The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1906-09-21

VIC" oil udy lO0S Will De tolerated..
ordinarily people who live in flats take
to folding beds. These masquerade by
DAY as bureaus, bookcases, sideboards
and other contrivances. The folding
bed that successfully deceives the
elect has not yet been invented. It
looks like bookcase on casual in
spection, but the cloven feet peep out
and closer glance reveals the real.
1ty. Divans and lounges are less OBJ
Jectionable and more popular because
a room with divan looks like a liv--
ing room, library or a drawing-room
and does not shout at you the fact
that at night this is bedroom. Add
ed to this, divans are often long chests
and hollow in which all sorts of things
are kept
Everywhere In city fiat there are
boxes and packages carefully concealed
from sight. Behind portieres, under
chairs, in the bathroom, in the inches
that by courtesy are called closets, the
goods, the wearing apparel and the
usual possessions of a home, are
thriftily disposed and sedulously con-
cealed from observation. I have seen
very charming dressing table draped
with spotless curtains of dimity and
surmounted by an adjustable mirror.
This at intervals was pulled apart and
Its foundation turned out to be the
gas range on which tea was made or
breakfast was cooked. Laundry tubs
when the washing and ironing are
done out of the house are. perfect
G0d-send to the woman whose space
is small, while her horde of things is
large. The tubs may be made at once
to screen from view and to accommo-
date articles of general utility. They
are an admirable safe deposit for
shirtwaists and other articles of femi-
nine raiment, including picture hats
and the like. Their top makes an ex-
cellent table for lamps, books and pa
pers.
remember small flat reached by
several flights of stairs and made al
Turing by little stairway leading up
to a great airy roof This was the
home one winter of what I may call
colony Of girls. They were art stu
dents, journalists and newspaper
women. Every inch of space in their
fiat was made available, and the bewil-
derment of the pretty southern matron
mother of one sweet maiden, woman
who had come from an ample home in
Kentucky to hover over this brood,
with her motherly wings, was both
amusing and pathetic. SHE. had been
used to a large house with wide YER
andas, high ceilings and a vast attic.
Imagine her dismay when fitted in to-
a spot that covered it's tenants as a
very tight glove covers a plump hand
But she made the best of the situation
and helped the girls to get fun out Of
it.
In order to save space in a city fiat
one must be clever, original and quick
witted. One must do without some
conveniences. One must be contented
to take good deal of trouble. In the
downtown tenements it is said that:
bathtubs are converted into coal bins.
This is done by people who, having
had the good fortune to- rent a model
tenement in some of the newer houses.
are not yet educated so far as to ap-
preciate a daily bath. -"
Refined and fastidious people cannot
save space by utilizing the bathtub
for anything beyond its design. This,
however, is almost their only restric-.
ton. Notwithstanding continual OBJ
jections and prohibitions, few women
resist the opportunities offered by the
fire escape and, in short, wherever
there is q jutting> edge or convent
5ent ledge or q peg or a shelf, something
Is found to stand on It and it serves q
double purpose. n sss3 Z q w. So :. >.
4. Notwithstanding so much planning
and managing; the city fiat makes the
shell Of many q very pleasant home.
1t does not. lend itself well to q fam
lily Of growing children. BY the time
baby No. 3 arrives mothers make
up their minds that they must 90 far
zther uptown or emigrate to a suburb.
For young married people, for wage
earning women keeping house on Il
cooperative basis. the city fat has its
advantages 49, ss E. ,s s
ss5 DOWNRIGHT. 1907. by Joseph 3. Bowie. !, 4