Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-12-23

dest phenomenon of modern city life.
| The tenement house-which we seek
| to disguise under the name OK nat -
| is n most ;yretckeG substitute Tor the
hunbIest OF homes. That our people
| endure them IS an Indication OF de-
generacy, as ii will unquestionably be
| the Cause of a more rapid descent 1t
| is morally certain that the vigor OF the
| race can be maintained only by per-
sonal contact with the mother earth
from which we sprang. which nourishes
| and sustains us while we live and
which receives us 10 her bosom when
| we die. Why this is perhaps no one
knows but il is within the knowledge OF
| all that the vigor of the city is con-
| stantly recruited rom country life. To
deprive children Of daily contact with
the soil is sin.
The evil of the tenement house was
not realized until il passed from the
| sums because few of us know how
the other half lives 1t is perhaps not
| so desperate misfortune to those
who live by manual labor, for they get
| their contact with earth in other ways,
and their children, less vexed by the
| conventions of society, find access to
the soil by some means and pass while
| still young, to the occupations of their
parents. The most terrible effect OF
| the tenement house is in the families
| of the "salaried" class as distinguished
from the wage earners," and who fit
| from fiat to fiat, seldom remaining long
enough anywhere for home associations
to be formed. There can perhaps be
no home associations worthy of the
name which are not connected with
piece of open ground in the sole poses
sion of the family. 1t would seem that
in our largest cities this privilege can
no longer be enjoyed except by the
rich. A recent editorial on the subject
in the New York Times states that
during the year 1903 but fifty-six single
houses were erected in that city, "es-
timated to cost les than $4,000, 600
This indicates that the average cost Of
4 real home in that city is over $4,000,
and. of course. out o. reach of any but
the very well-to-dO. Land has become
too ''valuaf lie" to be devoted to such
purposes. To secure an income from
the land its :ental must be divided
among such a number of families as
can carry tue load by unit I'd effort, and
they are packed ill., over and under
eacn other and side by side until the
requisite force is assembled. In this
city until recently the three flat'
abomination has been the usuel limit
for "genteel' people. Now regular
terenents are being erected in the
pleasanter parts of the city, in which
childless couples nujd'e in courtroom
apartments" 1t is not good.
This is not necessary lii San Fran
cisco. There are vide expansas or
territory within an hours Tide from
The business sections, where real homes
may be established at moderate COS,
by those willing to i've in unfashiona-
bic and primitive ways for the sake of
rea, home, and there is no question
whatever that any family. rich or poor,
is better off in four room cottage in
tile sand hills than IN a ten-room fat
on Pacific Heights. If they are hot
happier in suca a location it is because
their normal human instincts have
been warped and impaired by the artf-
hcial life of the city and they have lost
the art of drawing comfort from the
soil and the living things which can be
made to grow upon it.