The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-14
AMERICAN HOMES
 VANISHING FAST New York Already a City of
 the Homeless TWO PER CENT OWN HOMES In Which They Live-Abandonment of Homes Not Due Entirely to Ne cessity-society Leaves It's
 Mansions unoccupled.
TWO PER CENT OWN HOMES

 and estimates based on the latest cen 6000,00 persons, or practially the entire population of the city will be without homes of their own and that the pri vate house will be entirely extinct on Manhattan Island The disappearance of the institution known as the Great Amer ican Home is proceeding rapidly in all the large cities of the country, but con- ditions are such that 1t is advancing with far greater speed in the metropolis than anywhere else. A century ago nearly if not quite majority of families owned the houses in which they lived. Today in all the large cities of the country not 10 per cent do so. and in nyNew York the proportion is only about per cent.
 At the present time the total number of residents in New York is only little short of 4,5O0,ooo. Of these less than 20.00o families. or. on the basis of five to a family, 100000 persons. own the homes in which they live. All the remainder, ss per cent of the city's total population, occupy homes owned by some one else. Sitting under one's own vine and fig tree Is purely an imaginary occupation so far as New Workers are concerned. The twentieth century In fact may be said to mark the beginning of a new era. Af- ter the Stone Age, the Iron Age, the Fire Age, and all the other ages, the Homeless Age may be said to be at hand,
 This change is partly the result of ne- pd rf1 fba of oh At the tremendous prices obtained for New York read estate even a modest home represents an investment of from s25,o00 upward, which of course puts home-owning quite out of the reach of the ordinary man who is compelled to house his family in a hotel, apartment, tenement or boarding house, or else go to the suburbs. More than 2,0O0.0 GOO peo- pie in New York i've in flats, which, on the one extreme, are called apartments, and may cost $5000o a year rental, and, on the other extreme. are known as tene- ments and rent for BIO month. Approx imately 100000 persons make hotels their residences and 100000 more, bachelors chiefly, live in clubs. Perhaps 100000 are housed in boarding establishments which occupy the buildings once used as pri- yate homes. The remainder is made up of those who rent houses.
 Even among those who can afford to own homes, however, a rapidly increas- ing number are turning to hotels and apartments Those who elect to dwell outside the city in many cases prefer the convenience of hotel life to the respon- abilities of a house of their own with the inevitable servant problem Many of those who are classed as suburban mites are hotel dwellers and to accommodate these elaborate and luxurious hotels are springing up in suburban points about the city.
 The truth of the whole matter Is that domestic life has been brought to a re- alization of exactly the same factor that has marked the commercial development fo the country, that is, that consolidation means @ saving of expense-to some one In the field of the great industries it is still question as to whether the con- sumer profits. but In the field of domestic activities there IS no doubt that the user that is the consumer, of a home can get more for his money In comforts and lux uries through a Corporation than as an Individual, statement which is borne out by the fact that the man of moderate means on the one side, and fashionable society on the other, are both coming more and more to inhabit country hotels.
 The two most exclusive and aristocratic suburban fields of New York are Long Island on the one side and Westchester county on the other. They are both sec tions where rents are not high, as com pared to the New York standard, and yet curiously enough the homeless spirit ha Invaded them to such an extent that hn ora live in hotels than in their own homes
 Out on Long Island there Is nest of millionaires. The Vanderbilts, the Whit neys, the Maokays, and many others have famous places scattered about the Island. Yet for many months each year these homes are closed and the headquar- ters of society people of large and small means alike are not these famous homes, nor those less pretentious, but hotel. At Garden City, the center of the Long Is- land society colony, the local hotel is the center of activities for many people who while they own their own homes prefer to close them up More people live In the hotel than in the whole town. At the last Vanderbilt cup race 1t was there that W. K. Vanderbilt. Jr., made his headquarters instead of at his nearby but unopened mansion. When the famous Briarolin Trophy Automobile race was held in Westchester county it was not at the palatial but idle homes of its wealthy promoters that headquarters were estab lished. but at local hotel famous for its appointments.
 Why Is 1t then that this homeless spirit seems to be developing so rapidly? Pro lessor Ferrero, the famous Italian his torian who recently visited this country. and likened New York to ancient Rome. pointed out the European influence in this respect. First of all people even in the country live in hotels because 1t is less expensive to do so, and because they are enabled to meet and know many per sons of social and business importance. a thing which would never happen if they lived in their own houses. That is one of the great factors in the consing of the Homeless Age-the desire tc mingle with the people who make hotels their head quarters. Moreover, the tendency is steadily growing to follow the European custom of moving from hotel to hotel in keeping with the seasons and as a result chains of hotels under one management dot the coast from Florida to Maine, in each of which according to the time of year, one may look to find circle of hotel friends living the peripatetio soci- ety life.
 As a matter of fact, 1t Is becoming apparent that the corporation sheltering thStooAftS Soii Bifc tiiotii SCHAAottS H0NcT dreamed of in the old idea of the individ- ual home. Golf links, tennis courts, bil- Hard rooms and swimming pools-these are only few of the attractions aside from the greatest--that is, the social fea- lures, which the suburban hotel furnishes at cost to the person making his homo there far less than tho annual rental, lot alone up-keep of most insignin- cant house in New York. The whole ten- dency is to furnish something new, and