all families do their washing, and often their ironing also, at home. Of
the sanitary arrangements, it is almost impossible to speak too strongly;
they are almost invariably objectionable and disgusting.

There are very few establishments large enough to indulge in the luxury
of a servants'-hall, and sculleries and pantries are much smaller than in
England. Even the ordinary entrance-hall of an English house has to
shrink into a mere enlargement of the passage. All over the house, in
fact, the accommodation is on a much more limited scale, unless it be
with regard to stables, which, owing to the low price of horses, are more
numerous, if less luxuriously appointed.

If the upper and middle classes suffer from want of room in their houses,
and are wont to huddle much more than people in the same position would
at home, the working-man is not much better off, although his four or
five-roomed cottage at twelve shillings to fifteen shillings a week is
more easily within his means than the five shillings a week that he paid
in England. I do not of course mean that the working-man here knows
anything of model cottages, such as are seen on large estates in England.
I should even say that during the first year or two after his arrival
there is little improvement in his habitation; but before long he
acquires a small freehold, and with the aid of a building society becomes
his own landlord. Directly he has reached this stage, an improvement is
visible in his condition. It is difficult to over-estimate the social
value of the work that has been done by building societies. In the
suburbs of the large towns you see whole townships built entirely by
these societies; every inhabitant of these townships in the course of a
few years becomes a proprietor, and the society further aids him by
making loans to him on mortgage of his property. It is the defect of
these townships that the houses are all as like one another as peas in a