, to him, repellently ornate. Money was
wasted on useless turrets, filigree work, or machine-made
ornamentation. Bok found out that these small householders never
employed an architect, but that the houses were put up by builders from
their own plans.

Bok turned to _The Ladies' Home Journal_ as his medium for making the
small-house architecture of America better. He realized the limitation
of space, but decided to do the best he could under the circumstances.
He believed he might serve thousands of his readers if he could make it
possible for them to secure, at moderate cost, plans for well-designed
houses by the leading domestic architects in the country. He consulted
a number of architects, only to find them unalterably opposed to the
idea. They disliked the publicity of magazine presentation; prices
differed too much in various parts of the country; and they did not
care to risk the criticism of their contemporaries. It was
"cheapening" their profession!

Bok saw that he should have to blaze the way and demonstrate the
futility of these arguments. At last he persuaded one architect to
co-operate with him, and in 1895 began the publication of a series of
houses which could be built, approximately, for from one thousand five
hundred dollars to five thousand dollars. The idea attracted attention
at once, and the architect-author was swamped with letters and
inquiries regarding his plans.

This proved Bok's instinct to be correct as to the public willingness
to accept such designs; upon this proof he succeeded in winning over
two additional architects to make plans. He offered his readers full
building specifications and plans to scale of the houses with estimates
from four builders in different parts of the United States for five
dollars a set. The plans and specifications were so complete in every
detail that any builder could build the house from them.

A storm of criticism now arose from architects and builders all over
the country, the architects claiming that Bok was taking "the bread out
of their mouths" by the sale of plans, and local builders vigorously
questioned the accuracy of the estimates. But Bok knew he was right
and persevered.

Slowly but surely he won the approval of the leading architects, who
saw that he was appealing to a class of house-builders who could not
afford to pay an architect's fee, and that, with his wide circulation,
he might become an influence for better architecture