The Washington times., 1894-03-26
The Need of Homes
of Moderate Price.

or MOderdCe Price.
'This Is one Of the results of the present
financial depression" said my new acquaint-
ance, the real estate dealer, as he pointed to
row of recently completed houses, all vacant
and placarded "For rent"
II my new acquaintance had been a man
who kept in touch with the needs of the plain
people, he might have known enough to at
tribute this vacant row Of ten-room houses to
the real cause. namely, an over-supply of this
very commodity. The rows Of vacant houses
Of this size and character that are standing
idle IN Washington to-day might awaken
some one to the truth that the day has gone
by when builders can construct homes on the
procrustean plan that families Of moderate
| means must accommodate themselves to,
whether they wish it or not.
There is only one way for people of mode
rate means to pay the rent of houses of this
character, and that is to give up the choicest
of the rooms and the modern improvements
we read about to another family, who in this
way assist with the rent gas bills, and water
tax, that consume SO much of a mans
monthly income. There is no reason why a
! family should subject themselves to the mar
| row entrance, the contracted ogliness that in
| almost every case characterizes the six-room
| house that is the product of the Washington
| builder.
What the people of this city need more
! than anything else is the separate habtation
| known as flats in New York. Chicago. Boston,
J and st. Louis. at from SIS to S25 a month,
not the apartments of the expensive houses,
ltular Faft dad faro
! few small and elaborately decorated rooms,
where hotel service and meals in the cafe are
! a necessary part of the arrangement, but the
small flats which prevail universally in con-
tinental Europe and are on the rapid increase
! in America.
| If one reads the advertisements in our daily
| papers they will see that there is a great de-
mand by small families for unfurnished
rooms for light housekeeping, showing that
this way of living, inconvenient and imper-
feet as it is, is preferred by many to the al
Tentative of boarding, and the irritation con-
sequent upon the enforced contract with peo-
pie for whom they have no special interest or
| sympathy in common.
The fiat system. If properly managed,
affords the most sensible solution OF the prob
lem of city housekeeping under the present
economic conditions, involving less waste OF
than any other. l say if properly managed,
for exorbitant rents, tiny rooms, few in num-
ber. insufficient light, no laundry or back
yards which characterize the system in Wash
ington. and are by no means essential fea-
! lures of it. of course render il unpopular in
the estimation of the very class who ought to
have it. the government clerks.
In Washington, where taxes are lower than
in most large cities, rents are higher and
houses less substantially and conveniently
built for the rentee than in almost any other
city of the union. The result is a natural
one. The hierarchy of grasping house
owners have at last overreached the bounds
of reason, and what do we see? Empty
houses and long list of houses to rent.
longer, we are told than has ever been known
in the citys history.
However much we may deplore, with Dr..
Edward Everett Hale, the increasing ten
dency toward city life it must be accepted
as inevitable under the social and economic
conditions which will prevail for some time
to come. By the year 200C IL is supposed we
will have good roads. local clubs. libraries.
amusement rooms, and system of rapid
transit that will enable suburban districts to
compete in features of interest with our cities
but until this is accomplished the vast army
of breadwinners who live in cities must have
homes that are worthy of the names at q
minimum cost.
Once IN our experience as family We tried
light housekeeping. The rooms we found
looked clean and retired. There was an i'm
way, and all we desired. There was a res
taurant new in case we tired of working,
which we knew We never would.
When We were comfortably settled under
our own vine and fig tree we found things
that were never dreamed of il our plriloso-
ply. The landlord, who was the owner of
the house. was jealously alive to the of
his property. He visited US at all times and
in many hours when We would iain have dis |
pensed with his presence. His wife. who
agreed to attend the door. did not, as she |
said afterwards. agree to come upstairs every
time caller came, so she either sent them up |
at inopportune times or screamed at the top
of her voice for me to come down. Her bus- |
band was an invalid. who was disturbed by |
our piano and our sons shoes that were not |
unfortunately of the texture of Cinderelias. |
Their daughter had piano and took lessons |
of the most untechnical kind and her prac-
tising of the "Maiden's Prayer and the |
Slaves Dream was as oppressive to me as
our renditions of Chopin and Beethoven we're |
to them. Their friepds were of the bolster |
Gus and hilarious kind and their laughter |
penetrated the ceilings at times when We |
would fain not hear it.
After season of this, when our very souls |
loathed the hampered Kitchen and we longed |
with an unspeakable yearning for resident |
cook but dared not introduce one in our |
close quarters we sailed forth to look for |
fiat. We have never forgotten the comfort of |
our little six-room fiat. with its pretty rooms |
the finished laundry, and neat back yard. the |
terraced parking in front. and other home |!
like features We had room for one cook. |
and We're not moested by the landlord, ex- /
cept on rent day.
We are people of moderate circumstances. |
and have few friends. We could entertain |
them when we listed without converting the |
toilet table into temporary sideboard and |
making the extraordinary changes in our |
whole household economy that the exigencies |
of the occasion always demanded when light |
housekeeping. Not being accustomed to the /
luxury and expenditures of spacious and |
palatial residence we were well satisfied with /
the comfort and good taste of our surround |
iDgs. Lucy PAGE STELLE.
The Cost OF Firing the i3-inch Gun.
FFrnu the RaItiroo~p Sun