Life — October 19, 1893 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

- LIFE: le there's Life there’s Hope.” VOL. XXII. OCTOBER 19, 1893. No. 564. 28 West Twenty-Tuirp Street, New York, countrien is ue Boul Uni, $in¢ a fear extras Slagle copies, vo sents Rizected contributions will be destroyed unless accompanied by a stamped and directed envelope. TRAVELING newspaper paragraph, which may or may not be true, alleges that a house that Dr. Seward Webb is building in the Adirondacks is to cost a million and a half, and is to be “the biggest and finest private residence in the country.” If Dr. Webb's house is to be bigger and finer than that, for example, of his brother-in-law at Asheville, it will in verity be large and fine, and give its projector a lot of amusement in the making of it. That seems to be the chief end of great houses in these days—to amuse their constructors while they are a-building. After that—well, if Dr. Webb is really going to have the finest house in the land, he has shown exceptional discretion in choosing its site. It seems not to take a very protracted experience with million dollar houses to make a man long for solitude and communion with nature and a hut where there is nothing to pay and where he can get his own meals, When Dr. Webb reaches that stage, and wants to take to the woods, he will have only to get his gun and step out of the back door and there he is. The Adirondack forests will be before him, and though he owns a large slice of them, one or two days’ tramping will avail to carry him into a region where he can enjoy the blessed repose of the boarder, who is responsible neither for the roof over his head nor the grass under his feet, and cannot be assessed for the cost of maintaining the one or cutting down the other. * . . I" is interesting to observe tent Pim how many diligent young men who have had the advan- tage of a college training are find- ing employment this year as in- structors in foot-ball. Heffelfinger, the well-remembered champion of Yale, is filling a fall engagement with the Stan- ford University in California; Laurie Bliss been busy with the West Point Cadets ; other famous specialists are at work in Chicago, and it is a poor col- lege indeed that has not recognized the necessity of putting its foot-ball on a scientific basis, and made shift this year to hire the indispensable instruction. But, alas, at this writing there is no sign of an effectual coach for the body that needs it the most. Senator Voorhees has not, at this writing, suc- ceeded in getting his Repeal Bill past the rush-line of the silver kings. There never was a case in which the benefits of a modern college education were more conspicuous for their vociferous absence. The anxious seats are crowded with spectators, and any Senator, or group of Senators, who can pick up that Repeal Bill and make a goal will get such a roar of grateful applause as will repay the effort. * * * NE of the’ blessings that we may possibly derive from the fiscal inconveniences from which we are suffering, is a modification of our scale of living. For the last fifteen years we have gone on building bigger and finer houses, and spending more and more money in their maintenance and on our pleasures. All sorts of novel luxuries have become neces- sary to us, until now, when a squeeze has come, there is a general wail over the in- adequacy of reduced incomes to meet our fixed expenses. 4 We learn no more of the scarcity of house-servants. For the first time in years the supply exceeds the demand. Horses of good char- acter and respectable antecedents are eagerly offered at such prices that impoverished owners are wondering if there is any real objection to turning horse-flesh into beef. Families that find themselves too poor to stay at home are planning to go abroad, and doubtless we shall presently see American families, now abroad, returning home to avail themselves of low rents in the United States. It is a state of matters that LiFe is not especially disposed to glory in, but its immediate effect will be to simplify our habits, and that will be good for us in the end, even though the process ¢s uncomfortable. . * ITH two races to her credit, as we write, it seems as though Vigédant had taught the foreign lady who “rules the seas" that she doesn’t know it all. One admirable quality of the Britisher, almost as admirable as his true sportsmanship, is the fact that he has to be licked several times before it penetrates his comprehension that he really is licked. This time, though, after so many previous defeats, he should have learned that a centre-board is better than an unadorned keel. comicbooks.com