at the forward end of the boat to last for an 
extended cruise, and there is no risk worthy of 
consideration. 
As indicated, there are distinct classes of 
houseboats; those that only float and must be 
moored; those that may be towed; those with 
sails; and those carrying naphtha, gasolene or 
steam engines. The towing houseboat has been 
called the flower of its kind. Two men in a 
rowboat can move the average houseboat with¬ 
out great strain, and poling works wonders; but 
the canny houseboat skipper relies upon wind 
and tide for much of his work. Your true 
houseboater is altogether willing to wait on tide 
and wind. He is going nowhere. He has for¬ 
gotten the meaning of the word “hurry.” All he 
asks is that the views from his deck chair or 
hammock may be beautiful, that as he looks 
from his dining room window he may see long 
vistas of shimmering water and woodland green¬ 
ery, or watch water and trees and sky drift by, 
slowly, gently, cloud-like, while he steals through 
a network of marshes, still lagoons, or shallow, 
winding creeks, rivers or canals. 
A large houseboat is far more comfortable 
than any large craft even approaching it in 
size. It is “house” first, and “boat” next. In 
other words, no room is taken up with propel¬ 
ling machinery, stores, keel, shaft, masts, or 
other things needed in a yacht. All the space 
goes to accommodation. You bathe in the river 
or bay, your “hall” is the deck, and you have the 
minimum of lumber of all kinds. 
Houseboats may be home-made at a compara¬ 
tively trifling cost, or the product of the pro¬ 
fessional yacht or shipbuilder, running into thou- 
lk sands of dollars. The pleasure to be derived is 
not to be measured by their expensiveness. 
Health and comfort, the maximum luxury at the 
A Houseboat Front Yard. 
minimum cost, these the houseboat places within 
the reach of every one. 
The average houseboat costs anywhere from 
one hundred to one thousand dollars. There is, 
of course, hardly any limit as to what may be 
spent in this direction, and houseboats worth 
from two thousand to five thousand dollars are 
by no means uncommon. In the latter the item 
of engine and machinery makes up a comfortable 
part of the cost. But whether the houseboat be 
worth one hundred or one thousand dollars, 
there is nothing to limit the pleasure and satis¬ 
faction of the owner. For all practical pur¬ 
poses a houseboat costing in the neighborhood 
of five hundred dollars has been found to answer 
every need. Another hundred spent for furni¬ 
ture has given the happy owner a home that no 
one need be ashamed of. When one thinks of 
how many people there are who pay this amount 
or more for the rental of a stuffy little cottage 
at a summer resort for a single season, the argu¬ 
ment is all in favor of owning one’s own home for 
the outing months. 
The houseboater has “troubles of his own,” 
but they are not the familiar and sordid problems 
of the seaside cottage. Anxiety about the neigh¬ 
borhood is diminished, because, to a certain ex¬ 
tent, your neighborhood can be changed at will. 
There can be no haunting anxiety about drains 
when the longest one measures two feet six and 
empties without a trap into running water. The 
twin questions of lawn sprinkling and grass cut¬ 
ting do not present themselves at all, and you 
may moor your boat to your front door knob 
and defy acknowledged thieves as well as nom¬ 
inal borrowers. A houseboat may be a recon¬ 
structed sailing craft or a shanty on a scow fur¬ 
nished in a style inexpensive or elaborate. 
SPEED TROPHY AWARDED TO THE KOBAN 
Competing against leading detachable rowboat 
motors, the Koban won the beautiful silver cup 
given by the Southern Yacht Club at New 
Orleans, Louisiana. The Southern Yacht Club 
is the second oldest in the United States. This 
silver cup is only one of the many speed tro¬ 
phies won by the Koban. 
A Houseboat is the Kiddies’ Paradise. 
