2l6 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



October, 1906 



Monthly Comment 



!)I IE approach of the fall season, with the win- 

 ter looming ominously beyond, means the 

 return of a goodly number of people from 

 the country to the city, and the opening of a 

 new season and a new experience to those 

 who have this year taken up their abode in 

 the country for a permanency. The scale on which one lives 

 has much to do with the point of view at this time. With 

 ample funds, a large place, abundant means of getting about 

 and a retinue of servants, one is, of course, independent of the 

 season, and can come and go as one pleases. But there is a 

 host of country livers who are not so situated, and to them 

 their first season in the countryside must have produced many 

 mixed results. The great problem of liking or not liking has 

 not yet been solved, nor can it be until a full year has been 

 put in amid purely rural surroundings. Yet even the first 

 year may not be a true test, nor the second; for there is in- 

 finite variety in the country, notwithstanding its inherent dul- 

 ness to those who yearn for variety and "life." There is a 

 very great temptation, on moving into the country, to under- 

 take too much. The literature of country life is now quite 

 aboundingly rich. For a dollar or two one may purchase an 

 admirably printed book by a thoroughly honest writer telling 

 how to do all manner of things in the country, how much 

 fruit and vegetables one may raise, how many animals one 

 may keep and rear, how much, in fine, one may make from 

 one's own country place, which may readily be self-supporting 

 if one but follow the directions of the aforesaid competent 

 authority. It is dollars to doughnuts that most people who 

 essay country life on this basis are in this present month of 

 grace regretting the ventures they so gleefully undertook. 

 And it is not to be wondered at. All you have read is doubt- 

 less true, but a great deal of real personal experience is neces- 

 sary before one can, let us say, rear sheep and goats, dogs, 

 ponies, geese, chickens, ducks, guinea-fowls, pigeons and 

 calves, all on one place, all at the same time, and keep house 

 and raise and feed a family to boot. A very competent 

 writer, not very long ago, published a most interesting book 

 telling how all these things were done — except the last. It 

 was undoubtedly a true experience, but any other person who 

 would try the same problem would be without the personal 

 equation which, in this particular case, was the real secret of 

 success. And it is the lack of personal experience which has 

 caused most of the failures of the present year. There is but 

 one word of advice to be offered — when you try again, try a 

 bit harder, and don't try to do too much. 



Instability is one of the marked characteristics of Ameri- 

 can home life. The American, as a rule, has little affection 

 for his house as a house or a home as a home. He seldom 

 remains long in one place. If he has not just moved in, he is 

 on the point of moving out, and he invariably looks forward 

 to a time when he will own a better home than the one he 

 happens to be living in. This is a commendable ambition, 

 and were the new homes always absolutely better than the old 

 instead of, as in most cases, being simply more gorgeous, it 

 would be a feeling warmly to be commended. A bettering 

 of one's condition is unquestionably highly desirable, and in 

 the end the American home unrest may lead to good results, 

 but it produces a totally different impression of the home 

 from that which obtains in England, for example, where the 

 family home is an ancestral residence, where many genera- 

 tions of the same family have lived and died. Such a home 

 undoubtedly produces a very different impression from that 

 which obtains in the rapidly changing homes of America. 



There is no wonder that the moving industry in America is a 

 large one, and, from the point of view of the person who pays 

 the bills, an exceedingly profitable one. 



It is no new thing to point out that the child is an im- 

 portant factor in the home. This is so true that it may be per- 

 tinently asked for what else does a home exist? Yet it is often 

 obvious, and sometimes unpleasantly obvious, that the 

 children have too great a prominence in the home. This is 

 particularly true of America, where the children outgrow 

 home restraint and home rule at an abnormally early age. 

 The American child is more apt to be given license than 

 liberty in the home life, and hence he rapidly acquires an un- 

 due prominence in the house. All the members of a family 

 are part of the same family organism, and the family rule 

 that recognizes this fact, the family life that is conducted for 

 the whole family, and not for any single part of it, inevitably 

 yields the most wholesome results. 



Walking as a means of relaxation is rapidly becoming 

 one of the lost joys. Walk we will unquestionably when we 

 have to, but there are now so many ways of getting about 

 without the physical discomfort that many people attach to 

 walking, that walking as a means of pure enjoyment seems to 

 have almost gone out of fashion. Yet there is no more de- 

 lightful, healthful sport than this. It is one of the simplest 

 of recreations and one of the most fascinating. It brings one 

 closer to Nature than any artificial means of locomotion can 

 possibly do. It gives pleasure and brings health, and is one 

 of the most beneficial of natural tonics. One must, of course, 

 be suitably clothed for walking, and perhaps especially mind- 

 ful of one's shoes. It may be necessary, on a long tramp, to 

 provide oneself with a simple lunch, for the question of food- 

 supply is sometimes a difficult one in the rural regions. Any 

 jaded, tired soul that takes itself out for a good country walk 

 will return to its own fireside refreshed and benefited im- 

 measurably. 



There is still much to be learned before the dust gener- 

 ated by the automobile will cease to be a source of public 

 annoyance. Every object moving through the atmosphere 

 drags a body of air with it, whether its own surface be smooth 

 or not. The difficulty of the problem is not limited to the 

 power surface of the car, since it is not clear but the upper 

 part may have some effect as a dust-raiser. It is certain, how- 

 ever, that the form of the lower part of the car is the most 

 important feature. Thus it seems to be true that the higher 

 the bottom of the car is above the road and the smoother its 

 surface, the less will be the dust-raising power of the machine. 

 All recent experiments tend to show that the chief problem 

 of the automobile-builder should be so to construct his ma- 

 chine that it will pull about with it the smallest possible vol- 

 ume of air at the least possible speed. The scientific facts 

 involved in this problem have not yet been completely studied, 

 but some of the basic principles have been sufficiently un- 

 covered to point the way to the right direction. Meanwhile, 

 however, the public continues to suffer from one of the chief 

 abominations of the automobile. It is small comfort to be 

 reminded that the occupants of the rapidly moving car are 

 suffering likewise; they have the compensating advantage 

 of motion, often so rapid that little can be distinguished of 

 them or their vehicle save the clouds of dust in which they 

 travel. Moreover, if it becomes unbearable they can stop it 

 by stopping their machine. But the person on the road, or 

 that most unfortunate person who lives upon it, has no 

 remedy that has yet become effective. 



