The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1895-11-06
FLATS IN LONDON.
The English Fear That They VIII Alter
the National Character.

The English Fear That They VIII Alter
the National Character.
It is maintained by some soclol-
ogists that the custom OF living III
flats instead of in separate tene-
ments will, if universally adopted,
create an entirely different type of
national character. They point to
the we'll known instance of the Ken
lucky cave fish, a species in which,
as q result of many generations
spent in darkness, the organ of sight
has entirely persisted, and they urge
that the English flat fish, if with
out offense we may so describe him,
will ultimately be affected in some
equally marked manner by his sur
roundings. Possibly the muscles
which we at present employ in tho
ascent and descent of stairs will in
the course of centuries dwindle and
become aborted through the con-
slant use of the lift, while it is not
impossible that the tendency to early
marriages among the class of femalo
domestics may be profoundly modi-
fled by The practice of carrying on
flirtations with tho baker through
the speaking tube.
These, however, r remote spec
ulations, Evolutionary processes
much specdier in their action may
and indeed must be set on foot un.
der the conditions of llfo in q fiat.
For one thing, it tends inevitably to
promote the tacit formation of a
new code of social manners. The
practice Of piling up human abodes
one on the top of another instead of
side by side and the consequent
necessity imposed upon their occu-
pants of employing some common
C of ingross to and egross from
their respective dwellings almost
compel them to establish conycn-
tons of their own.
There arises, so to speak, a EVER
teal" etiquette of social life which
differs from the lateral form pre-
vailing among tho inhabitants of de-
tached, semidetached or even doubly
attached houses. What, for instance,
is the true inwardness' of the lift?
Is it to be regarded as a common
apartment, like the coffee room of G
hotel, Or merely as common con-
veyance, like q railway carriage or
on omnibus? For, according as it is
one or the other, so may the init.
macy which it creates or implies as
between those who are continually
meeting each other therein be held
to vary in amount.
Then, again, there is the burning
y question of the piano, which indeed
I has already engaged the attention
of the law courts. 1t is obvious that
the use of this instrument in a fiat,
where the performer is usually
nearer, though not on that account
dearor, to his, or, more often, hcl
audience than is the case with sep
arate houses, requires stricter reg
ulations than arc needed elsewhere
1t is q question in which the excel
lent maxim of the Roman law, ''sc
use thy own property as not to in.
juro that of othors," does not helI
SO much. 1t is difficult to say at
what hour in the morning Or tc
what time of night the pianist may
begin or may continue to use this
disturbing piece of property with
out d~etracting from tho amenities
of q neighbours abode. One thing
seems pretty clcar-that in this, as
in other like matters, the etiquette
observed among Fat dwellers should
be of q moro rather than of a less
~Geremonious description than that
to which people living next door tc
each other need conform. AND
among what may be called the arts.
tocracy of hatland there is reason tc
believe that this obligation is suf1i.
GENTLY recognizod.-London Tele.
graph.