Evening star., 1909-02-25
OLD. EAMIlY-GRouP HOUSES
SPACIOUS COMPARED WITH TO-
DAYS RESTRICTED QUARTERS.
The Diminutive Abode and Its
owner-Do Cramped Apartments
Dwarf the Charactere
Margaret Bateson, in The Queen.


You can't have everything was ia
vorite piece of critical philosophy with
the guides Of ones youth. We most Of us
go through life trying to get everything.
and are so preoccupied with the quest
that we do not observe how little prog
ress we make. AS we seize one thing We
keep dropping another. but it is only at
moments We observe that anything has
escaped us.
One Of these moments came to me lately
in the dining room of a Victorian manor
house converted to the uses OF hotel.
The room was, to our present ideas. eX-
traordinarily lofty. The old-fashioned
sash windows were high and broad; the
walls were walls upon which you could
hang immense pictures II you were so
minded and against which YOU must set
large pieces of furniture or none. There
was plenty OF air in the room, and no
need to be continually opening chinks Of
window lest people should perish OF as
phyNa. The other parts of the house
were to match. The hall was a hall; the
passages allowed people to pass along
them. The bedrooms were completely
walled with wood paneling (Which gave
such comfortable, habitable lookD and
the sashed windows in solid old wooden
frames had low, broad Siils, on which
one might sit at ease. The whole building
and proportions Of the place carried my
in provincial England and in London.
The Big Dining Room.
At the time. three-quarters Of a century
ago, when wealth accrued" with compare
tive ease to men of vigor and industry 1t
was the ambition Of every prosperous cit
izen to build himself such a house as |
have described. and there to bring up a
numerous family. His dining table-the
altar Of ceremonious hospita 'ity-gave
two dozen people ample space to dine
of mahogany At expansive moments,
toward the end of the feast, some small
child elaborately dressed and curled
would he placed on the table and invited
to make her way along with the decant-
ers to the other end without upsetting
the dishes of dessert-and there was space
for the performance of the feat. These
houses really held things. In many of
their drawing rooms were life-sized mar
Bile statues on pedestals to match. and
bust more or less was mere trife. Apol-
10 held his handsome head up bravely
and Venus rose from the waves without
any doubt as to there being room for
them to move If they so pleased. There
were immense pictures. measuring SO
many feet by so many. of rich, dark oils
Understood to represent dark. pagan
myths) In the dining room. and fine, un-
fettered expanses of water color Oceanic
effects or vast 'interiors') In the draw
ing room.
And, then. what splendid tables there
were in these houses! There was not
only that great table. with many leaves,
dedicated to eating; but in all the sitting
rooms there would be ever SO many fine.
spacious, solid tables. on which work
could be done and things could be laid 1
do sigh for those tables.
Coming Of the Small House.
OF course, even In what may be called
the great exhibition era. every one did not
live in a big house. There have always
been plenty of little crowded houses with
which, il one was poor, one had to make
shift. But the people who could now be
living in big houses have packed them
selves into small ones, and / believe they
will discover one of these days that they
have lost a good deal by the change. They
have lost more than a certain number Of
feet of space; they have lost the effect
upon the mind and character that spa
cious life gives. We all know that people
living on moors and prairies and in thin
ly peopled countries have. as rule. a
certain dignity that people who are much
crowded lack. What the large farm or
homestead does for the countryman. as
compared with the often crowded villager.
Inhabitants, and especially for children
and young people. 1t makes the human
being feel small by comparison with his
surroundings. as the heavens and the
ocean make him seem small. But 1t does
not make him feel cheap and superf1uOus
The petty, diminutiye abode says daily to
Its owner Make haste, get out: your
room-little as 1t isis wanted for others"
We all recognize some Of the causes of
the crowdedness and smailness of modern
town houses. We know that during the
more and more popular, till at last its
popularity has almost turned toward dis
favor. Popularity has meant rising rents
and rising rates and higher wages. Still.
we have not got all the explanation here.
for we know that some new small fats
are excessively costly, and thai some old
big houses are unduly cheap. Rents and
taxes are not the whole answer to the
question why we have given up big fam
lily houses. There is not the big family
to live in them. True; yet this is not all.
tion as facts and figures give there lies
deeper reason.
The Plea for Privacy.
The old big-room house was built on the
that groups of people. and es-
pecially family groups. wished contin
ually to be in each others company. On
this supposition the rooms formed their
very framework The old-fashioned bed
rooms tell the same story. Sisters-two.
or even tilree--used to share a bedroom:
and daughter paying visit with her
mother was thought troublesome indeed
IL she could not be satisfied to share the
hAr ant