dapted to the
age we live in will be accepted by the next generation as good form.

CHAPTER III.

LEGACIES FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY NOT ADAPTED TO CHANGED
CONDITIONS CAUSE PHYSICAL DETERIORATION AND DOMESTIC FRICTION.

"A large part of the evils of which we complain socially to-day
are due to the kind of houses we live in and the exactions they
make upon us."--H.G. WELLS.

Four classes of houses have come down to us:

(1) The family homestead in the country set low on the ground with damp
walls and dark cellar, one of a cluster of rambling buildings; with a
well, the only water supply, in close proximity to various sources of
pollution. These houses are for the most part now abandoned to the
foreigner, who uses them for the primitive purposes of shelter without the
ennobling intellectual life they once harbored. Now and then a grandson
rescues the old place, brings water from a spring or brook, digs a drain,
lets light into the cellar, and builds on a kitchen and dining-room.

The expense is often greater than to build anew, but the effect is usually
very good when the changes are made under sanitary supervision.

(2) The village or suburban house set in its own grounds, too near the
street usually, but with garden and fruit-trees in the rear, and possibly
a stable for horse and cow. This was the compromise made by the generation
just from the free life of the farm-house, who, consciously or
unconsciously, clung to the green of grass and trees, and the blue of the
sky. So long as habit or love of caring for the things lasted all went
well. The father found his recreation in planting the garden before
breakfast, as in his boyhood. The mother cared for flower and
vegetable-garden, as she recalled her mother's life; she picked her own
beans and corn, even if she did not cook the dinner.

But the _children_ had to hurry off to school, and it was a pity to call
them early: they had lessons to learn in the afternoon. To them the garden
was work, not play as it should have been; so they failed to gain that
contact with mother earth which gives inspiration as well as health; they
failed to acquire a love of nature, became infected with the germ of
gregariousness, preferred the glare of lights, the rush of hurrying
crowds, and lost the relish for fresh air and quiet. This second
generation came to the city boarding-house and flat as soon as they were
free, leaving their parents' houses to go the same