The times., 1901-03-28
The New York Flat.

People who have tried TO live I'm 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 its 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
it 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 70 the New York sun
not long ago. She said:
Il dom; want 10 wear leather skirt and 90
fishing or hunting for bears, bot | did get hold
% gTed, idea boy going to the SpOTtsnens
show. ! have solved the problem OF living in
closets.
john and l have bought camp outfit for
home Use, and Ho~ every thing we have IN the
fiat is collapsr1.e.
.'We'ye got Sleeping bags instead Of bedsteads
folding tables folding CHAIRS, and waterproof
dishes that crunch up like handkerchiefs when
not IN use, and when wc move All we've got to
DO is TO pack the whole outfit IN a round bag.
weight taeuJy-three pounds nine ounces and
take trolley car 10 the new Hat"
something has been done before this in
the Zine Of folding furniture. The folding
bed, which doubles up against the wall
when no one is in it, and occasionally
when some one is: the ice box which
looks like \ desk and can be kept in the
parlOr. the wardrobe which resembles a
piano; the dish-cupboard which masquer-
AIDES as bookcase. are all experiments
along this same line. But the house
keeper in question has frankly cut the
Gordiau knot 10y making everything sub
seryieut 10 the great aim Of saving room.
She has recognized the fact that nobody
can keep house In a fiat of the size rented
10 the average New York tenant, because
there is a physical law against two bod
ies occupying the same space at the same
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 ia the circumstances in which
they live. They Try to carry on a social
life commensurate with five thousand
dollar income on fifteen hundred year,
and when they have provided for the So
ciaI life there is no room for themselves
or their souls. There is 10 way in which
man can dnd ro.- for his soul or his
heart. Il he crowds his life fun OF things
which do not Ht. il he tries to initiate,
within space OF twenty feet square, an
establishment intended TO occupy about
Atty times that space. he VIII be badly
pinched, unless he is a very small man