444 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



December, 1907 



Monthly Comment 



HE very newest things in hotels — the mod- 

 ern American hotel, if you please, which 

 leads in so many things — relates to its 

 exterior. For years the American public 

 has been trained to look for the utmost 

 development in comfort and luxury in the 

 mammoth caravansaries which are alike 

 the wonder of the people who frequent them and the source 

 of colossal fortunes to their proprietors. But this develop- 

 ment, this comfort and luxury has, until now, been chiefly 

 confined to the hotel interior. Now, however, a new kind of 

 outside utilization has been found with charming possibilities 

 of future growth. And it relates to the roof; not a new kind 

 of roof, nor a strange new shape; not a new roofing material, 

 but nothing more nor less than an Adirondack camp in the 

 very heart of a great city, and perched upon the apex of the 

 roof of a great modern hotel ! There is progress for you, and 

 thrift and novelty! Surely nothing more remains than auto- 

 balloons — if that be the correct name for these new-fangled 

 things that swim through the air — to enable one to sleep 

 nearer the clouds than convention and appliances have hith- 

 erto permitted. Yet the most remarkable thing in connection 

 with this new idea remains to be told, for this marvelous roof- 

 camp has been established and put in operation in no less a 

 place than the good city of Philadelphia ! And there are 

 some people who think the Pennsylvania metropolis is slow ! 



life good and true and ennobling? Just look around you and 

 think what would happen if any six boys you know were to 

 be camped out in a house of their own to take care of and to 

 grow up m ! It is certainly sad to think of a father who 

 can't keep his own boys in his own house. 



The charges for professional services are a constant 

 source of annoyance and misunderstanding on the part of the 

 persons called upon to pay such bills. The person rendering 

 the bill never has the smallest doubt as to its righteousness, 

 and if he is permeated by any qualms it is because the very 

 largest amount he summons up sufficient courage to put down 

 is, after all — in his opinion — much too small for the work 

 done or the value of the services rendered. Architects, for 

 many years, have sought to adjust any differences that might 

 arise from their charges by the adoption of a uniform per- 

 centage scale. It is a system that has many drawbacks. If 

 the building is very large, the cost running up into the 

 millions, the architect receives a fee that he himself re- 

 gards as excessive; else why a running reducing scale when 

 the cost is enormous? On the other hand, if the cost of the 

 building is small, the actual amount to be received by the 

 architect is so very insignificant that he has no financial in- 

 ducement to do the best he can. And every one, of course, 

 knows how very stimulating a substantial financial emolu- 

 ment is to excellence of service. 



The creation of the thing Is so easy It Is a wonder no one 

 ever thought of It before. All that is needed Is a few trees 

 and some tents. The trees are stood around In tubs and 

 boxes In such a way that, if they do not actually suggest a 

 forest, it is at least thoroughly apparent they are trees. Then 

 as much of the remaining space as possible is filled with tents 

 — real tents— the simplest kind of furniture Is Installed, and 

 nothing more remains to be done than to secure the neces- 

 sary sleepers and collect their bills the next morning. It is 

 simply too easy for anything. But what are the hotel men 

 going to do with their expensive heating plants once they 

 have accustomed their patrons to the new outdoor quarters? 



New ideas frequently find a space in the public press to 

 which they are not entitled by their actual merit. It Is a 

 singular feature of modern journalism that anything the 

 least out of the way is given space, while nothing Is ever 

 heard of the quiet orderly affairs with which most people are 

 concerned. This condition is doubtless due — the suggestion 

 Is made with some diffidence — to the young and tender age 

 of the modern reporter. This very youthful person — who, as 

 likely as not, is wearied of life before he has really begun it 

 — seemingly thinks that anything that smacks of novelty must 

 have real merit if for no other reason than that he himself 

 has not heard of it. It is difficult to account on other 

 grounds for the notoriety given to the New Jersey father 

 who thinks he has discovered a new way to bring up his 

 family. Perhaps he has. 



Like the Adirondack camp on the hotel roof the thing is 

 simplicity Itself once you know how to do It. For this gen- 

 tleman has done nothing less than build a bungalow adjacent 

 to his house and turned his family of half a dozen boys out 

 Into it to live their life! Beautiful, isn't it, and so amply 

 buttressed with common sense, with parental love, with 

 fatherly guidance and care, with taste and good behavior, 

 with all the things that go, or ought to go, to make home 



Extra charges for work other than the mere planning, 

 designing and superintendence come, therefore, to the rescue 

 of the architect. Being honorable men they never overcharge, 

 thus being easily in a wholly different class from the butcher 

 and grocer, who are never disturbed by any little mistake 

 they may make In that direction. Moreover, the architect is 

 buttressed, fenced In and supported by a printed schedule of 

 charges, approved, decreed and commanded by the loftiest 

 organization of his noble profession, specifying and requir- 

 ing just such charges as he has put Into his little bill. All 

 these matters, moreover, are established by custom, which in 

 such cases has quite the force of law. There is really noth- 

 ing to do but to pay the architect what he asks, and that 

 which he shows Is established by the laws and customs of his 

 profession, business or art, according as he or his client may 

 view his occupation. 



The ingenious architect may sometimes work in an extra 

 charge that no one has previously thought of. The person 

 who does so Is a real benefit to his profession and Is entitled 

 to a monument as high as that which adorns Bunker Hill. 

 Some such structure must surely be erected to the genius who, 

 among other charges, put in a substantial sum for a quartette 

 of musicians ! It Is easier to imagine than to put down in 

 print the various sounds, expressions and exclamations that 

 must have been emitted from the client's mouth when this 

 delectable item struck his eye. And it is quite as easy to 

 imagine the cyclonic wrath with which an explanation was 

 demanded. But the Ingenious mind that had thought up 

 this charge was equal to the emergency and was ready with 

 the reply. It could not have been otherwise, seeing he was 

 an architect and concerned with the creation of ingenious 

 devices and arrangements. He put on his most polished 

 manner — a covering easily worth ten per cent, extra — and 

 blandly pointed out to his outraged employer that he had 

 Indeed hired a quartette of musicians in connection with the 

 new house, and that it was to test its acoustic properties! 



