The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1925-09-17
REAL COMFORT
COUNTS IN HOME
Modern Home Looks for
Comfort in Planning
and Furnishing.
DEGREE Is SURPRISING
Rv CYNTHIA GREY


the bulwark of the nation and that its
imminent decay means our downfall.
/ believe there are a great many
things to worry about before we take
up the downfall of the home. be-
lieve the home-making instinct and
the home-loving instinct are too firm
ly embedded in our fiber to decay.
But / believe home life is under
going change and change for
the better. l believe it is being in
dividualized and simplifed.
This was impressed on my mind
during my last visit to New York.
A friend of mine who owns large
house which she has had made into
small apartments told me she had
difficulty renting them because they
had no kitchens.
The building is in the heart of the
theatrical district where every other
door, nearly, leads into restaurant,
but tenants, it seems, want kitchens.
"They won't rent an apartment
without kitchen" she said. "a few
years ago no one wanted them. Only
poor people were supposed to cook in
small apartments.
To-day, even if you rent to bache-
lors, they want kitchen if for moth
Ing more than breakfast or an occa-
sional dinner. They want home,
no matter how small it is"
I was amazed at the number of
one-room apartments being built fit
ted up with kitchenettes and sim
plification Of cooking utensiles and
sinks that answered all ordinary de-
mands, but took up no room. Home
life seemed to be fourishing in great
shape.
remembered the old-fashioned
kitchens of my childhood, bigger than
whole apartments now. The old home
with sitting room, parlor, library,
reception room, basement and attic
and four or five extra rooms for
guests that dropped in unceremoni-
ously was a well-meaning institution,
but it was not easy on mother or the
hired girl, who didn't get as much in
a month as the modern maid gets in
week, with time to herself and a
definite schedule of duties that she
doesn't exceed.
4
almost impossible today, unless one
is very wealthy, or unless woman
is willing to give every minute of
her time to it. But we have just as
much home life today as we ever did,
in smaller units.
/ remember a home 1 used to visit
in my childhood that had 10 rooms,
and was occupied by a grandmother,
grandfather, father, mother, maiden
aunt, and four children.
The entire family was never known
to agree on any one subject. They
never agreed in their verdict on any
one person. They never struck any
harmony in their culinary tastes.
Four different kinds of pancakes were
served daily for breakfast
They never agreed on the tempera-
ture a room should be. Some were
always too warm and others always
too cold. They had home life, but it
was hectic
It. was a cumbersome unit that
should have been broken up. The
grandparents would have been hap
pier together. The maiden aunt would
have been great deal better off in
her own home, and so would everyone
else, and the father and mother would
have been happier with just their
children.
AS it was, the home was always in
turmoil of cross purposes and as
soon as the children were old enough
they all struck out for themselves.
/ know two sisters, teachers, who
both live in the same city but have
separate apartments. Everyone thinks
it is funny they are both away from
home that they don't live together.
"But we never got along very we'll
together at home" one of them said
to me- "Why should we live together
here, when we are both perfectly
happy apart and better friends than
like the same people. Her deep dish
friends bore me as much as my crowd
does her.
"She likes to come home and be
alone in the evening, and / like peo-
pie around. We both love home,
but we don't love the same home"
know a girl who left luxurious
home in Kansas City to live in one
room apartment she walks up five
flights Of stairs to reach She loves
it, and wouldn't trade it for the most
luxurious place in the world, because
it is just what she likes.
Her parents don't understand it
because it isn't their ideal of home.
But they want her to be happy, SO
they don't object.
Fannie Hurst was talking to me
once about home.
~ want a beautiful one," she said,
"but / won't be slave to it. I will
never have an establishment so cum
bersome or intricate that can't lock
it up on moments notice and go
vagabonding when want to-"
Today we all want homes, but we
do not want to be tyrannized by
them. We do not want them demand
ing all our time in care and upkeep,
or do we want to live, however ele-
gantly, according to some other plan
than our own.
Wherever people go, they make
homes. The first thing man who
has amassed fortune wants to do
is to build a big home. The first idea
of the newly married pair is to build
home that will be their own. The
first idea of the bachelor girl, after
she has acquired her freedom, is to
have her own home.
We will never overcome that desire
for a home that expresses our own
- l;x;no P,1f rhanma mr.