The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-05-08
LIFE IN A FLAT,
rhe Only Glasses of People Who Find II
EnduraOle.

rhe Only Glasses of People Who Find II
Endurable.
Flat jewellers are given to eXtolling
this mode of existence as preferable to
any Other. No taxes, say they, with a
sort of triumphant superiority; no re-
pairs, no outside painting. no cleaning
of stairs and entrances; no cellar and
no furnace to take care of; a porter
who does everything, who is civility
itself; an elevator, which entirely
saves your legs, and brings up all your
cards and parcels; palatial entrance
and staircase, with the decoration of
which you have nothing to do. When
you go out of town you have only to
turn the key in the door this is tie
point most strenuously insisted on by
the fiat dweller), give it to the porter's
care, and when you return all is Just as
you left it Except we presume, that it
is inches deep in DUST. The porter
aforesaid hands you the key, and you
are consequently free as a bird in the
air. to come and go at your own sweet
will
Such is the smiling aspect of life as
presented to you by the enthusiastic
'tiatter," if we may coin such word
for the occasion. All this is no doubt
true, but still there may be other sides
to the question, q reverse to the shield;
and this we now proceed to examine.
1t is true there are no taxes; but the
rent demanded for the average fiat
strikes the ordinary householder with
afnazement.
The servant question is an important
one. 1t is said by these domestic dis
turbers of our peace that they find it
dull, and no wonder. They are seldom
permitted the use of the elevator; the
stairs that intervene between them and
the street, which their souls delight in,
are steep and many. Then, in flats.
fewer servants are kept, as rule, and
absence is more easily detected and re-
marked on. There is no area, and, con-
sequently, no policeman. In many flats
the sleeping accommodation is defect
i've, small or ill-lighted, and being all
on the same floor, sounds are heard too
easily, and mirth in the kitchen would
re-echo all over the fiat.
The front rooms in any fiat are light
and cheerful, but the back ones often
look upon darksome wall, or have no
outer light at all. Then again-but
this is only a contingency which may
happen-should the elevator get out of
order! Then, alas! in some flats with
which we are only too well acquainted
there is no elevator, and the weary
visitor, haply as ''fat and scant O.
breath" as Hamlet, tolls up the endless
flights, and breathes anathema on every
one.
That there is feeling of snugness
and security for those who like it,
something of that sort of safe lonesome
ness with which Robinson Crusoe drew
up his ladder of nights, we do not dis
pute.
For people without families, for the
single and the solitary, for bachelors or
the wandering tribes Of married folks
who care to be long nowhere, they pre-
sent advantages and attractions which
seem to allure an increasing number of
our fellow-countrymen to this manner
of life. They tend to simplify life,
which is boon to many. Fear of rob-
berry and burglary is reduced to a mini
mum, and large entertainments do not,
as rule, prevail amongst the dwellers
in flats. How, indeed, could a couple
of hundred people be conveyed upstairs
to their doors?-N. Y. Ledger.