luxury
and hallmark hitherto only Of race and
those who could afford to despise the opinion
or the opposition of their fellow men. Dis
cipIine saved them from hundred follies
which eat the fairness from the cheeks Of
children, and love, watchful and sincere,
gave them a hundred pleasures unknown to
common households. There was the great
fact of affection, and being made much of,
which lends an exquisite charm to faces,
and is the divinest inspiration for beauty and
health for souls and bodies. The parents
seemed to remember in the old time had
hardly time to tell their children they loved
them, not time to sit in the freight with
their hands locked or straying upon their
flowing hair, things so slight and yet so
long remembered.
/ was certain that the villages wore less of
an air of smartness and the parti-colored
Queen Anne houses had all been remodeled
and given plain coats of dark paint. But
the country had turned garden. and in cities
not only the Back Bay houses and fashion
able churches were shrouded with the green
ivies, but the railway stations, the town
halls, the tenements and workshops all wore
their
COOL AND vERDANT MANTLE.
There were very few six-story buildings
with elaborately carved fronts, in the insur-
ance style. but all were we'll lighted, and
airy. built on strong, simple, noble lines,
the lines of use which ran into beauty
unaware. But the interior OF the homes OF
the suburbs were in singular and pleasing
contrast to those I had entered but yester-
dav, that yesterday which seemed so far
away. There was mere leaving off OF
superluous scallop and flower in the figure
of the carpets, and fourishes in the carv-
ings of the furniture, a choice of mellow
instead of crude colors, simple lines instead
of tortured arabesque, doors of one smooth
piece in place OF thin panels with their
stiff. distre ssing lines and angles, and
where people could not afford a good
picture, thank heaven, they were willing to
90 without one. The rooms were all larger
than had been used to seeing yesterday,
the paint fresher and the walls in better
condition. The curtains were softly figured
washing stufs. of lovely dyes, and the diff
terence in price over the hideous plush and
brocade gave some admirable 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 examining,
but in one corner ran lift Tor sending per-