December, 1905 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



377 



Along the Pleached Alley are Platforms Surmounted by Classic Roofs Borne by Ionic Columns of Terra Cotta 



length of its terrace. The pleasure it has given its owners 

 while adding tracts to the demesne and buildings to the farm, 

 planting a grove here and opening a road or vista there, 

 makes itself felt by others in some inscrutable way, and, with- 

 out knowing why, they, too, feel pleasure. 



As an instance in point, there is the rose garden. It ex- 

 ists because to Mrs. Trask the rose is the transcendent flower, 

 but for herself she never would have planned and stocked 

 such a magnificent example. Nor for himself, in all likeli- 

 hood, would Mr. Trask have become so great a rose col- 



lector. But since they love roses the passion has grown, until 

 only a space of many acres can hold the plants; and, then, the 

 pleasure both feel can be extended to their friends. Several 

 years ago Mrs. Trask established in Saratoga a training 

 school for servants, which, in summer, is often opened to the 

 children from the Albany hospitals, and the rose garden 

 comes in very happily to supply the convalescents with 

 flowers. And there are others, too. Things of this kind 

 one learns over the lunch table where friends from Saratoga 

 gather under the genial presence of their hosts. 



The Kitchenette 



LTHOUGH the kitchenette is not the new- 

 est idea in things pertaining to the kitchen, 

 its end and collapse — or, perhaps, more 

 strictly speaking, its approaching end and 

 collapse — is the latest idea that has wafted 

 out from the great world of hoteldom in 

 which so many strange devices are in vogue for the com- 

 pressing of many things into the smallest possible amount 

 of space. The kitchenette was not exactly a labor-saving 

 device, but an arrangement that was intended to meet the 

 needs of those who, living in apartments, wished to do their 

 own cooking, or at least a part of it. 



The kitchenette was a very small room, something larger 

 than a closet, something decidedly smaller than a kitchen. 

 Its conveniences consisted of a gas stove and an ice chest. 

 It was obviously simple and compact. Its possibilities were 

 obviously limited; one could not do very much within it, but 

 one could, on the other hand, prepare there simple break- 

 fasts and luncheons. 



It is perhaps not generally known, but it is a well ascer- 

 tained fact, that many of the most expensive hotels in New 



York house people who practise all sorts of petty economies 

 in order to pay their room rent. The kitchenette idea was 

 invented largely to meet the needs of such tenants. At all 

 events, it was first applied to apartments of considerable cost, 

 apartments whose rent was so high that the tenants might 

 very well afford to rent larger apartments or purchase 

 their meals in the hotel restaurant. 



But there is a charm in cookery — to those who do not have 

 to cook. The fair young wife is delighted with the conve- 

 niences which enable her to prepare breakfast for the doting 

 young husband, until the novelty wears off or it becomes in- 

 convenient and distasteful to wash the dishes after every 

 home-made repast. The smallest of kitchenettes entailed 

 some drudgery, as all household work does, and thus the 

 popularity of these apartments began to fail. One by one 

 they were deserted, and as they were attached to rooms for 

 which good rent was demanded there were no frugally 

 minded young couples to take the place of the dissatisfied 

 ones. 



The obliging landlord maintained a storeroom, from 

 whence sundry supplies could be obtained by telephone. 



