One of the most notable achievements of the apartment house architects
is the duplex apartment, the little house within a house, with its
two-story high living room, its mezzanine gallery with service rooms
ranged below and sleeping rooms above, its fine height and spaciousness.
Most of the duplex apartments are still rather expensive, but some of
them are to be had at rents that are comparatively low--rents are always
comparative, you know.
Fortunately, although it is a far cry financially from the duplex
apartment to the tidy three-room flat of the model tenements, the
"modern improvements" are very much the same. The model tenement offers
compact domestic machinery, and cleanliness, and sanitary comforts at a
few dollars a week that are not to be had at any price in many of the
fine old houses of Europe. The peasant who has lived on the plane of the
animals with no thought of cleanliness, or indeed of anything but food
and drink and shelter, comes over here and enjoys improvements that our
stately ancestors of a few generations ago would have believed magical.
Enjoys them--they do say he puts his coal in the bath tub, but his
grandchildren will be different, perhaps!
But enough of apartments in general. This chapter is concerned with the
small apartment sought by you young people who are beginning
housekeeping.
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