ses, so few really
tasteful ones, while year after year it costs more and more to provide
the comfortable and convenient home which every man wants and needs
for himself and family, that I am sure you will be grateful for any
help I may be able to give you.
We are told that all men, women, and children ought to be healthy,
handsome, and happy. I have strong convictions that every man should
also have a home, healthful, happy, and beautiful; that it is a right,
a duty, and therefore a possibility. Small and humble it may be, cheap
as to cost, but secure, refined, full of conveniences, and the dearest
spot on earth, a home of his own.
In the hope of making the way to this joyful consummation easier and
plainer for you, I propose to give you a variety of hints,
information, and illustrations relating to your undertaking, and will
try to make my practical suggestions so well worth your attention that
you shall not overlook what I may say upon general principles. There
is a right and a wrong way of doing almost everything. I am yours, for
the right way.
LETTER II.
From John.
A GRATEFUL CLIENT.
MY DEAR ARCHITECT: How did you know my ship was coming in? Queer,
isn't it, that when a man does get a few stamps, his friends all find
it out, and can tell him just what he ought to do with them. But
you're right. I've lived in an air-castle long enough. It's altogether
too airy for cold weather, and a house of my own I'm bound to have.
Your information and advice will be exactly in order; for it is a
fact, that, until a man has built at least one house for himself, he
is as ignorant as the babe unborn, not only of how to do it, but,
what is ten times worse, ignorant of what he wants to do. So go ahead
by all means; make a missionary of yourself for my benefit. Don't get
on your high heels too soon, and undertake to tell me what won't be of
the slightest use unless I have a fortune to expend.
[Illustration: MR. AND MRS. JOHN.]
Give me something commonplace and practical, something that I can
apply to a "villa" of two rooms if my ship happens to be empty. I
suppose it's all true that an ugly-looking house is a sign of want of
wit rather than want of money, but there are lots of people who
haven't either, precious few that have both. At all events, the man
who has only one thousand dollars to spend is just as anxious to spend
it to the best advantage as he who has five thousand or fifty.
Mrs. John is deligh
|