The New York herald., 1921-02-08
Log Cabins and High Thought.

1t Is good to read that the new in
tellectual colony at Katonah will have
log houses for the members. OF course
it might be possible for a group Of
Geep thinkers and forward lockers to
bring about the social salvation Of
the world In an apartment house but
there would not be the faith in the
place that log cabin inspires.
| A log house In Katonah is ideal 1t
breathes simplicity. 1t is primitive.
1t invites thoughts such as LINCOLN
or THoREAU might have been glad to
think. 1t challenges wayward world
to turn into the path of right. 1t
suggests, with its rough face, that
money isn't everything. Why, it Is
notorious that there are so many logs
In Westchester county that everybody
who is in favor of the Sociological
Surge could have cabin up there. 1t
is true too that anybody who has
logs enough for house can have
them put together by gentle, old fash
ioned natives who are almost glad
to have the work at the nominal
charge of SO a day.
The architecture of log cabin is
so simple. Through the chinks the
outsider can see the glow Of the fire.
place, unless the builder has lined
the house with hollow tile-just as
our forefatters would have done If
they had the tile. Inside Is the hard
clay floor, unless the specifications
call for tile imported from Spain.
The fireplace is prehistoric--with a
modern damper added. Over the FIRE
place burn two candles, the polychrome
kind. And hangs there the faithful
old fowling piece (automatic ejector
$25 extra) with which to repel any
savage who speaks coarsely of KARL
MARX. The furnishings of the living
room are almost cruelty severe: never
more than two davenports, chaise
Tongue, eight or nine overstuffed
chairs and a little table picked up
in Italy for $3.50.
The log cabins kitchen, which is
houses closest link to nature, con-
tains only one electric range,
kitchen cabinet, and such electric re-
frigerators, dishwashers, coffee mills
and fireless cookers as are needed
in the primitive life where one denies
oneself for the sake of concentration
Of thought.
The size Of the log house is fire.
quently a problem. But 1t may be
set down as great truth that the
young couple who really mean TO do
Big Things in the way of combing
out class consciousness should not
have more than fourteen rooms and
seven baths. The servants will OF
course have, separate quarters. And
they, in this scheme Of practically
wild life, need not number more than
five. This of course does not include
the librarian, so necessary for the
keeping of careful index of all the
problems that demand solution.
The Katonah neighborhood Is ideal
for log houses full of sweetness, light
and theories. That part of Westches-
ter abounds in ponds; 1t could be
called the Lake Region. Springs purl
from a thousand sequestered hooks;
gasolene from thousand pumps. The
builder of a new social and economic
world can set his log cabin far from
the ignoble strivers- Here in the
quiet woodland he can think and
think and think. And when he has
thought lot and his brain burns
with the huge injustices heaped by
whatsthis ON whatsitsname. he can
hop the 6 80 fiier for Manhattan and
be there early enough to dine before
the Follies curtain rises.
It's the life, this simple one mp
Katonah way, with all modern i'm
provements In philosophy and plumb
ing. Brook Farm was never exactly
like IL.