The House That Jill Built, after Jack's Had Proved a Failure

Author of Homes and How to Make Them. Home Interiors, Common Sense in Church Building, etc.




On a recent visit to the young woman whose experiences and observations are contained in this book, I was greatly pleased to find her zeal and interest in domestic architecture unabated. She sees that there have been changes and improvements in the art of house building, but declares that while some of her opinions and suggestions of ten years ago have been approved and accepted, it is still true that by far the greater number of those who plan and build houses are guided by transient fashion, thoughtless conservatism and a silly seeking for sensational results, rather than by truth, simplicity and common sense.
She has no doubt that her daughter, Bessie, will study and practice domestic architecture, and naturally expects the houses of the future to contain charms and comforts of which we have as yet only the faintest conception.
E.C. Gardner.
Springfield, Mass., November, 1895.

MR. E.C. Gardner, architect, has consented to write us a series of articles upon house-building, said one of his associates to the editor of Our Continent a few months since. What do you think of it?
We have no sort of use for such a thing, replied the editor. There are treatises enough professing to instruct people how to build houses. You can't make every man his own carpenter any more than you can make him his own lawyer. More's the pity.