The Washington herald., 1916-12-31
Seen and Heard
ny GEoRGE MINER.

New York, Dec. 3o-The elabora-
ton of apartment house life goes
nerrily on. Many of the new apart
ments contain more rooms than ordi-
nary houses, and in the big and fash
ionable ones the rents asked, and re-
ceived, are simply enormous. Elihu
Root pays $25,ooo a year rent for an
apartment in Park avenue, and that is
by no means unusual.
The latest device in hathouse lux
ury is being constructed by a certain
Mr.. Browning as an adjunct to his
future home Mr.. Browning's father
made a bundle of millions by selling
ready-made clothing, and so Mr..
Browning is financially able to go to
extremes. In a new apartment house
he is building he is arranging for his
own occupancy the entire top floor.
1t consists of twenty-four rooms, with
an average size, of thirty-fve feet
square. There is nothing about that
to suggest the cramped quarters of
New York fats.
The roof he has laid out as a pri-
vate garden. There are dozen flower
beds, with gravelled walks between.
In winter it is inclosed in glass and
heated, so that he can pick flowers
there all the year round if he wants to-
In the center there is a pond with
canoes on it and big enough really to
go boating on. Also it is deep enough
to go swimming in. 1t is so. arranged
with freezing plant that hetcan turn
the pond into an ice rink and go skat-
ing on it.
The furniture and decorations for
the rooms and the plants for the gar
den have been gathered from all parts
of the world. Experts have been at
work on it for two years When he
gives garden parties there, as he pro-
poses to do frequently, he intends to
scatter semi-precious stones in the
gravel of the walks so that they will
glitter and give the paths the appear
ance of being strewn with diamonds
There are 5000 electric lights in the
apartment and the garden.
Would you think there was all that
profit in ready-made clothes, Not
war order uniforms either, just regu-
lar clothes to wear in the Office at SIX
and $40 per.
The newest thing in the way of pro-
pulsion is foot automobile 1t looks
very much like those boards with
roller skates under them and an up
right to hold to that boys rig up to
scoot around the pavements on. This
machine consists of nothing more
than little iron platform, just big
enough to stand on, which rests on
two wheels and is elevated about four
inches above the ground In front
there is an iron box containing little
motor and an upright like the handle
to lawn mower. With this handle
YOU guide the machine, regulate the
speed. stop it, start it, and it also
steadies you so you don't tip off the
platform.
OF course, you can't sit down. 1t is
stand-up transit. II can go as slowly
as three miles an hour and as fast as
twenty-five if anyone wants to be so
foolish. Naturally its main use is for
messenger work, for people going to
business. and for novelty. | should
imagine it would be popular for use on
the boardwalks at the seaside resorts.
The price I am told is very cheap,
something like $Ioo, although l don't
know the exact figures, and l am also
told that gallon of gasoline will run
one Of these things for a hundred
miles. Naturally it is not practical
for use on rough roads.