Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-08
HUNTING FOR A FLAT
Experience of a Man With Certain
Membranes

The evolution of the apartment house In
Washington would no doubt make an In
teresting story, for 1t has been great within
the past decade" said a gentleman to a
Star reporter, but l will tell you about the
eVolutlons of the ideas of lan.iords of these
propertles-Tm a foot-weary, watch-in-
hand, bundle-and- misunderstanding commu-
| ter now
THAT'S sad" commented The Star man.
how did it come about?"
We'll, resumed the gentleman sit was
this way: For certain reasons l found il
expedtent to move from the fiat had been
occupying for many years. My wife sug-
gested that We move into a certain new
apartment house, and 1 presented myself at
the agents office. l happened to know him
personally, SO l was surprised at the luke
Warmness of his reception of my sugges-
ton that l take one of his best apart
mentS.
" You have several children old man. he
said, coughing alphabetically
Oh. no, l FASTENED to assure him. only
three-not several
well, old man. the landlord of this fiat
has decided not to rent to families with
chldren, so 1 m sorry, but you'll have to
try elsewhere and l went out of his office
pretty mad
so 1 hiked to another agent who had a
big fiat house that 1 liked next best, and 1
shot Off the several children at him at the
first charge.
oh, we don't mind children he purred.
agreeably, but you have hunting dog l
believe?
The best in the District, 1 assented,
heartily.
Sorry, but 1 cannot rent to prospective
tenants with dogs-now If you will part
with your pup
'Of course, self-respect prevented me
arguing the question of my occupancy fur
ther with this agent, and l packed off to
mot hoy nnn
Glad to have you, my dear sir he said
pleasantly, but wait a moment, he added,
thoughtfuly, DO you have a piano in the
family, and do your children take music
leSsonS?
Il informed this fellow with considera BILE
hauteur that my eldest daughter was an
accomplished musician.
Then, my dear sir, l shall have to de-
cline to entertain your proposal for renting.
The landlord of this particular fiat positive
ly bars pianos, and especially families with
children who are taking music lessons, but
If you will send your children to boarding
school
No, 1 didn't hit him, as 1 felt inclined
to do, but | trotted to still another agent
farther down F street. To this man l shot
off at him right out of the box all of the
objections to my tenancy which had been
raised by the other agents. l was almost
ready to cry from joy when he said:
Why. my dear fellow. those are not
such objections which ought to be enter
tanned by any VINO really wishes
to rent his property-children, dogs, pianos
and music lessons are incidentais to family
life. I'll let you have the third floor, west
sde-but wait moment. Have you a cat
possibly two cats, and perhaps even kit
tens?'
~ have two cats, sir, which l would not
part with If you offered me rent free in
your old fiat-one has been in the family
for thirteen years and the other is the fin
est mouser in the northwest
But here my anger exploded, and / ran
out of that mans presence to avoid going
to the station house on a charge of as
sault.
discouraged but far from being beaten,
I sought another agent to whom 1 enumer-
ated al my faults and faihngs, and my
possessions, even down to the two cats He
interrupted me with glad hand shake
and said:
I'VE want you In our new house on the
heights, for we are not SO short-sighted as
to bar wives, children, pianos dogs nor
cats, for cats keep down the mice in the
house, and dogs drive away burglars-the
other incidentals must of necessity go with
a family or else there wouldn't be any
family, don't you see, and we couldn't rent
our flats to families, for which they are
designed. Now, of course, you have no
birds
Again." concluded the commuter. re-