84 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS March, 1907 



Monthly Comment 



,HE open season for country houses, and In- 

 cidentally for all the delights of the joyous 

 summer-time, is about to open. All the 

 world is agreed that it will be a welcome 

 change. The old-timers will renew the 

 pleasures of past springs and summers, and 

 the newcomers will, with much trepidation, 

 no doubt, make their first acquaintance of the country as a 

 place of residence. Those who know the country will, of 

 course, eagerly welcome every familiar sight and sound; 

 those who go into it for the first time will have mingled sen- 

 sations of pleasure and dismay. The truth might as well 

 be admitted first as last; for country living is not a wholly 

 unmixed joy, and those who are not accustomed to it should 

 venture forth prepared for all sorts of things, and be as 

 ready for the unexpected as for what is naturally looked for. 

 There is not a spot on the face of the globe that has not its 

 drawbacks as a place of residence. It is true that people of 

 large means, who keep house on a large scale, with a retinue 

 of servants and all the paraphernalia of human greatness, 

 have few reasons to complain of their lot. Even the ennui 

 that besets these folks is not due to the location of their 

 country estates, but to their own shortcomings in not being 

 able to enjoy as they should all their advantages. But the 

 person of average means, and the person of small means, 

 who go out into the country for economy's sake, are bound 

 to meet with more or less inconvenience and perhaps with a 

 number of disappointments. There is but one word to be 

 said to such as these: Wait. Any new place is certain to be 

 different from the old, and what seem to be inconveniences 

 and drawbacks this year will be smoothed away and forgot- 

 ten next season. There is vastly more joy to be had from 

 living in the country than in the city; but one needs to be 

 accustomed to this new form of life, needs to want to live it, 

 needs to be satisfied with what one has. In the end, one may 

 rest assured, all will come right. 



One serious error that the newcomer is apt to make in 

 moving out into the country, and which has been more than 

 once referred to in these pages, is the mistake of trying to do 

 too much. Of course one must ha\'e one's vegetable garden; 

 flowers, too, are equally necessary; it will be hard to get along 

 without a horse and trap; chickens are apparently the easiest 

 thing in the world to raise; and a cow is perhaps both useful 

 and necessary. It is at once apparent how the bill of ex- 

 pense will mount up. It will be difficult for a man, actively 

 engaged in business In the city, to attend to all these 

 matters himself — not forgetting the inevitable lawn-mowing 

 — and have any rest and comfort from his home life. The 

 expense of a man to do the outdoor work is considerable, and 

 one soon finds one is spending much money for comparatively 

 small return, small, that is, compared to the labor and money 

 expended. The wiser course will be to get settled, and fully 

 settled, before undertaking the unaccustomed tasks that 

 most country labor involves; and then, when you do under- 

 take to spread out, to go slow. Don't do too much the first 

 year, the second year, or even the third year. First get com- 

 pletely accustomed to your environm'ent, and then begin in a 

 small way. 



A GOOD deal of harm is done by the zealous over-advocat- 

 ing of the advantages of country life. Quite a number of 

 books, and some few periodicals, set forth, in the most allur- 

 ing way, the superlative merits of this form of living. They 

 will tell you how your home may be self-supporting from the 



crops of fruits and vegetables you will raise; how large an 

 income you may derive from your hens, how profitable it 

 will be to raise various animals. Much of what is offered to 

 an inquisitive world on these subjects is true, and is put forth 

 in perfect good faith; but it is well to remember that what 

 A or B had done, C and D could not possibly accomplish 

 under any circumstances. In other words, our modest writers 

 on these interesting topics naturally keep in the background 

 the personal equation, which is the one chief reason of their 

 success. This is quite as important an element in raising 

 things in the country as winning success in any phase of life, 

 and it is a point that is raised much too seldom. Interesting 

 and accurate as many of the directions for carrying on rural 

 activities are, it will be a distinct advantage to the beginning 

 in such matters to remember that the chances are he will 

 accomplish very much less than the author who has been in 

 the business long enough to write a book about it. 



The winter time and very early spring are not looked 

 upon with favor by the purveyors of country real estate as 

 the best season for their operations; yet the inquiring settler, 

 looking about for a suburban or rural residence, could do 

 worse than begin his discoveries at such times. The person 

 who is new to country life, and who proposes to adopt it per- 

 manently, will have the country all the year round. He must 

 stay there in all seasons, in the pleasant days of summer and 

 the cold, unpleasant days of winter. A country road in 

 winter time is not always calculated to arouse enthusiasm for 

 travel along it; yet it may be that it is precisely the road you 

 will have to travel, morning and evening, every day of the 

 year. It will be an illumination into the variety of country 

 life to see such thoroughfares at the worst; it may not be so 

 desirable for the real estate man. 



By the middle of spring the season of architectural ex- 

 hibitions will have come to an end. A few years ago the only 

 show of this kind in the United States was that given by the 

 Architectural League of New York; now nearly every con- 

 siderable city has its architectural exhibition, every city, that 

 is, which is large enough to support an art show of any kind. 

 These exhibitions have increased in interest from year to 

 year, and the care taken in their preparation and the number 

 of persons who view them may confidently be regarded as 

 evidences of a broadening public interest in architecture. 

 There are few subjects on which the public at large stand in 

 better need of information, and while the exhibitions of 

 architectural drawings are but silent forces, they undoubtedly 

 help in an important and useful work. The exhibitions of 

 the Architectural League of New York, whose twenty-second 

 annual show was held this winter, have come to be regarded 

 as the most important of the series. In a measure this is so, 

 since New York is the center of the greatest architectural 

 activity of the country; but the exhibitions in other cities 

 have, in the last few years, come forward into well earned 

 prominence, due partly to the exceeding care taken in the 

 selection of exhibits, partly to the taste shown in their ar- 

 rangement. New York can no longer boast the only archi- 

 tectural exhibition, and since there are other active archi- 

 tectural centers it is quite as well there should be exhibitions 

 elsewhere. While it is true these exhibitions have taken on a 

 more and more pictorial character, the great fact is that they 

 are held, and that laymen whose interest in buildings is of 

 a peculiarly personal and non-technical character, visit them. 

 To get people to look at architectural drawings is the first 

 step toward getting them to understand them. 



