408 



A^M ERICAN H0ME7S AND GARDENS 



December, 1905 



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" The Wood- Finishing Authorities" 



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THE HOME TELEPHONE 



PERHAPS no modern aid to housekeeping 

 is so keenly appreciated as the telephone. 

 It is an amazing convenience and help. 

 It saves time. It keeps one easily in touch 

 with the outer world. It effects an economy 

 of steps. It is useful in a hundred useful 

 ways. It is so extremely useful that the won- 

 der is, not that so man)' houses and apartments 

 are equipped with telephones, but that more 

 of them are not in use. 



The telephone, however, has its disadvan- 

 tages, and it is exactly on this point that the 

 housekeeper needs to be watchful. The tele- 

 phone is a time-saver, but in many instances it 

 means a larger expenditure. This is especi- 

 ally the case where orders for household sup- 

 plies are transmitted through it. The butcher, 

 the baker, the grocer, all welcome the tele- 

 phone with eager joy. They can attend to a 

 dozen telephone calls while personally taking 

 the orders of a third as many customers. The 

 goods sent in response to telephone orders are 

 almost- invariably taken in and seldom re- 

 turned. The butcher is perhaps most keenly 

 alive to the advantages of the telephone order 

 system, for he can send in a little more meat 

 than has been ordered, or, at a pinch, send 

 something quite different and which the cus- 

 tomer would not have taken had she been 

 making the purchase in his store. 



Nor does one always keep as close an ac- 

 count of telephone orders as those given in per- 

 son. Telephone orders are seldom booked or 

 noted at the time by the customer, and hence 

 one is not always aware of the bills one is in- 

 curring. Not that charges will be made that 

 have not been ordered — reputable tradesmen 

 must be given the credit of being honest — but 

 one is not apt to fully realize just what one's 

 expenses may be. 



The telephone, therefore, like all good 

 things, requires to be carefully and intelli- 

 gently managed. The most economical mode 

 of housekeeping is expensive, and while the 

 telephone will save time and trouble it also 

 calls for care and attention in its use. No one 

 can keep house economically without a careful 

 scrutiny of expenditures. One is apt not to 

 do this when using the telephone for trans- 

 mitting orders for household supplies. Yet 

 this is one of the most important things to be 

 kept in mind when using this implement. 



CORRESPONDENCE 

 "Notable Homes" Series 



H. M. Y. writes to protest against some of 

 the illustrations of the interiors of the houses 

 included in the series of papers on " Notable 

 American Homes " as not being in accord with 

 good taste, and containing not a few articles, 

 from time to time, that are thoroughly bad in 

 themselves. 



Reply. The writer of this letter entirely 

 misconstrues the purpose of the papers in ques- 

 tion. The houses included in that series are not 

 offered as examples of good architecture, good 

 decoration, good furnishing, good gardening; 

 they are not intended to serve as models; they 

 are simply descriptions of houses, mostly of 

 some size, which have some points of interest. 

 They illustrate, in a general way, the most im- 

 portant domestic work being done to-day by 

 our leading architects. That is to say, the 

 largest houses, frequently the most costly 

 houses, often the best work of the architects 

 under discussion. 



This programme is a fair and just one and 

 needs no defense. Large houses and large 

 estates are matters of very great public interest. 

 There are few things of greater general inter- 

 est than those the public can not gain access 

 to and of which it knows nothing. Large 

 houses and large estates to which only a com- 



