The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-04-05
SLOW JOHN BULL.

English Houses Are Devoid of Com
forts or Conveniences.
London Correspondence Of the Boston Herald.
The average dwelling house. in any class
upper, middle or lower-built in 1892, is
constructed almost precisely on the lines in
vogue at the beginning Of the century. In
England there has been in ninety years no
such advance in domestic architecture,
with regard to both convenience and style,
as We have noted in the United States In
the last decade. The Englishman may ex-
plain this by alleging that he Quilt better in
1900 than we did IN 1882. In this he will
not be altogether wrong, but he will be
supported by fewer facts than be imsgines.
The British carpenter has not yet mas
tered the art of making a window. There
is always gale blowing In around the
sashes during the winter, whether the
outside air be calm or raging. The more
heat you get in a room-and by lamps and
gas you can contrive to raise the tempera-
ture--the greater is the rush Of cold air
from without. 1t forces its way around th Q
window sashes and the doors in obedience
to a natural law
An English house is draughty, whether it
be the dwelling of a peer or a peasant.
The doors are hung even worse than the
windows. In the first place there are no
thresholds. and there Is a gaping space
between the floor and the bottom Of the
door. The room IN which am now writ
ing has an admirable specimen of an En-
glish door. Ihavejustimeasured the yawn-
ing erevices around it. Between the floor
and the bottom of the door there is space
one-half an inch wide. extending across
the entire breadth Of the door. Around
the other three sides of the door there is a
space one-quarter of an inch wide. All
the doors in the place which Is not the
work Of Jerry builder" but is what the
British call "a high class and expensive
structure) are hung in the same fashion.
Imagine, then, the number Of portieres and
thick rugs necessary to exclude the
draughts
The halls of an English house are I'M
heatea, Draughts are accordingly In
creased, for the cold air will always rush
from the chilly halls into the apartments
Of high temperature. Screens. portieres,
rugs, heavy window hangings are essential
in every room. OF course these things
darken an apartment. Thus you can only
break the currents of air in a London
dwelling by adding to the depressing gloom
of the almost sunless London winter.
An American housekeeper setting up an
establishment here misses the numerous
and capacious closets of the yankee domi-
Gle. Closet making is an unknown art to
the nineteenth century British builder.
| know Of any number of new and expen-
slve dwellings-both flats and houses-in
which there is not hanging closet. The
most you can do is to provide a few cup
boards in the chimney joga" For cloth
ing you must have wardrobes set up in your
rooms, monopoliziDg space and being as
cheerful TO gaze upon rs sarcophagi. Odds
and ends you must stow away as best you
can. Cellars, in the American sense, are
unheard of. A small dungeon for Goals,
or a penitental cell for wines, fulhlls the
British housekeeper's notion OF cellar.
'Set tubs" are usually reserved for the
mansions Of the great"
The English servants are like a certain
soap which is extensively advertised
won't wash clothes" If you wish for"set
tubs" you must be able TO afford a laun-
dress on your permanent staff Of domestics.
The bath room is the latest innovation in
English houses of the better class, but it Is
still an innovation. The clumsy tin tub,
yard and half in width and six inches in
depth, continues to be the Briton's favorite~
instrument for the natutinal ablution. In
this unwieidy centrivance, brought into his
chamber in the morning, John Bull takes
his frigid splash. His aversion to bath
rooms is akin to his horror Of gas 'above
the drawing room" J. B. prefers to go 10
bed by candle light. He has notion that
gas will sufFocate him in his sleep. Per-
haps he cannot trust himself to shut of the
illuminant by turning the tap"