AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
May, 1906 
Monthly Comment 
N ENGLISH visitor traveler who recently 
visited Berlin has been loud in his expres- 
sions of disapproval of the German capital. 
It is, he claims, an awful object lesson to em- 
perors and others who try to make a capital 
out of a respectable village. It is easy to 
put up imposing buildings—if you have the money—and 
to cut out broad tree-lined roads and have every- 
thing neat and nice and fine—but you only make your 
village bigger and finer without making it any the more a 
capital city. ‘There is no oe away from the feeling that 
Berlin is avi , rectilinear, 
new-out-of-the- Bandon village. but a ville all the same. 
And its inhabitants are all villagers—their very clothes speak 
of the provinces—they are nothing if not provincial. They 
and their clothes and the streets and the houses they live in 
are all much too rectangular. If the kaiser had really wanted 
to deceive his visitors into thinking they were in a real city 
he should have had a few streets made narrow and twisting, 
a few old houses that looked as if they had been built before 
the twentieth century; he ought to abate some of the gilding 
on the roof of the Reichstag Building, and squirt a little soot 
over some of the innumerable white, shining, marble Hohen- 
zollerns that crop up at every corner. It is impossible, he 
adds, to believe that anyone really lives in Berlin. There are 
inhabitants—two millions or so—but their real homes must 
be somewhere else, and they only camp out in Berlin at so 
much a week to oblige the kaiser. He thinks the emperor 
takes it all seriously, and looks out of his big ugly palace at 
the hideous new cathedral over the way, and peers down the 
Unter den Linden, and rubs his hands as he sees some people 
walking up and down, and congratulates himself on having a 
real capital. And as he drives off to unveil a new statue to a 
new ancestor on the new Sieges Allee, his subjects take off 
their new hats very seriously, and try to look like real Ber- 
liners as hard as they can. But all the while they are chuck- 
ling to each other, behind their hats, because they know what 
a huge joke it all is. 
An argument for flats, coming out of the good old city of 
Philadelphia, is likely to have some novelty. A worthy citi- 
zen of that town, wearied with boarding houses, has tried 
flats, and hastens to inform his fellow townsmen of their 
superior advantages. A flat of two rooms and a bath, or of 
six rooms and a bath would, he avers, “rent nicely.’ No 
doubt they would at his figure, which is modestly put at the 
sum of $20 a month for four rooms and a bath. Shades of 
Manhattan and Brooklyn! But flats are new types of build- 
ing for Philadelphia, which has long been famous for its 
small homes for working people. Its distinction in this re- 
spect has not yet been lost, but that the flat has invaded such 
a stronghold of individual ownership is portentous for the 
future. Flats certainly have their conveniences, and are 
not to be despised because they are flats. But they have their 
disadvantages also, and it would be a matter of national! 
regret should they usurp the place long and admirably filled 
by the small houses of Philadelphia. Meanwhile it may be 
remarked that four rooms and a bath in a good house in a 
good neighborhood for $20 is a bargain not to be ignored. 
Probably no rich man alive derives keener enjoyment from 
his money than Mr. Andrew Carnegie. Possessed of a co- 
lossal fortune, he finds his greatest delight in dispersing it in 
oughly enjoyed doing good in their own way as he. 
his lifetime. He has a palace in New York and a castle in 
Scotland. In either place he lives in a simple unostentatious 
state, entertaining the great ones of the earth with a hospi- 
tality truly princely, and yet quiet and unobtrusive. He 
enjoys the respect of his fellow men in two continents. He 
has everything that any man could want or need or have, and 
no one begrudges him the philanthropic pleasures of his later 
years. He has done a vast deal of good for the world at 
large with his money, which he has distributed with a lavish 
hand. But the sums he has given away have invariably 
looked towards human betterment. He has not escaped the 
sharp eyes of the critic, but his great gifts to humanity have 
well withstood the test of criticism. Few men have so thor- 
It is a 
genuine pleasure for him to give money to worthy objects, 
and it is to his credit that his benefactions have, on the whole, 
been truly admirable. 
True, he has his critics, but who has not? This, at least, 
is no fault of his. It seems reasonably certain that Mr. 
Carnegie’s name will long be remembered as one of the most 
remarkable of human benefactors, and if this be his real 
ambition it is at least a commendable one. 
Chicago as a city of homes is a somewhat novel way in 
which to view the great western metropolis of America, yet 
its claim to be so considered is not without point. It enjoys 
an enviable situation as the center of the meat industry and 
as the shipping center for the fruits and vegetables from the 
south and west. It has, it is true, but poor accommodations» 
for the very poor, but what city has better? The very rich, 
for their part, will doubtless get more for their money in New 
York, and have more ample opportunities of spending it there 
than in Chicago. But the family of average means is better 
off than in many other places. Chicago’s claim for an agree- 
able climate is often supported with great solemnity. The 
proximity of Lake Michigan provides an ample supply of 
pleasant breezes, lessening the heat in summer, while in win- 
ter, so it is said, there are many colder places. It is more to 
the point that the cost of living is averred to be less than in 
New York, which is Chicago’s sole rival. The suburban 
regions of Chicago are notably fine and pleasant places of 
abode, and the suburban steam travel is excellent testimony 
of good service from nearby towns. 
The movement for the protection of birds in America has 
long since assumed formidable proportions. Much of the 
credit for the work accomplished is due to the Audubon So- 
cieties, which exist in thirty-five States, and which for a num- 
ber of years have carried on an active work for the consery- 
ing of bird life. The results accomplished are considerable. 
A “model law,” drawn up by the American Ornithologists 
Union, is now in force in thirty states and the District of 
Columbia. The Lacey law excludes from interstate com- 
merce all birds killed illegally in any State, and makes those 
legitimately killed subject to the law of the State in which 
they are bought. Laws prohibiting the sale of game out of 
season, even when killed in season, look towards the same 
end of conserving bird life. Public attention has been aroused 
on the subject, and even the manufacturer of air rifles no 
longer calls attention to the fact that they will kill small game 
within short distances. Absolute protection has not yet been 
given the birds everywhere, but a great and important work 
has been well begun and is being well carried forward. 
