of comfort and health. Here the latest improvements in plumbing will
be apt to be found, and there will be no danger of vermin. Then, too,
a concession is more apt to be made by the landlord, who is anxious to
secure tenants, by remission of a month's or a fortnight's rent, to be
taken out after the first month. The landlord of such a house is also
readier than the owner of an old one to make decorations, and even
alterations, to suit the taste of the tenant.

The walls in the kitchen should be painted rather than papered, and
other parts of the flat designed primarily for utility. Since light is
the great desideratum, the paint, as a rule, should be light in color,
though soft and tinted in tone for restfulness to the eye. Where
wallpaper is used, it should have the same characteristics. Fanciful
designs should be avoided. Indeed, plain paper forms the best base for
artistic color schemes in the decoration of rooms, the variety in which
is best obtained by the choice of furniture and pictures and other wall
ornaments.

When there is a prospect that living in apartments will be only a
temporary arrangement, the furniture should be chosen with a view to its
adaptability for a house. Thus folding-beds should be avoided, and other
articles that gain space by complexity, however ingenious. Simplicity is
the quality to be desired. Thus if the exigency of space requires that a
living room by day be converted into a sleeping room, a couch should be
bought for it, instead of a folding bed. It will then serve the purpose
of a sofa as well as a bed. If it is a box couch, further economy will
be gained by its use as a place to store the bedclothes. But the
simplest of all arrangements is a divan bed, formed of springs and
mattress alone, and supported on legs nailed to the corners of the
spring-frame. Over it a cover should be thrown during the day, and the