The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-07-25

just as they call a railway car a "car- riage" over here and a carriage a "car."
 Rents in the big apartment houses in London are not nearly so high as they are in New York, Chicago Or Washington. A suite of four, five or six rooms in a convenient locality in the best of the modern 'residential flats can be had for from $400 to $7OO, and you can get magnificent suites of rooms for $10O0 up to $5,0O0 a year, which would cost fully three or five times as much in New York. Rents are much lower than they are in Chicago, both for houses and for flats, which is largely due to the the popularity of out lying suburbs, conyeniences of trans- portation and the late hours which are kept by London business men. No one thinks of getting to his office here be- fore o'clock, SD that it is possible to live in the country. It is a waste of time to call upon a business man be- lore 10, and those who have control of their own movements seldom get down town before Il. The man who lives in the suburbs has a choice of means of transportation which are better in London than any city I know except New York, If he has plenty of time he can 30 home by bus; if he is in a hurry he can take the steam cars, for there is a splendid suburban service on every road, and underground lines or
 '2-penny tubes" are now extending into every direction for five or eight miles.
 The servant problem has also a good deal to do with the shutting of the homes. The English servants are the
 best in the world. This is really the only country in which there is a dis tinct domestic servant class, men and women who parents and grandparents for generations back have been house. hold servants and who have been edu- cated for that occupation. England is the only country I known in which
 there are established schools for the training of domestic servants, buffers, footmen, cooks, chambermaids, laun-
 dresses etc, and they accept positions with no ambition beyond giving satis- ! taction to their employers But the
 rapid increase of population, the de- manded caused by the large hotels and
 restaurants, has been greater than the ! supply and the household servant class has been demoralized very largely by
 outside influences. Conditions are not nearly so bad as in the larger cities of the United States, but housewives over here will tell you that there is degen-
 eration among servants of late years.
 The larger number of the vacant houses are such ais rent from $1,0OO to 1 $5,000 a year. The owners or previous tenants have found that they could live at large hotels and in flats for less ex- pense with much less care and annoy | ance and be more independent. There has been an epidemic of hotel building here as in America, and people find it | cheaper and more convenient to escape the care of housekeeping and the trou-
 ble with servants and take rooms at a hotel for the winter months and occupy
 country homes in the summer
 The question of expense is a consid-
 eration also, although England is very
 prosperous. was reading in one of
 the fashion papers to-day that not less than $5,OO0,000 has been expended in
 new gowns, hats wraps and other fem
 mine preparations for the Ascot races
 These races are the most fashionable
 of the season. They last a week and everybody in the kingdom is interested
 In sports or fashion and can raise the price comes to London on that occasion Rich people rent hauses down In the
 neighborhood of the race course, which
 is near Windsor, and fill them with | friends, who flirt, dance and play bridge
 at night and go to the races in the day
 time. Of course, all this requires pre-
 paration. Every woman must have at
 least one new gown, wrap and hat, and
 different costume for every days race
 if she can afford 1t. Hence 1t is estld.
 mate that not less than $5,00000O has
 been expended this year for costumes
 and millinery for this special occasion
 There may be no connection between
 the two facts, but it is a coincidenct
 that the gradual abandonment of thu
 homos is accompanied ty Q reduction ir
 the birth rate. England used to bC
 rear the head of the list ir the satls.
 tics Of births, being surpassed only by
 uAsilia Hungry and Italy but nova
 days it is down considerably lower.--W
 F. Curtis in Chicago Record. Herald