The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-14
HOMES OR APARTMENTS. wHIcHs

H.
tent in Boston, there is noticeable ten
dency setting in toward living in apart
ments as opposed to houses containing but
the one family. The result is that apart
ment hotels of many stories in height are
being built in these cities; and there is
also a noticeable increase in the number OF
"dat" houses. In these cities, New York
more especially, where the amount Of
available land is limited, the heavy ground
rents account for this phenomenon in
social life, but there are reasons beyond
this why families should choose life in
one of these grand hotels rather than in
more home-like but less pretentious house
in the suburbs.
In the days when those now in middle
age were young there was an altogether
different standard of life prevalent among
women from that now obtaining. Then
the woman par excellence was one who, be-
side being sufficiently informed upon gen.
eral subjects to sympathize with the men
of the household in their interests, felt it
to be her especial province to superintend
every detail of the domestic economy, if she
did not share personally in the work. To-
day the standard obtaining is radically
different; homework is felt to be the work
of menials, the interests ofmen are prosaic,
while women feel that their duty is to care
for the more .'ideal'' interests. She
must be equal to wringing Chopin and
Mozart from piano or violin. dis
cuss the relative merits Of the composers,
to be in possession of the latest as to
fashions, be able to discuss the compare
tive merits of the modern Russian and
French schools of fiction, be conversant
with the drama, the society news of the
day, beside sustaining her part in the So
cial life of her city or town. Now, it is evil
dent that one who attends faithfully to all
these duties has no time for the cares of a
household or of family; so, as she must
set aside something, she minimizes the
latter duties by taking refuge In one of the
caravansaries known as modern apart
ment house. which leaves her free to de-
vote herself to the "higher ends of
life" AS for management of a
household there is none here, for
everything is done for her, her meals
are taken in semi-public way, and she
lives In the swirl of current of human
life. Anything such as retirement or
privacy she can know little or nothing of;
and the quality of her management of
family affairs is represented by the pre-
cision with which she can press the proper
electric button to call the hotel servants to
her aid.
For those who admire this kind of life
the apartment hotel offers the way to a
happy existence; but there is different
class which is making its influence felt at
present. In it are numbered the man who
is old-fashioned enough in spite of modern
advanced" ideas to want to have his
house his castle--to have his home a
haven to which he can retire
| from the sordid cares of business
| to be with his wife and family,
| to have it place where he can express his
individuality and live his better life; and
also, the wife who would make oft the place
to which her husband can come with glad
ness, where she may be happy, and where
her children may grow up surrounded by
! snS oSSs lhuueHCcSs
home should be place that bespeaks
the character of its makers in its every
feature; and the people who can be thrust
into ready-made surroundings and feel
comfortable are not the kind of people
that most can be expected from. Love for
the home Is one of the noblest of emo
tons; but who can imagine man going
to war to defend his rented suite of
rooms in an apartment house. or
who can imagine tender associations at
taching to fat that one person may have
for one year and another for another.
This phase of social life which manifests
50 strong tendency for hotel life, NAV
safely be regarded as an unhealthy de-
yelopment, which will soon wear itself
out and disappear.
In Seattle the desire of the many to
own their own homes is apparent in
the houses which one sees on all sides
many OF them small and plain, but
having that Undesirable something
that bears witness to the fact that
the house is one upon which some one ia
expanding his best efforts to make home.
IL is movement along in the right di.
rection, the city is more stable for il. and
each home-builder may rely upon it that
he is doing the best possible thing for him
self and his family.