Life — June 24, 1897 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS (had if occurred of it. There’s plenty to do, and if it puzzles you how to get at it, console yourself with the knowledge that the problem what to do with a college- bred woman between the time she leaves college and her wedding day is mighty complex, and stumps the doctors and puts the most sagacious parents to their trumps. } ISS GOTHAM: Did you ad- mire the Scottish braces? Miss LakesipeE: Oh, I heard them before I went abroad. wet Are \ WHY PAY RENT? HOW TO BUILO A GOOD, SUBSTANTIAL HOME FOR ONLY $800,000. N these days of cramped incomes, and while we are yet waiting for the glad advent of prosperity, it is well to consider our means and live accordingly. Let us see what can be done with a small sum, economic- ally and carefully administered. First, secure a suitable tract of land. Good, rich soil can be purchased on Broad- way, New York, for $5,000 a front foot, and not more than one hundred feet will be neces- sary. Or if you are not a Hebrew and wish to live elsewhere, go to Brooklyn, where * you can buy an improved lot for $100, or without improvements for $259. Having secured your land, your lawyer now being in comfortable circumstances and your title company increasing its semi- annual dividends, the rest is easy. Engage an architect. He should, above all, be of good social standing, for through him you may make many desirable and influential friends. Not afew members of the Four Hundred owe their success to the judicious selection of an archi- tect who first introduced them into good society. If, while your house is going up, your architect should not call upon you, do not feel hurt. He is only waiting until it is tinished and you have your sideboard in. After that you will know him better, earlier). The next thing in order is a builder. Secure one, if possible, who cannot read or write, and tell him ia a general way how the house should be built, but do not show him the plans and specifications. It has a tendency to confuse him, and would do no good, anyway, Many an otherwise good house has been spoiled because the builder saw the specifications. Before the builder starts in to build, get his written estimate. Divide this by zero, add forty, double the result, multiply by itself, and you will arrive at a fraction of the grand total. An important partis the plumbing. Houses have oftentimes been ruined because the owner's fortune ran out before the plumbing was finished. Knowing that you have but ‘$800,000 over all, you will be governed accord- ingly. Take your plumber aside at once and explain as a starter how much you are worth, and offer to divide with him. You will have to do better than this, but a well-aimed bluff in the beginning may save you something. Do not make the mistake of asking for his estimate. You would only incur his enmity and it might hurt you socially. Plumbers are but men, after all, and have feelings. After your house is built do not live in it. Offer it to your friends at a mere nominal sum, and buy a Jot in a suburban cemetery. By this time you will need the rest and quiet of a permanent home in the country, where there are no mosquitoes, malaria or money.