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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



December, 1905 



Monthly Comment 



HE money expended by American cities for 

 police protection aggregates a vast sum. 

 T hat devoted to this purpose by any one of 

 the twenty largest cities is itself immense, 

 and the total amount spent in this way is 

 prodigious. A very reasonable question for 

 any taxpayer to ask is, is full value received for this money? 

 The answer is unquestionably determined by results. If the 

 police give genuine protection— if they detect crime, if they 

 inspire criminals with fear, if they protect property, if they 

 help to make life safe and property secure, if, in tine, they 

 constitute a useful part of the civic government— then surely 

 they are of value, and the money they cost is money well 

 spent. 



It is a singular fact that most citizens are extremely skep- 

 tical as to the value of the police. Larger and larger ap- 

 propriations are given to this department of city government 

 every year. In private affairs such expenditures would re- 

 sult in one of two things : either greatly increased efficiency 

 or insolvency and collapse. The police departments certainly 

 give no indication of collapse, but grow stronger and stronger 

 every year, demanding and receiving greater annual ap- 

 propriations and, in many ways, strengthening their hold on 

 the public and the public purse. This would not be criticized 

 if, at the same time, the police grew in public estimation. 

 No American city spends so much for its police as New York. 

 If the money cost were an indication of efficiency it would be 

 the best protected city in the United States. Yet in a single 

 month upward of a hundred cases of robbery in apartment 

 hotels and buildings of like character have been reported, 

 and it has been estimated that in the past year at least 

 $300,000 was stolen from such buildings. Reports from 

 other cities show that the same kind of crime is greatly on the 

 increase everywhere. In too many instances it is apparent 

 that liberal expenditures for police service do not yield a. 

 satisfactory return in arrests. 



It is an excellent plan to avoid hysterics in architectural 

 matters. Do not regard every good piece of architectural 

 work as a " triumph," or a " miracle," or a " marvel." It 

 is an architect's business to plan and execute good work. 

 That is what he is for. Some architects can do better work 

 than others; some have better native taste and skill and more 

 of it; some have made better use of their opportunities, 

 studied harder and applied themselves more keenly to their 

 work than their professional brethren; some, undoubtedly, 

 are very bad indeed, and have no place — no right place — in 

 a profession concerned with the erection of permanent build- 

 ings. But the business of an architect is to do good work, 

 and when he does it, it is exactly what he is expected to do. 

 It may be beautiful and fine, it may be good and excellent, 

 but it is seldom a " triumph," and rarely a " miracle." 



Home making and housekeeping are two different things. 

 Both are related to each other and both are essential to ex- 

 istence, but the successful housekeeper is not necessarily a 

 successful home maker. The housekeeper has to do with 

 the material things of life, with the conduct of the house- 

 hold, with its cleanliness, its order, its external visible aspect. 

 The home maker is concerned with the internal side of life, 

 with things invisible and personal. It is nobler work, that 

 of home making, than that of housekeeping. The house- 

 keeper is an executive officer, directing her servants as a 



general commands his army; her duties are business duties 

 and her life is full of bustling activity. The home maker is 

 concerned with the quieter side of life. She may fail in the 

 executive aspects, but succeed with exceeding beauty in the 

 personal matters which make the home the most precious of 

 human possessions. 



The housekeeper is a single person, intent on keeping her 

 house in order, administering it with economy and carrying 

 on her work with as little friction as possible. Many per- 

 sons, the whole family group, constitute the home makers 

 of any household. The woman leads in home making, ex- 

 actly as she dominates in housekeeping, but the responsibility 

 for the home is not hers alone, but is equally the husband's, 

 and, to a very considerable extent, the children's as well. 

 Every one must help in home making, each one contribute 

 his quota, each do what he or she can. But the men should 

 not put the whole responsibility on the women, nor the 

 women put it off on the men, nor the children hold the 

 parents entirely responsible, nor the parents ignore the chil- 

 dren's part. The home must be a perfect organism, in which 

 each one tries to do the best he can for the others. If he helps 

 himself at the same time he is so much the better off. But 

 home life rests more completely on consideration of others 

 than on any other single thought. 



The amount of unnecessary noise generated, produced, de- 

 veloped and thrust forth upon a helpless populace in any city 

 is completely without warrant, meaning, value or utility. 

 In no place in the world is there less need for noise than in a 

 town. There communication is more rapid, direct and 

 secure than in the open country. There is an abundance of 

 people alert for information, ready to work and anxious for 

 personal advantage. They can communicate their ideas 

 without difficulty, get all the work they want without noise, 

 perform their labor quietly, and go home at night to peaceful 

 repose. As a matter of fact, there are few things more diffi- 

 cult to do than this. The rumble of the elevated trains, the 

 shaking of the earth by the underground, the clanging of the 

 bells of the cable and trolley cars, may be more or less neces- 

 sary and more or less unavoidable. It is not the necessary 

 noises which are so horrible in the cities as the unnecessary 

 ones. And of the unnecessary ones there is little abatement. 

 If our modern life produced genuine reformers, people intent 

 on doing good for the sake of doing it, many of these things 

 might be remedied. As it is we are going from bad to worse. 

 Many noises can not be avoided in places where great crowds 

 of people are continually congregated, but every unnecessary 

 noise should be utterly abolished from town life. 



Styles and fashions in furnishings and furniture are 

 much less important than excellence. The newest things in 

 furniture, and, indeed, in all matters of interior decoration, 

 are often of interest because the modern purveyors of such 

 things turn them out with a certain knack and charm; but 

 their merits are apt not to be very deep, and it is always ex- 

 ceedingly wasteful to throw away good old things for new 

 objects that are simply in the fashion. Furniture fashions 

 change so rapidly nowadays that any room furnished in the 

 newest type is out of date the next season. Few pocket- 

 books can stand yearly changes in furnishings which are not 

 only unnecessary but exceedingly wasteful. A good, average 

 style is often a better investment than the newest of new 

 fashions. 



