You are here
قراءة كتاب The Van Dwellers: A Strenuous Quest for a Home
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
The Van Dwellers: A Strenuous Quest for a Home
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Van Dwellers, by Albert Bigelow Paine
Title: The Van Dwellers
A Strenuous Quest for a Home
Author: Albert Bigelow Paine
Release Date: February 17, 2009 [eBook #28101]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VAN DWELLERS***
E-text prepared by Annie McGuire
from digital material generously made available by
Internet Archive/American Libraries
(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
| Note: | Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/vandwellersstren00painiala |
THE VAN DWELLERS
ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE
"WELL, AND WHEN DID YEZ ORDER IT TURNED ON?"—Frontispiece.The VAN
DWELLERS
A STRENUOUS QUEST
FOR A HOME
ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE
Author of "THE BREAD LINE"
"We were strangers and they took us in"
NEW YORK
J. F. TAYLOR & COMPANY
1901
Copyright, 1901
BY
J. F. TAYLOR & COMPANY
TO THOSE
Who Have Lived In Flats
TO THOSE
Who Are Living In Flats
AND TO THOSE
Who Are Thinking of
Living In Flats
Contents.
| PAGE | ||
| I. | The First Home in the Metropolis. | 1 |
| II. | Metropolitan Beginnings. | 13 |
| III. | Learning by Experience. | 28 |
| IV. | Our First Move. | 45 |
| V. | A Boarding House for a Change. | 60 |
| VI. | Pursuing the Ideal. | 72 |
| VII. | Owed to the Moving Man. | 86 |
| VIII. | Household Retainers. | 88 |
| IX. | Ann | 104 |
| X. | A "Flat" Failure. | 114 |
| XI. | Inheritance and Mania. | 133 |
| XII. | Gilded Affluence. | 153 |
| XIII. | A Home at Last. | 177 |
| XIV. | Closing Remarks. | 183 |
I.
The First Home in the Metropolis.
We had never lived in New York. This fact will develop anyway, as I proceed, but somehow it seems fairer to everybody to state it in the first sentence and have it over with.
Still, we had heard of flats in a vague way, and as we drew near the Metropolis the Little Woman bought papers of the train boy and began to read advertisements under the head of "Flats and Apartments to Let."
I remember that we wondered then what was the difference. Now, having tried both, we are wiser. The difference ranges from three hundred dollars a year up. There are also minor details, such as palms in the vestibule, exposed plumbing, and uniformed hall service—perhaps an elevator, but these things are immaterial. The price is the difference.
We bought papers, as I have said. It was the beginning of our downfall, and the first step was easy—even alluring. We compared prices and descriptions and put down addresses. The descriptions were all that could be desired and the prices absurdly modest. We had heard that living in the city was expensive; now we put down the street and number of "four large light rooms and improvements, $18.00," and were properly indignant at