228 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
possible wounds, which will sooner mend for your solicitude. 
Athletics make for health and strength of body. Inter- 
est in the game of the season is always a good stimulant in 
other directions. Happy is the home into which all this 
interest is brought, sure of hearty sympathy. My home is 
one of the places where boys gather to discuss these im- 
portant matters. , I hear much of the talk. I would not 
care to give cause for the remarks to be made about me that 
I have heard about Hal’s mother, for instance. 
How much good athletics stand for is proved right here 
in New York. There are over one hundred baseball fields 
provided by the city. What joy for the boys this means! 
Long live athletics! Mothers, help your boys by over- 
coming your fears, and becoming interested in their play, 
instead of always worrying over their work, and great will 
be your reward, in their finer development of mind and body. 
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AN AMERICAN COTTAGE OF ENGLISH TYPE 
(Continued from page 206) 
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living-room is low ceiled and the woodwork is paneled, 
which give the somewhat ‘‘distinguished” effect such treat- 
ment always conveys. The cornice of the mantel shelf is 
continued upon each side as a narrow ledge upon which may 
be placed photographs, small framed pictures and the vari- 
ous other small possessions which accumulate in a family 
living-room. Wide doors open into the dining-room, where 
one entire side is taken up by a row of casement windows 
opening upon a broad terrace which afford a view across 
the stretch of green lawn into the forest beyond. In one 
corner of the dining-room is the entrance to the pantry, be- 
yond which is the kitchen and the service entrance, and the 
servant’s stairway to the floor above. One corner of the 
house contains the little room called the ‘“‘den’’—a small 
study, office or smoking-room which makes the little sanctum 
a man often wishes to have for his own. 
The upper floor is divided into four bedrooms and two 
bathrooms for family use and a maid’s room which 1s pro- 
vided with a bath. Closets in plenty are provided and the 
bedrooms are so placed that each possesses windows in two 
directions which give ‘cross current” ventilation. The little 
sleeping balcony which opens from one of the bedrooms is 
sheltered by panels of latticework and screened with wire 
netting. 
The Russell house has not been built long enough to be 
surrounded with the shrubbery and vegetation which do so 
much to complete the setting which such a home requires. 
The window-boxes with their blooming plants and hanging 
vines and the narrow borders for growing plants just below 
the groups of first floor windows, are probably merely the 
beginning of the work which time and nature will provide. 
imran Oe eS 
BOYS’ CAMPS 
(Continued from page 2£7) 
Mi = aap iae jain EO 
and the campfire, the mountain spring, and the carefull 
chosen bed on the pine needles after the long day’s tramp, 
weave a train of delightful memories that are never for- 
gotten. 
Besides these special trips, there are many unique events, 
generally arranged for. Camp bonfires, Saturday evening 
entertainments, barbeques, corn roasts, minstrel shows, kin- 
dergarten parties, vaudeville, and historical pageants, are 
included in the list, all originated and carried out by the 
boys. Then, too, at the end of the season a field and water 
day is held, affording to the friends and the parents of the 
campers an opportunity to judge of the prowess gained 
from constant practice during the Summer, and constitut- 
ing a fitting close to this season of beneficial enjoyment. 
June, 1912 
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PORTABLE HOUSES FOR THE LONG VACATION 
(Continued from page 219) 
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it may be easily reached from the dining-room by a covered 
passageway. It is very easy to add another room to a port- 
able building should circumstances make it necessary, al- 
though added sleeping quarters are very often placed in a 
building to themselves, wholly apart from the main struc- 
ture. In planning the house a covered porch or veranda 
should certainly be included, for it adds very little to the 
cost and increases wonderfully the comfort and convenience 
of the cottage. If two porches may be included one might 
be wire screened and used as an out-of-door sleeping-room. 
A portable cottage, more than any other type of vacation 
home, should be very simply furnished with merely the 
things required for actual use, but this need not prevent the 
appearance being very inviting and attractive. 
The simplicity demanded in such a home is very often the 
cause of very interesting and beautiful interior arrangements, 
for excellent results are sometimes obtained by the tasteful 
and careful placing of very little furniture, simple draperies, 
and a few rugs. ‘The selection of cooking apparatus is a 
very important item and is governed largely by the choice of 
locality in which the vacation home is to be established. Gas 
or electricity as fuel are apt to be difficult or impossible to 
procure and either coal or wood would produce a heat too 
great for the comfort of the cook unless the roof of the 
kitchen be ‘‘hinged” to provide proper ventilation. The 
choice of fuel narrows down, therefore, to gasoline and kero- 
sene, but excellent cooking-stoves of these kinds are procur- 
able and the oil to supply them may be obtained anywhere. 
It is surprising what an amount of pleasure and comfort 
may be had from a vacation spent in one’s own cottage. 
Every part of the country abounds in beautiful and easily 
accessible spots for the erecting of a Summer home, and 
ground sufficient for one of these little portable houses may 
be rented for almost nothing. When the building arrives 
from the factory it can be readily set into place, one’s be- 
longings arranged in the various rooms, and a few quick- 
growing vines planted to shade the veranda and the windows. 
If the vacation home be established sufficiently early in the 
season it may even be possible to make a flower or vegetable 
garden which will afford the pleasure and satisfaction one 
feels in ‘‘making things grow.” The vacation will prove a 
time of rest and content which can never be had by those 
who spend their Summers in resort hotels. With the end 
of the season the house should be made ready for the Win- 
ter and until another vacation time comes around. If the 
next Summer is to be spent at a different place the house 
should be carefully taken apart and stored away until an- 
other season brings new uses for its comfort and _ inde- 
pendence. ; 
Portable buildings of either of the two types which have 
been described are useful, of course, in many ways besides 
as residences and are in service everywhere as churches, 
schoolhouses, barns, garages, etc. They are often utilized 
as studios and an enterprising architect has established him- 
self in a portable house upon the roof of a skyscraper in 
lower New York. The chief function of the portable 
building, however, is as a home, and as such it has been on 
trial for the greater part of twenty years and in a great 
variety of localities extending from Maine to California 
and from Minnesota to Florida. The use of such a build- 
ing as a permanent home is possible, of course, in any but 
the most rigorous climate, and even there it could be used 
throughout the year with a small expenditure for a lining 
particularly heavy. Study the question carefully and choose 
a type of portable house adapted to your requirements, 
. = 
