228 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
April, 1906 
Monthly Comment 
HE oldest apartment house in New York 
was built by the late Richard M. Hunt in 
East 18th Street in 1869. It was a struc- 
ture of five stories, with four stories of 
J seven-room apartments and studios on the 
CAAA fifth floor. Contrary to what may be sup- 
posed to be the case, it is a much more commodious build- 
ing than the average new apartment of to-day. Its rooms 
are large and well lighted, and its spacious air courts 
give a quantity of light and air that the more modern apart- 
ment houses seldom supply. The modern apartment house, 
while supplied with many new conveniences, is a very different 
structure from its earlier predecessors. The latest houses 
run to three and four room apartments only, giving, in real 
estate parlance, space for “John, Mary and Fido,” the latter 
being the pet dog with which many childless families are 
now accompanied. Even with these small dimensions, rents 
are so high that persons of average means can not find ac- 
commodation within these narrow quarters. 
GRAVE news of the inroads of western civilization into 
Japan continue to come out of the Far East from time to 
time. ‘This is particularly so with regard to the new condi- 
tions with which Japanese women surround themselves in 
their homes. Many strictly Japanese homes to-day affect 
the outward character of the palaces of Park Lane and Fifth 
Avenue. Not literally, of course, for the Japanese have not 
yet become sufficiently westernized to ignore the essential 
requirements of the Japanese climate nor have they broken 
wholly away from the restrictions of Japanese etiquette. But 
the change westward has already set in vigorously, and is ap- 
parent in the exterior of important Japanese houses as well 
as in the modes of living within. Many Japanese girls of 
high rank are now educated abroad and carry back with them 
a full complement of western ideas and a new conception 
of Japanese life viewed after contact with western ideas. 
With a people so sensitive to impressions as the Japanese this 
amounts to a great deal. The women are no longer content 
with the subordinate position to which they were long rele- 
gated, but are assuming a more and more public position 
which must surely have great influence on the Japan of 
the future. 
A DELEGATION of British workers from Birmingham who 
recently investigated the conditions of German workingmen 
and their homes and have returned to their native land with 
an astonishing impression of superiority of the German house- 
wife to the English, have discovered, to their amaze- 
ment, that the wives of German workingmen have a better 
and truer appreciation of their real position than have their 
English sisters. “The wife of the German workingman con- 
ducts her household in a more economical way than does her 
sister in England. She has a better appreciation of the pur- 
chasing power of money, she is a better cook, and displays 
better judgment in the selection of her clothes. She dresses 
in a way that frankly proclaims her social status, and is never 
ashamed of it. She has often learned to cook in domestic ser- 
vice and has natural habits of thrift and industry that the 
Englishwoman seldom possesses. Most important of all, 
there appears to be less infant mortality in Germany than in 
England. On the whole it would seem that the German 
workingwoman is a much better housekeeper than the 
English. 
No worp appears so frequently in the home literature as 
‘“‘homelike.”” What does it mean? With many persons a 
homelike interior is assumed to refer to a quiet, unpretentious 
house of moderate cost, equipped in a moderate way with 
modest furniture neatly disposed in rooms of unassuming 
proportions. ‘That such rooms may be homelike is unques- 
tionably true, but that all homelike rooms are of this 
description is completely erroneous. Homes are of almost as 
many different kinds as there are kinds of persons. The kind 
of a home that one possesses is largely determined by one’s 
means. ‘That is to say, the rich man will provide himself 
with a richly furnished and richly conducted house. The man 
of moderate means will have a house less elaborately built, 
furnished and conducted. The poor man must do the best he 
can, and that very often will be poorly enough. Now, it is 
obvious that the home which will be satisfactory to one of 
these groups will not be satisfactory to any other. The rich 
man who is accustomed to the daily luxury of his own house 
would not know how to live in a poor way in a poor place. 
The poor man, for his part, would be equally lost amid the 
luxury of the rich man; and the man in moderate circum- 
stances will be as much dissatisfied with the home of the very 
poor as with the home of the very rich. But the abiding place 
of each isa home. Each fails when measured by the standard 
of the others. This very essential fact is apt to be overlooked 
by those who find it their duty to enlarge on the homelike 
qualities of certain homes and their absence from others. It 
is a serious mistake to deny homelike qualities to expensive 
dwellings. 
THERE is no better motto for the beginner in amateur 
farming or poultry raising than “Go slow.” The beginner in 
these very engrossing pursuits is apt to proceed with a speed 
that sometimes approaches that of a railroad express train. 
He begins by purchasing a farm. This means that in most 
cases he pays more for his land than it is worth to its pre- 
ceding owner. It means, practically, permanently locating 
himself in a new and untried region, to remove from which 
would entail considerable expense, and which may be an 
operation he will have great difficulty in accomplishing, 
especially if he must sell his property before removing from 
it. The next step will be the purchase of a quantity of tools 
and material and then, if he fancies poultry raising, a start 
on as large a scale as his means permit. ‘Then the troubles 
begin. The minute directions of the various books and 
periodicals he has so eagerly studied are found to be difficult 
of practical application. Unforeseen circumstances arise with 
disheartening rapidity. “The season is bad, his stock sickens 
and dies, he has no idea what to do and no place where he 
can obtain the necessary information. Like the gentleman 
of Scripture, his second state is worse than his first, and there 
is no health in it. If he can he withdraws from the operation, 
a chastened and moneyless man. If he can’t, his soul becomes 
consumed with hate, hate for his land, his house, his fowls, 
his trees, his garden, his fruits, his vegetables. ‘Too late, he 
realizes that the more haste the less speed. The newcomer 
to the country must be prepared to find everything different 
from what one has been accustomed to in the city. It would 
not be the country were it otherwise. One moves into the 
country not only for greater space, but for the complete 
change of life which is one of the inseparable charms of 
country living. Yet the differences between the two modes 
of life are apt to be very great. 
