Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1907-01-17
LIFE IN A STAND
UP FLAT
The Plant Of a Homeless Man

| uut0 Gt0t1l vi q tNVlI10t09S Vu0u II
Ever live in stand-up flat?" In
lu1red Mr.. Jones, not over cheerfully. |
NO? Well, have lived in one. In
tact live in one now.
1T is six-room-and- bath-with-a all /
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS affair."" he
went on "and costs s3S month. The
parlor is decorated as beautifully as
an Avenue A wedding cake.
1T is furnished with a mahogany
set of spider-legged furniture, uphol-l
stored with brocaded silk of delicate
t1nts. There are bookcase, a writ
ing desk Gladys size), chair for it
and center table of the same wood.
On tie floor is rug that cost 1 don't
know what, reduced from my wife
knows what.
Separated partly from the main
parlor by hardwood pretzel work is |
little second parlor. In it are al
piano, mahogany chair, suitable for
anything but sitting in, and large
box couch. This couch is entirely oc.l
cupied by fancy sofa pillows. Then
comes bedroom that must always bel
In order, because you can look into
1t from the parlors and the private;
hall.
Beyond this bedroom is another
bedroom, which belongs to my wife
and is usually kept closed. Life is too
short to tell what things occupy the
chairs. Between the bedrooms is the
bathroom.
Further along is the dining room,
with oak furniture, the chairs covered
with leather and very slippery. One
can sit on them at mealtime il he is
hungry. In tie kitchen is a small
cane seat chair.
Now, a horse can stand up all the
time. Most horses stand up while
sleeping in their stalls. 1t is said also
that stork never sits or lies down,
but man, even though he dwell in a.
fiat, wants place where he can sit
down. He can lie down in his bed or
in the bathtnb, but where can he sit
down and have any comfort?
What do do? Well, l glance at the
morning papers while sitting at the
breakfast table, and after breakfast
would look around for comfortable
chair in which could smoke my pipe
nd read the news, but such thing
Is not in the fiat.
$50 stuff my paper in my pocket
and steer for the room back Of a
neighboring barroom l can sit down
there. The barkeeper knows that T
buy glass of ale there once in a
while in the evening before going to
bed and he does not expect me to buy
anything in the morning. From there
go to my work, which does not re-
quire me to be on hand very early.
I'm the evening have my dinner
sitting on slippery leather bottomed
chair. Then go into the little second
parlor and drop down on the piano
STOOL can't damage that-and talk
with my wife till feel the necessity
of sitting down somewhere in comfort
and resting.
by that time my wife is ready to
retire, and l, not being able to sleep
as many hours as she, go around to
the room in the rear of the barrooin,
where there are some fairly comfort
able wooden chairs. By spending five
cents for glass of stock ale l feel
myself privileged to sit there and
rest for while.
Nov, could pay for comfortable
chair at home, but there is no place
for it in our stand-up fiat. In the par
lors it would mar the effect of the up
holstered mahogany furniture
couldn't put it in my little bedroom
without removing my half-width bed
and sleeping on cot.
There is room enough in my wife's
bedroom for only the number of chairs
required to hold the wraps and things
she laws aside on coming in. Such
thing as comfortable chair in the
dining room, if there was room for it,
would spoil the oak and leather effect.
Il have thought of the kitchen as
last resort; but to tell the truth if
there was room there between the gas
range and the washtubs l don't think
would like it for sitting room.
when I was youngster," Mr..
Jones concluded, 81 rented wohn und
schlaf thinner in tenement house on
the East Side and furnished the place
comfortably. In it there were few
chairs in which persons could sit. But
that was before the days of modern
flats with all the up-to-date improve
meuts.'
Checks Did Not Reach Banks.