The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-28
The New York Flat.

People who have tried to live In the
New York apartment, popularity and
briefly known as a fat. have quickly come
TO realize the fact that ii is something
unique in architecture New York has
been denied the possibility of spreading
out horizontally. after the manner Of
London, although it has done it's best
with Brooklyn. Jersey City, Newark, and
Hoboken 1t has grown vertically as far
as was in any way practicable. and the
typical fat of Manhattan is an attempt
to solve the problem of accommodation
by methods OF compression.
The trouble is that when the people who
have to live in this apartment are all in
1t there is no room for the furniture. and
when the necessary furniture for even a
small household is in there is no room
for any people. Since the furniture is
useless without the inhabitants, and the
tenants are uncomfortable with no furni-
ture. the problem is not an easy one to
solve. One New York housekeeper, how
ever. thinks that she has solved it. and
she gave the result of her meditations
and experiments to the New York Sun
not long ago. She said:
Il don't want TO wear leather skirt and 90
fishing or hunting for bears, bot did get hold
OF great idea by going to the SportsIIlef's
show. have solved the problem OF living in
closets.
John and I have bought camp outfit for
home Use, and now everything we have in the
| hat Is cDllapsible
We've got sleeping bags instead Of hcdsteads
folding tables, folding chairs, and waterproof
{ dishes that crunch up like iIandkerchiefs when
not in use; and when move all we've got to
do Is 10 pack the whole outfit in a round bag.
weight tUeHty-tIree pounds nine ounces, and
take trolley car 10 the new fat"
something has been done before this in
the line OF fielding furniture The folding
bed, which doubles zap against the wall
when no one is in II, and occasionally
when some one is: the ice box which
looks like a desk and can be kept ia the
parlor; the wardrobe which resembles a
piano; the dish-cupboard which masqler-
AIDES as bookcase. are all experiments
along this same line But the house
keeper in question has frankly cut the
Gordian knot by making everything sub
servient to the great aim of saving room.
She has recognized the fact that nobody
can keep house In fiat of the size rented
TO the average New York tenant. because
there is a physical law against two bod
les occupying the same space at the same
time. II Is only possible to camp out.
and she camps out accordingly.
There is sound common sense at the
root of her decision. The great trouble
with the civilization of today is that peo-
pie do not accommodate themselves to
their conditions. They are all trying to he
something they were not intended to he.
or do something which was not intended
to be done in the circumstances in which
they live. They Try to carry on a social
life commensurate with a five thousand
dollar income on fifteen hundred a year,
and when they have provided for the so
ciaI life there is no room for themselves
or their souls. Tkero is no way In which
a man can find room for his soul or his
heart. If he crowds his life full of things
which do not lit. II he tries to initiate.
within space OF twenty feet square an
establishment Intended TO occupy about
nifty times that space. he will be badly
pinched, unless he is very small man