The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-10-21

IfldIl SIldll De SQmeUnlnS II seldom &C.
! ours to make ia temple wherein or
dered and harmonious growth may be
a part of the daily life. The house
should be the best and utmost express
sion of the home spirit; the best adap-
tation of means to ends: the utmost
| convenience and comfort for all under
! it's roof. The greatest ease in neces-
Sary work; the best space for individ-
ual as well as family life. How is this
to be brought about? The plan is left
to the general builder, the contractor,
whose business it is to make. as much
Show for the money spent as brain
can contrive, and to skirnp and curtail
in whatever is out of sight. Cheap
building-houses made to sell''-is the
first consideration. Houses made to
last and to improve with age have not
| yet entered our thought of constr1c-
ton.
At this point we see, then, certain
needs defining themselves, and we may
well group them under their distinct
| heads. We are to consider:
a. The Individual plan.
| b. General sanitary aspects.
c. Materials and their handling.
d. Construction and it's ethics.
In the limited space at command only
suggestions under each head can be
given, but it is hoped that the reader
will gain from them some new thought
as to the real nature of building and
what it may stand for in every human
life. We have first to consider, then,
The Individual Plan.
1t will at once be insisted that there
can be no need of this, in face of the
fact that we have many books, large
and small, all devoted to the plans for
ali sorts and conditions of men and
their dwelling places. There are admir-
able ones to be mentioned but this does
not affect in the slightest the discovery
made by all who buy a house that they
! would have built 1t quite differently at
many points. 1t is but very recently
that the architects conference in one
of our great cities brought from one
prominent member a recommendation
that they turn their attention to the
architecture of farm houses, and a
better future thereby awaits the far
mer's wife and children, at present
! compelled to live in structures of a
hideousness calculated to kill out the
sense of beauty as thoroughly as we
find it to be killed out in the mass of
our people.
This is one phase, and it applies to
workmenis houses of all degrees An
other one; and quite as important. is
| that according to the different pursuits
of the family should be the type of
room offered them. a pair Just be-
ginning life together may take the
average fiat or small house. But pres
emily, with children and their needs to
consider, it is found that the nursery,
or the living room. which must, per-
haps, serve for this purpose, has no
sun, and thus it is made unfit for the
growing child, whose birthrigfit is sun
shine, and the strength and healing it
means for all. With the departure of
the oldfashioned garnet, one play
ground for the child, an invaluable one
since it gave room for infinite make
believe" vanished also.' Yet the child
should have its own play spot sacred
from interference, preferably as remote
from the other rooms as possible, that
its noise on rainy days may not inter-
feTe with others; place for collections
of all orders, for toys and books and
the tools the child loves to use, and
which are part of the training in use
of hand and brain together, that pres
emily we are all to know is the first
essential OF education.
All this is is to be planned for and
it is often possible to modify or alter
the formal plan of the architect and Sc
cure this space. But the least skilled
draughtsman can take pencil and
paper, think out the family needs as
they have demonstrated themselves,
then how to make the available space
tell to the utmost for family comfort.
No matter how small the sum- it VIII
be better to do without formal par
lor, we will say, have a living room
ample and generous. and put the money
saved into deadened floors and the best
finish. This matter of deadening floors
is seldom thought about, vet for the
most nervous people in Christendom it
is an essential. We all know the
houses where every sound is heard
throughout, and no escape for tired
mother for ailing baby. for fhe invalid,
if, there be one. or the patient who
wants only quiet and rest to come to
strength speedily. In our sounding
board houses this form of cure is i'm
! possible. but it need not be. Plan
then to these ends, and see if there is
not instant gain in the conception of
the meaning Of house and what tit is
to stand for in the family life.
General Sanitary Aspects.
This heading means a volume. To
understand it fully there should be
some very earnest study and the books
best adapted to this end are named in
the little biography accompanying this
paper The shortest most compact and
most practical is a. manual prepared
under the direction of one of the ablest
of American women, Mrs. Ellen FL.
Richards, professor of chemistry in the
Boston Institute of Technology. Home
Sanitation" is it's title and it covers
the ground for both city and country
as to the situation of the house, it's
draining and plumbing. its ventilation,
heating and lighting, set of questions
at the end of each delightfully."- clear
little chapter clinching all doubtful
POINTS. There are many elaborate maa-
uals, but this and one or two others
cover all the ground, and must be
thoroughly learned. a dry and we'll
drained soil, house planned for as
much sunshine as possible inv every
room. and perfect drainage are the
requisites for even the simplest dwell
ing. In the city the size of the lot de-
termines much. In the country it can
always be remembered that it IS by no
means necessary to face the street, and
that turning the house door TO the side
may admit the sun to much better adj
vantage Storeroonis are better on the
north side for GOODNESS, and the spare
room, less used probably than any
other, can much better dispense with
sun than those in constant use. A
little thought over the general plan