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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



July, 1908 



Monthly Comment 



jONTINUED residence in the country brings 

 forth, from time to time, various kinds 

 of differences between the newcomers 

 and the old settlers. This is es- 

 pecially the case when the old settlers are 

 in the majority and have, perhaps, waxed 

 rich in selling their farms to the new. 

 All sorts of matters are bound to come up from time to 

 time, and sometimes a good deal of unnecessary friction is 

 aroused, chiefly from the fact that neither party under- 

 stands the other. It is difficult for a city man, for example, 

 who has purchased a few feet or a few acres of rural land 

 to understand that after having paid his hard earned money 

 for the land, it should still remain a sort of public domain, 

 access to which is demanded by the neighborhood at all 

 hours of the day and night. Singular as it may seem, this 

 is by no means an imaginary situation, but an actual condi- 

 tion that is frequently arising in all parts of the country. 

 A newcomer purchases a water front property, and forth- 

 with fences in his land clear to the water's edge. Laboring 

 under the delusion that, having paid for this land, it is 

 actually his, he sees no reason why he should not have it 

 for his exclusive enjoyment. Of course, he may have known, 

 or may not have known, that the older settlers had been 

 accustomed to use his frontage as an agreeable summer 

 promenade; but he very soon is made aware that, an ancient 

 custom having been interfered with, he should not have done 

 what he has, even though he had a legal right to do so. 

 Or perhaps a diminutive stream trickles into his land; local 

 authorities — non-legal — will argue by the hour that his 

 property should be invaded at pleasure by others than the 

 owner, who, in the popular mind, has really no rights at all 

 on his own land that others may not enjoy. 



Circumstances of this sort show an amazing ignorance 

 of property rights which are likely to yield unpleasant re- 

 sults on both sides. It is a pity that this should be the case 

 for most men wish to remain at peace with their neighbors; 

 but it is often difficult to do that when unreasoning demands 

 are made which are based on ignorance and prejudice. There 

 is little unoccupied land near any of our cities that has not an 

 owner who pays taxes on it. This ownership is real and 

 actual, and is defended by many laws and buttressed by many 

 legal judgments. The country youth, or even the farmer 

 who occasionally sits on a jury, is neither competent to dis- 

 cuss these rights nor to abrogate them. The country store 

 parliaments in which such matters are debated with great 

 waste of wind and prodigious leakage of gas, while of the 

 profoundest interest to its participants, carry no weight of 

 real moment anywhere. Too often they lead to unpleasant 

 results, both in propagating false notions, and in promoting 

 lawlessness by disseminating ideas that are vicious at founda- 

 tion and wrong in application. 



The moderate house, moderate in cost, in size, in site, in 

 running expenses, is the house of the day and hour. The 

 splendid house, large and vast, costly and extravagant, ex- 

 pensive to build and expensive to occupy, is the exceptional 

 dwelling. It is true that, in many instances, it is a most in- 

 teresting structure, or at least it may be, and many a soul 

 that cannot hope to own one, or even so much as go into one, 

 may take the greatest interest in such mammoth buildings. 

 But the moderate house is the home of the average person, 

 that is to say, of the person of average means, and it is, 

 therefore, notwithstanding our present multiplicity of mil- 



lionaires, the home of the bulk of the American people. It 

 is the representative dwelling of the day, the age, the nation. 

 It is the kind of house that most people possess and which 

 most people may hope to earn. 



The characteristics of such a dwelling are not hard to 

 seek. The chieftest is availability, and with this goes liabil- 

 ity. These qualities are not determined by excellence of plan 

 or desirability of elevation, but by the more subtle fact of 

 adaptation to ends and means. No house, however excellent 

 it may appear architecturally, is fit to live in that can not be 

 enjoyed and occupied in a comfortable convenient way within 

 the means of the occupant. One should never take chances 

 with a house because it is agreeable unless it is actually 

 certain that one can afford to live in it. Nor is it always 

 sufficient to depend on estimated expenses. A veritable host 

 of unexpected expenses will rise up and confront the house 

 owner yearly, and perhaps more in the country than in the 

 city. All these matters must be provided for or the home 

 life will fall to the ground, and the house which, at the be- 

 ginning, promised so much pleasure and comfort will, in 

 the end, be a burden of exceeding weight, difficult to resist 

 and hard to support. 



The moderate house, therefore, must be moderate in every 

 respect. It should be no larger than it need be; that is to 

 say, useless rooms and unnecessary apartments should be 

 omitted as essential parts of its plan. It should be designed 

 in a moderate way, without unnecessary ornamental features, 

 often costly to build and difficult to keep in repair. The 

 mechanical plant should be constructed in a similarly moder- 

 ate way. It should be ample for every possible demand 

 that may be put upon it, and should always be sufficient, but 

 the very important point of economic administration should 

 be carefully looked into and very deliberately considered. 

 And the outside grounds and appurtenancies should be on 

 an equally moderate scale. There is charm and delight in 

 extensive grounds and beautiful gardens, but neither of these 

 very beautiful things can be acquired without some expense, 

 and the greater the expense the greater the beauty that may 

 be obtained in this way. All sorts of practical details in 

 estate support are contained in these matters, and it may 

 frequently be found the wiser course to be content with 

 moderate outdoor spaces, rather than to load oneself up with 

 waste land to which no profitable use can be put. Especially 

 should one be moderate in embarking in rural industries. 

 It is true, if much that has been writen on this subject is 

 to be believed, many comfortable livings have been secured 

 by engaging in rural pursuits on quite microscopical pieces 

 of ground. Yet though the testimony to this effect is not 

 small, the wise sojourner in the countryside may find it more 

 profitable to stick to his trade and leave such experimentation 

 to his neighbors. One can always begin; sometimes it is 

 difficult to stop if the beginning has been made in search of 

 a profit. 



But the moderate house need not, fortunately, be com- 

 monplace nor ineffective. Many moderate houses are of pre- 

 cisely this description and no other. But beauty and grace 

 in building may be found in the moderate house quite as 

 often as in the larger if one but go about it the right way, 

 and especially if one realizes, as one should, that moderate 

 disbursements for true architectural beauty are right and de- 

 sirable investments, that will surely be appreciated the more 

 as the house mellows with age and becomes dowered with 

 family love and tradition. 



