Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-03-30


in which to set up
our lares and penates. Decorative art in
house building has got to the point Of be-
ing ridiculous. 1t Is the revival of rocco
run Mad. OF course the men who have
cords of money have earned the right to
Use it in buying ''feudal castles and
bringing them to America, stone by stone,
If they like, and am told there are any
number of such castles on the bargain
counter, waiting for American gold to re-
claim them from ruin, but what 1 protest
against Is the cheap "stucco' imitation OF
these castles. which are foisted on the
renting public by builders in the guise uf
desirable residences.
But, then, you might as well bump your
head against a stone wall as rail at archi-
tects and builders when women positively
refuse to live in anything less ornate than
the latest fad in architecture, with ginger
bread ornamentation. Its wall may crack
before the imitation marble or yeneered
hard wood mantels are set in place, and
the plastering scale and tumble off before
the tin plumbing is in, ready to rust, but
If there is a bay window warranted to
leak every time it rains. bit of hall to
which the word reception can be tackled,
and two-by-four bath room, and stairs
with two landings, you may be sure that
some silly woman stands ready to give a
substantial plain house, with it's big. airy,
old-fashioned rooms, the go-by for the
fimsy structure, that may tumble around
her ears in the first hard wind, just he
cause it stands in the fashionable section
and has an air" Of pretentiousness about
it that is lacking in its palmer but solder
neighbor
The difference in the rent of the two
buildings will be out of all proportion TO
the cost. The older structure built of
seasoned lumber and well-made bricks.
with Its big. square rooms. and multitudin-
Gus windows. will command a small rental
because it is an old-fashioned house in an
old-fashioned neighborhood. The latest
style house will knock all the spots off a
hundred-doliar bill each month. and have
PEOPLE tumbling over each other to secure
next right to its occupancy.
A Sinful Extravaganza.
Now that is what I call extravaganza.
The extravaganza of the middle class peo-
pie, If you will. for they form the great
army Of renters, and are the ones who
must look to their expenses with jealous
eye If they make the income of this year
lap over that Of next, IL, in fact. they have
Sny income to speak of. The extrava-
gences of the rich are all right. Two hum
al ed dollars day for rare roses to put st
fancee's feet Is not an expenditure to
bemoan, because the money gets at last to
the man who digs about the roots of those
roses, and it helps to feed his little ones.
But one hundred dollars a month rent for
a senseless little doll house in a fashion
able quarter is a sinful extravaganza for
young man who only gets the double Of
that sum as salary. 1t is generally safe to
say, too, that when man submits to such
extortion that his wife is the handspring
of the movement and her social aspira-
items are her atders and abettors.
AS AL Englishman said, the rich upper
class goes crazy over the antiquities of the
I'D world, and, ludicrously enough, adopts
without adaptation all that is loose
enough to be carried away, and the middle
class copies swell uppertendom with even
greater license and extravaganza, consid-
ering its money limitations, and the dis
astrous results are seen every day, when
men. trusted for years in business circles,
go to the wall, branded embezzlers,
forgers and plain thieves.
Suppose that the wife, as so many wo-
nen complain, knows nothing about her
husbands business, and he has never made
Ter an allowance, or restricted her expen-
Gitures In any way. Suppose, I say, that
this Is fact do you suppose that wo-
man in this day and age has not sense
enough to find out, by hook or crook,
whether she is spending too much money?
There are countless ways of learning what
her husbands financial standing is, and,
no matter what his cowardice in hiding or
trying to hide his real condition from her,
upon her shoulders part Of the blame Is
bound to fall, II he fails. In fact, the
blame should fall there, for there is where
it largely belongs.
Women the Executive Head.
A wife is supposed to be a ''helpmeet"
for her husband He is the financial agent
and she the executive head of the home.
She should be a constant check upon him
and regulate the expenses of the house
| hold with due regard for the comfort of
all concerned and with strict economy
If she fails to do this she has failed to
accomplish the thing she promised at the
altar that she would do.
1t must be conceded that women are
q m
woman living who has arrived at years of
accountability and who has the cares of
family on her shoulders who does not
know that even in this day of cheap things
$500 will not do the work of $3.50, and that
if her husbands income is only $1,000 a
year, thousand of which goes for house
ing, II there IS anything else added in
the way of expense there is going to be a
big deficit, with no prospect of lessening
proportions, while the family expenses in
crease yearly. Instead of bemoaning their
plain house in its semi-fashionable neigh
borhood and their lack of swell society,"
the woman who finds it hard to make both
ends meet in her quiet, unpretentious home
should thank her lucky stars that, though
her little ones have to wear patched
aprons, they have not yet to mourn a
patched reputation, and though she may
sometimes have to appear with last years
sleeves in her street gown, her husband
has not been forced to don an old-fashion-
ed suit Of striped "dittoes" as result of
trying to make figures lie.
Somebody once wrote a story about a
woman who concluded to have new dress
and make it herself. AS dressmaking was
not her forte, she usually spent goodly
sum on her well-fitted gowns. AS she was
to make it herself she paid nearly twice as
much for the material she would have
done otherwise, because she was saving
on the making" Then she got elegant
trimmings at a bargain" and particularly
cheap, considering she would make the
dress herself. She ruined the dress in the
cutting, and she couldn't make it after it
was cut anyhow. Result, dead loss. So 1t
is with so many women who go to look at
a house. They promise themselves to
"economize" and dispense with a servant,
so as to have a nicer house. The neigh
borhood counts for verifying, and twice
as much is paid for locality as ought to be,
considering the purse.
In Order to BE Fashionable.
The house must have certain features,
and it will then be "fashionable' of course.
There must be hail." even if it isn't
wide enough to let your sometime guest
pass you without rubbing up the veneer
of the white apron hastily tied over the
| kitchen gingham when the bell rang. The