Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-02
THE PASSING OF THE HOME
One Of the Saddest Phenomena OF
Modern City Life.
rom the San Francisco Chronicle.


From the San Francisco Chronicle.
A home is tract Of ground, big or little.
partly occupied by some kind of dwelling
and otherwise filled with flowers, trees,
vegetable gardens, the bric-a-brac of a
back yard, or anything else. so only that
some space of mother earth may remain
wherein the children of the family may
disport themselves. where the illusions of
childhood may transform woodpiles into
great ships, clotheslines into telegraphs,
beanpoles into armies, old sticks into
horses, and washtubs into chariots. and in
which, as the twilight comes on and the
shadows deepen, living forms. to the child
ish imagination, seem to hover and fit In
the gloom from one dark corner to another.
Above all, for all purposes of enjoyment or
occupation it is ones very own, the one
spot where none else may come unlimited,
but which to him stands ever open, the
scene of his happiest hours, his refuge in
time of trouble. Within the memory of
men still young no family in America, out
side of a few congeSted districts in large
cities. was without a home of that kind.
The dwelling upon it might be cabin, a
cottage or mansion but. such as 1t was,
1t was the owned or rented possession of
one family, held sacred to the use of its
members from the center of the earth to
the clouds above. 1t was the home.
The passing of the home Is the saddest
phenomenon of modern city life. The tene-
ment houSe-whicf seek to disguise I'M
der the name of ''iat"-is a most wretched
substitute for the humblest of homes. That
our people endure them is an indication of
degeneracy, as 1t will unquestiOnably be the
cause of a more rapid descent. 1t is NOR
ally certain that the vigor of the race can
be maintained only by personal contact
with the mother earth from which we
sprang, which nOuriShes and SuStainS us
while we live and which receives us to her
han lilo N1yrf IL, r1,1y &c
one knows, but it is within the knowl-
edge of all that the vigor of the city is
constantly recruited from country life. To
deprive children of daily contact with the
soil is a sin.
The evil of the tenement house was not
realized until it passed from the sums, be-
cause 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 distinguished from the
wage earners," and who fit from fiat to
fiat, seldom remaining long enough any
where for home associations to be formed.
There can perhaps be no home ASSOCIATIONS
worthy of the name which are not connect
ed with piece of open ground in the sole
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 1908 but fifty-six single houses
were erected in that city, estimated to
cost less than $3,000OO0' This Indicates
that the average cost of real home in that
city is over $4,000, and, of course out of
reach of any but the very well Land
has become too valuable" to be devoted to
such purposes. To secure an income from
the land it's rental must be divided among
such a number of families as can carry
the load by united effort. and they are
packed in. over and under each other and
side by side until the requisite force is
assembled. In this city until recently the
"three-fat" abomination has been the usual
limit for 'genteel' people. Now regular
tenements are being erected in the pleas
anter parts of the city, in which childless
couples huddle in four-room apartments -
1t is not good