New-York tribune., 1910-06-19

time was not wanted, so the sunken stu
dio has been devised, a room which gets
the needed height by having it's floor be-
low the level of the rest of the suite They
demanded light and air. And so now in
the fine apartment houses the bedrooms
and nearly all of the other rooms are out
side
They demanded that the machinery of
living should be made easy by machinery.
Consequently. the dunbwaiter has given
way TO a freight elevator for every two or
three flats with man TO run it; closets
are furnished with electric lights, that
switched on by the opening of the
|, doors; little cupboard in the kitchen in
tended for the garbage pail has pipes run
ming down into If which carry off the odor
of the refuse: mail chutes are provided;
the tenants rugs are cleaned without ex-
ira cost by pneumatic suction every week,
and, to cap the climax. especially large
shelves have been solemnly built IN some
houses for the holding of modern feminine
achievements in millinery.
Some fat buildings are extremely luxu-
rious. A new one, near Central Park, for
instance. has as many as twenty rooms to
an apartment, with conservatory. a. picture
gallery and fountain included. The walls
are covered Will SILK OF NelESL. LncTS are
odd little hooks, enclosed by glass doors,
holding big vases of flowers: there is an
extravagant number of bathrooms: there
are dressing rooms lined with closet doors
holding full length mirrors, and so many
other minor touches Of lavish elegance that
a queen would not find them unfit for her
use.
But the greatest change in comforts IS
that nniOIyed nv ha1 -rI,n
mind you Of a rubber ball which has been
thrown down very hard and which is at
present in the stage of bouncing UP very
high. Formerly the sleeping accommoda-
tions given servants used to resemble close
ly those furnished for dogs. Now each one
Of them has a large, light room. and gener-
ally there is a bath also There are fats,
if you please, which have inside dining
rooms for the family, and outside bed
rooms for the help.
Walls in the good houses are sound
proof to a degree which strikes awe into
the souls of those dwelIers IN cheaper places
who are used to having their conversations
punctuated by broom rappings from the
people below and accompanied by stimuli
taneous musical anguish from nearby
graphophones. In one apartment near
Fifth avenue a. tenant played Wagner at
his most discordant on the piano IN one
room and the reporter could hear no sound
in the next.
H G. Wells recently gave a prophecy
of the development Of homes in the future
founded on the development of homes in
the past. The ideal has been, he said, to do
away with useless cost and trouble, and
people will largely realize that ideal. They
will live in big buildings. containing separ-
ate honaes-honaes Of one, two or three
stories as preferred. Mechanical devices
(such as sweeping carpets by vacuum press
ure, for instance) will have been so IN
creased and perfected that the cleaning
work for all the fats can be performed IN
a short time by q, couple of 'house-men."
The cooking will be done in private kttch-
en-. by persons privately engaged by the
different families. Servants as now thought
Of will be unknown. Housekeeping for wo-
men will be a thing Of the past When that
time comes one Of mans most potent argu-
ments for refusing the franchise to women
will be lost. But he will invent another, no
doubt