House and Garden 
at a rate not at all to be despised. He can 
ascend to his seat with the becoming ease of 
a gentleman ; and when he alights he is not 
received in the cold embrace of an elevated 
railroad pole. He may breathe fresh air if 
he chooses “ sur I’imperiale ,” or else join the 
ladies comfortably encased below. The bus 
stops and approaches wherever bid; and the 
display of the word “ complete" or its equiva¬ 
lent firmly prevents overcrowding. 
W HAT is more important, however, than 
any of these considerations,—and it 
concerns the city at large,—is the fact that an 
omnibus, automobile or any other vehicle 
moving independently of straight tracks offers 
the least obstruction to the general traffic. In 
being as free of action as its fellow vehicles, 
whatever rule or control applied to them ap¬ 
ply also to the bus, and the street confusion 
is rendered the simpler of solution as it be¬ 
comes more homogeneous. Rapid traffic 
moving upon inexorably straight lines in the 
midst of slower is a difficulty which railroads 
have met and overcome by the aid of many 
tracks. In city streets the spectacle becomes 
absurd. As they grow more dense, it will 
become impossible. 
By virtue of its independent movement, 
as well as its former preeminence in the rank 
of economy of operation,the bus has perpet¬ 
uated itself. And what the bus may do the 
automobile may do—and more. Great pro¬ 
gress has been made in perfecting electric 
lines whereon the moving power is generated 
at one place instead of several. Yet the pos¬ 
sibilities of small vehicles are by no means ex¬ 
hausted. A Londoner will tell you that those 
very busses carried his forefathers home as 
long ago as Elizabeth’s time. If not the 
same bus, the type has seen but little change. 
Now, however, the automobile opens a wide 
perspective in the way of speed, the comfort 
of passengers and the non-interruption of 
surface traffic, while the steadily decreasing 
cost of their manufacture and maintenance 
bids fair to make their operation in the man¬ 
ner above suggested a commercial success. 
I he plan for New York is to divide the city 
into three zones, in each of which the fare 
is to be three cents. Transportation is thus 
to be retailed. A smaller vehicle, accommo¬ 
dating fewer passengers, and a shorter ride 
for a smaller fare, is to be offered. But the 
comfort and pleasure of making short jour¬ 
neys in the city will not be proportionately 
reduced. 
Collections of house designs, selected for 
illustration by certain English architects from 
the work of their contemporaries, form 
an important part of present-day literature 
upon the planning and building of dwellings. 
“Modern Cottage Architecture,” 1 by 
Maurice B. Adams, is the latest book of this 
character, and contains that representative 
work of well-known architects of England as 
may be found between the humble laborer’s 
three-roomed cottage and the slightly more 
commodious entrance lodge. Within such 
confines architectural elaboration and pre¬ 
tense are equally impossible. Nevertheless 
the house-forms adapted to such ends as 
these,—that is, providing tenancies, housing 
estate labor and workers in manufacturing 
settlements,—bear a close relation to sim¬ 
ilar problems upon a more liberal scale; such, 
for example, as the middle-class dwelling 
and also the “week-end cottage,” whose 
popularity is rapidly increasing. The ex¬ 
amples Mr. Adams has selected preach se¬ 
verely the gospel of simplicity. Some, indeed, 
if judged by themselves alone, are scarcely 
removed from the commonplace. But it 
should be remembered that the designs are 
preeminently designs to be executed. And 
they have been executed. In doing so there 
has been, doubtless, an architect’s victory 
over a cold-blooded calculator of pounds 
and pence who is as loath in England as is his 
fellow in America to part with any sum for 
an architect’s commission. Hence the two 
countries are enough ladened with the jerry- 
built “tasty cottage” which becomes an 
eyesore as soon as the winds of a season 
have buckled the flimsy ornament and played 
upon the first and only coat of cheerful 
paint. In his prefatory “ Notes concerning 
Cottage Building ” Mr. Adams gives some 
very sound guidance for country-side build¬ 
ing, insisting upon simplicity, grace and re¬ 
pose of outline, good proportion of the mass, 
however small the building, agreeable colors 
1 “Modern Cottage Architecture,” by Maurice B. Adams,F. R. I. B. A. 
Fifty plates with plans in quarto. London, 1904, B. T. Batsford. 
New York, John Lane. Price $4.50, net. 
2 I I 
