New-York tribune., 1921-06-12


steam electficity gentlemen only"
In the regular course Of the weeks work she
had added the last two words to at least fifty
out of every sixty pieces of copy. She had
climbed daily, up and down, an average of at
least 296 flights of stairs. She had interviewed
andadies of every environment, from Bank
Street to Gramercy Park, behind the brown
stone fronts Of the upper Seventies and the
gray stone fronts of Riverside Drive, and on
the praries of the Bronx.
She repeated these experiences four weeks
in succession. Then she compiled statistics.
At the end of that time she knew that the
scenario writers understood landladies.
Out of possible 1,246,935 birds Of passage,
male and female, whose habitat in New York
Is the furnished room, not one out of every
two hundred females is wanted in another
woman's home "Welcome" is written in
scareheads on Manhattan's doormat for every
masculine roomer. His social status and finan-
cial rating may be that of an S18-a-week dry
goods clerk, or vice president of Father Knick-
landlady's glad hand is always outstretched
and gripping.
But let a prospective roomer in petticoats
attempt to climb the front steps, and the land
lady turns the mat over on its back, hangs
the 8. r. O. sign en- the doorbell. and becomes
furiously engrossed in her dusting.
This is contrary to all our traditions. Yet 1t
is 8 fact. Man, as his landlady sees him, is
model of neatness and decorum in the home
woman is invariably nuisance.
Fortified with QUESTIONABLE and statistics
compiled by furnished room Investigators,
started out to find why woman, as woman sees
her, is no longer popular in the home.
The subject of my first interview received
me with distrust and suspicion, as she would
a feminine applicant for shelter.
Woman" she said, eying me grlmly and
tightening her thin lips. "Woman is never
impersonal, even about furnished room.
When she is she will be successful roomer,
Not before. Men are impersonal about their
rooms in other peoples houses. man may
point of view is still detached. He regards
it as he does his daily seat in the subway
or the calendar on the wall of his office down.
town.
When woman rents a room If only for
week, she becomes intensely personal about
it. You'd think she had been compelled to sign
on the dotted line in the presence Of at least
three witnesses. Everything from the towel
rack to the design on the wall has dramatic
value in her own life. Each detail may make
or mar her soul. And if everything is not
just she has planned she loses her appetite
or has convulsions of temperament"
A door opened down the hall and a woman
walked toward us.
81 need new electric bulb in my room Mrs.
Brown" she remarked sweetly in passing. The
landlady's thin lips grew thinner.
"You see! That's the way it goes" said
Mrs. Brown as the roomer disappeared around
the bend in the stairs. She would probably
have used the same tone in announcing that
her bitterest enemy had been convicted of en-
bezzlement. "That woman has had three new
electric bulbs this week. I don't know what in
heavens name she does to them. Twice she
burned out the fuse with an electric iron.
Then she spilled the alcohol in her chafing
dish and took all the varnish off my best
table,
GA man never irons in his room. He never
cooks. He goes out early in the morning. He
comes back after dark. But women! Even
when they go to business they are continually
fussing around I don't want EN-