Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1902-07-12

In n bright and interesting article III
the Forlnightly Review. entitled Amer.
can Wives, ana English Housekeeping.
Mrs. John Lane, an American woman
living in London. tells how much harder
AMI more expensive il is 20 keep house in
England than in the nited States. The
comforts and cunvenicnccs mt the COM
mand OF the dweler in the ordinary flat
III this country, according to the writer.
are 10 he had IN England only in the
homes of the very rich and most pro-
gressivc residents.
Among other things she says:
How | wish l could clap a big. stold.
conservative, froSt-hitten English matron
into snug American house, with a fur
mace, and heaps of closet Cupboard
room, and all sorts of bells and lifts and
telephones, and then force her to tell me
the absolute unvamished truth. What
would she sayf | know
OF her search for IL moderate priced
house in London she tells in this way:
NO model fiat turning up here. we
were reduced TO take house, for which
we were willing 10 give from $3.50 to
t2Oo. The agony of that search and the
horror of the various mansions offered
For the first time | recognized the wis
dom that puts no clothes closets in Lon
don houses, when | think of the rcposi-
tories of dirt they would inevitably be-
come. AT that time | was not on such
intimate terms with the climate as have
since become, and | did not understand
that it is humanity impossible to rise tri-
umphant over fogS, SmutS and beetles.
For my benefit grim and dingy care
takers rose out of the bowels of the
earth as out of n temporary tomb tai
ways in b0nnctSl, and showed us over
awful houses in which every blessed
thing had been carried away, even to
the door knobs and the keyholes-l
mean, Of course, the metal around the
holes. Awful, cloSetleSs houses, guilt
less of comfort, with dreary CRATES,
promising a six months SILVER and
great, g0unt windows rafting forebod-
inglv. AS for plumhing-but il is well
to drop Il curtain over the indescrihahle
| do protest, however, against the pco-
Pile who live in these houses-houses
whose discomfort an American artisan
would not tolerate -looking with inetfablc
scf-compacency on their methods. aud
shifting at our American ingenuity and
our determination to make life com
Portable, OF course, we got u house,
thanks 10 no estate agent, but rs we
could not rent it we had To buy it-or
rather the thrty-cight years remnant of
lcasv-a mysterious arrangement 10 an
American.
The most obvious defect we discov-
cred IN our house was that ii was very
coda universal English drawback =
ana Inc inadequate open hrCS seem 10 aC-
ccntuatc the chill. | admit that furnaces
are not Il crying need in England all
through the winter, but from December
to March 1t Is pretrnsc to say you are
comfortable, for YOU are not. There is
no doubt but New England has bad
throat and lung trouble, yet 50 has Old
England, and the hardening process does
not save, if statistics are right If
must take cold and die, ut least / prefer
to dO so comfortable
When MIR. and Mrs Lane decided to
remove the unattrHctiyc mantiepieccs
from the house for which they had
searched so diligently. they discovered
that the English wooden mantes were
too expensive and clumsy" The sug-
gestion was made that they do the pur-
chasing in New York while on the visit
| they were about to make. The sugges-
! ton was acted upon and Mrs Lane
| states: we went to New York and
there we bought three wooden mantc!s
six feet high and six feet wide-one Of
the best quurtcred onk, of SO simple aud
graceful a design that they are always
noticed and admired. and these three
were packed. sent and landed mt our
front door in London, and tho price. all
included was not much moro than we
should have paid for the onlf Que in
London Of which I approved"