Evening star., 1901-12-21
A WOMAN INVADER
Who Has Beaten the British Real
Estate Agent on His Own Ground
SHE is A SUMNER home DEVELOPER
Has Cottages for IS Cents Week
and Living in Proportion
HOW SHE ACCOMPLISHED II
Written for The Evening Star.

| Written for The Evening Star.
The latest and most successful American
| invader of the British business arena is a
woman. She has created a lucrative enter
prise in the manipulation Of real estate as
represented by the picturesque laborers'
cottage IN small villages. These she rents
| for small sum. puts in habitable condi-
| tion for folks OF moderate means and sub
/ lets at a distinct advantage to her bank ac-
| count. That bank account was proudly
| displayed to her friends when she ran
| across the ocean the other day to look
after the American end of her affairs. A
/ nty-fve-hundred-dollar balance in her
favor showed the subprofits on her under
taking after two years of experiment and
I experience.
| Yankee Thrift I'm England.
How did l do it?" answered this keen
| eyed Yankee woman, with a smile. "Oh,
| just by getting IN ahead of my slow -witted
| British cousins, who insist that there is no
| money in country real estate. Real estate
| is all right over there, only it required
some American smartness to prove that by
| renting laborer's cottage AT what in our
| currency would be seVenty-five cents a
| week, improving it little and subletting
| it at $500 a week there were profits to be
| earned that were well worth anybody s
| while.
AT first | began in one cottage and lived
in it myself along with a woman cousin,
| who equally amused and interested in
| the experiment. Today I've more than two
| dozen cottages and little homes on my
| books. Some of them L lease from their
! owners, who have inherited them from
| what you might call way back A few
| of them L bought outright, when 1 found
| they were going at bargain; all of them
o frn hr- arfi M ha~
| city people who want tiny country homes,
| and lots of them are occupied by Ameri-
| cans who long to test the charms Of Eng
| lish country life.
On the North Sea.
"ft is the person Of small means who
| wants a summer or a year spent quietly
in the country to whom my cottages make
the strongest appeal, for after all is done
and said 1 don't know a cheaper more COM
| Portable and more picturesque, healthful
life than can be found right in a roomy,
matched cottage that has its own little
garden and is located in one of the beauti-
full and healthful shires of England.
My village, as l call it, for now live
in the manor house or hall, and am land
lady for pretty nearly the whole of the an
cient little settlement, is located in Nor
folk. There the air off the German ocean
is worth about a dollar lungful to city
sick people. The living is very cheap and
can vouch for almost Incompatible
weather from May to November. Now, of
course, air and scenery are big inducements
to country living, but what delighted me
with cottage life over there was that /
found l would enjoy all the comforts Of a
simple home and a few important luxures
for the sum of $3.50 a year, or, when my
cousin and l kept house together, we spent
just $500 year and kept two servants, and
eventually our trap and pony. don't know
just where else this experience could be du-
plicated and it's worth telling about as an
IN har t-nr rn or,l n
likewise.
How She Did 1t.
what We had for that sum was a four
roomed matched cottage set in an acre of
ground. When an English laborer's cottage
is well built 1t is just about the snuggest lit
tie home in the world. Ours was made by
knocking two adjoining two-story cottages
into one by means of doors through the par
titions. This gave us two big rooms below
and two equally large under the thatch
above. The cottage itself was about seven
ty-ffve years old, with side walls of timber
and plaster; end walls of brick; roof of
admirable thatch a foot and a half thick;
windows with tiny diamond-shaped loaded
panes; fine we'll of water in the rear, and
a well-grOwn hawthorne hedge all about
the property. A coat Of whitewash inside
and out and little scrubbing and hedge
clipping were all the improvements re-
Quired before moving in our furniture
"As rule furniture in England is rather
more expensive, l find, than in America,
but the facilities offered for purchasing on
the installment plan are just the same as
over here. Twenty-Five dollars or f5 worth
paid for at the rate of a pound a month
was enough for us to begin housekeeping
The chief items of expense and interest in
the van load set down at our gate was a
tiny American cooking stove and a big tin
British bath tub. stove is an essential
in a laborer's cottage, where. since time i'm
memorial, all the cooking has been done on
big hob CRATE and nowadays, even in the
most modern brick slate cottages the peas
ant women still prefer to boil and fry at the
CRATE, bake in the brick oven at the side of
the chimney and heat their scrubbing and
laundry water in big basin called the cop
per, that sets over it's own little brick and
cement fire box close at the other side of
the CRATE.
What with a slight allowance of furni-
ture, muslin. curtains, immaculate cleanli-
ness rag carpets and an abundance of pot
ted plants in the windows a Iaborer's cot
tage can be made the very pink of pic
tureSQue perfection.
Interior Decorations.
"As time went on and heard of and at
tended auctions in the neighboring vii
lagos 1 completed the house furnishing
with charming bits Of brass, odd pieces of
ancient blue and white ware, fascinating
old chairs with drawers in them, thousand
legged tables and chests and settees Of
time-worn oak that harmonized better with
my antique roof tree than the smart new
varnish and patterns of modern and more
expensive furniture.
IF inside against a background of clear
whitewashed walls, low black beamed CELL
ing and broad deep fireplaces. We achieved
were less pleasing. The fourth of an
acre of land in front OF the cottage we
cultivated with our own hands and tools