The Minneapolis journal., 1903-12-26
Real Estate
TENANTS
PECULIARITIES
THE LIFE REsPoNsIBLE FOl
SOME VERY QUEER KINKS.

3 4
Much mystery and interest has al
ways attached to the c1iff-dwellers.
Savants delye among musty tombs and
scientists with shovel and hammer In
vestigate the physical remains of the
race and it's habitations
A much greater and liyelier interest
in Minneapolis attaches to fiat dwell
| ers. Rental agents are prepared to
back this up with facts and figures.
According to their stories, never
more incongruous race lived, nor
| fiat dweller. Some perfect jewels ex-
| list in this class, who only make more
prominent the eccentricities of the
rest.
| In one section of the city certain
characteristics are prominent which
| do not seem to exist at all In another
part Of the town. But taken as
whole nearly every large fiat building
exhibits some of the hundreds Of Pc
culiarities Of the whole race.
! They Say It's q Bug.
Some microbe is alleged to be the
cause Of the distorted mannerisms and
|temperaments which differentiate the
| fiat tenant from the house tenant.
For, altho, no one tenant of a building
may be acquainted with any other,
they all have the same bug. Just as
soon as a tenant moves in, he at once
| 1nanlIeSLS symptoms Ol
Dogs and babies are tabooed In most
fiat buildings. Yet remarkable indif-
ference to rules is shown by certain
tenants who insist on bringing In
babies and dogs. The objection to
children is because of their noise and
their destructiveness, and to dogs be-
cause they are likely to take sections
of another tenants calf
Some tenants like their flats warm
and some like them cold. Tenants re-
port they are freezing to death and in
vestigation shows that they nave thelr .I
storm windows open. others, with
conditions equal, complain of the ex-
treme heat.
A peculiarly timid tenant will in
sist on having the front hall door
locked to keep out horr1d burglars,
while bibulous tenant will insist on
the doors being unlocked. 1t IS
popularity Of this tenantry that they
go away from home without the out
door pass key and then feel 1t
privilege to call on any other 1a1nlly,
whether they have retired or not, to
push the electric button which is
placed in every fat and which releases
the lock.
Kicks on the Janitor.
Some tenants think the Janitor I'M
/ pudent, careless and shiftless. While
the next door neighbor says ne Is the
1 loveliest man they have ever met
1 Some janitors enforce to the letter the
lrule that all deliveries must be made at
the rear. Recently judge of one OF the
courts was carrying small bundle 70
the flat of a relative, going by way or
the front entrance. The jan1tor with
great show of authority insisted that 1T
must be delivered in the rear. The
blow which knocked out the janitor
was delivered exactly in the front.
i Leases Don't Count.
One of the strangest characteristics OF
: those who live in flats is their invaria-
BILE reputation of rental lease if
they happen to wish to move. An
other is to release the odors of cook
ing onions or fragrant cabbage into
the back hall for the benefit of the
whole establishment instead Of thru
the open window or the range hood. .
The tenant who is good fellow and
! always has company until 10 at night
= generally has u fat next to that Of
the nervous, elderly maid, or the dys-
peptic pessimist.
It will be seen that to pacify and
: keep en- rapport all these classes the
rental agent must be diplomatic
enough to be capable of assignment to
the court of st. James, while the JAM
tor must beof such ability that he is
likely at any time to be selected for
United States consular service.
: Noise Does Count.
! Mr.. So and Such requests that the
: janitor notify the family overhead that
when they retire they place their shoes
quietly on the floor instead of dropping
them like pile drivers. One family
which lives below a methodical, leth-
argic German, can always tell the
{ exact time of night by the sound of the
wooden shoes on the hardwood floor
above. Callers know the deadly sound
too, and sometimes they will leave,
breaking off a pleasant conversation
E to get away.
A communication has been sent to
The Journ al, taken from the
New York Sun, which shows the feel
ing in Minneapolis among certain nat
owners. It reads:
: II am glad to see that one landlord
in Jersey City has arisen in his
strength and wrath and shown his
5 "bossy'' tenants that he controls his
: served and obeyed. hope there will
be more Of the same sort Of landlords
: discovered in Manhattan, Brooklyn
and The Bronx. If other owners
would assert themselves and insist on
their rights the tenant. class would be
better than it is.
"Too many tenants, especially in
i flats, laugh at rules meant for the
> com mon good; and If let alone would
: live in filth, turmoil and disorder. This
same statement fits those in high class
properties as we'll as the dwellers in
ISn0IueulS.
: tIt is a common habit, too common,
+ in fact, for the tenants at meals and
5 in company to tell how they got the
best of the landlord or his agent or
how the rules are or were nullif1ed.
Think of this idea of how to beat
: the owner lodging in children's minds
: as they listen to the funny experiences
of the father or mother or narrator.
: The child grows up with the wrong
idea Of tenants rights and gets to be
like the anarchist, who cries to hell
with the landlord! and Down with the
government
Tenants agree to pay rent on the
first of each month. How many keep
to this agreement? About a quarter
!. Of them, / should think, would repre-
sent the decent class of renters.
! Tenants agree not to misuse the
property; how few live up to that part
of the contract?
Speak to tenants about wall paper
written on or torn by their children,
and they laugh at you and ask, What
are you going to do about it?' Ask
them not to kick doors open, not to
: slam doors. not to keep the piano
.. going at all hours of the night, and
you are told that their fiat is their
: castle, and those who don't like their
e 'doings can lump it,
This is no drawing on the imagin-
atior--it fits fully half of the renting
class.
They are sweet as sugar pie when
hiring; agree to all terms and condi-
Ftions, and then proceed deliberately to