Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, November 21, 1909, Page 37

4 IMELY REAL ESTATE GOSSIP ‘ R. C. Peters Advocates More Atten- A tion to Beautifying City. « MORE PARKS AND BOULEVARDS Thinks it {s Better to Devise a Plan v to Buy More Land While it s the £ Jana not Cheap and May Be Eas- 1y Acquired. R. C. Peters of the Peters com- pany, who accompanied the estate 4 ers on their excursion to Kansas City, was asked by the real estate exchange to give his views on what he saw and how Omaha might be benefited by adopting some of the plans used there. He said “Kansas City has taken time well by the Trust real forelock and bought ground and iald out its low lands in boulevards and parks when the ground was of but little value, and as the city has grown it has been of great value to it and this has been con- ductive to Its growth. Where these parks and boulevards are lald out it enhances the value of not only the surrounding property, but of the entire city, as Is shown by the boulevards we have laid out here. It is conclusively shown by the large extent of the fine residence prop erty there which Is very much greater than ours, and I think it is largely owing to the extent of the boulevards which they have laid out. ‘It is also shown conclusively that mac- adam properly prepared is the proper pavement to use for residence sections It is more a natural form of pavement and more conductive to the beauty of a suburb. Brick and asphalt are pavements suitable for a business section, but they are nolsy and one does not seek a suburb because of Its nolse Buy While Land is Che: “The thing for Omaha to do, while the ground is yet cheap, is to buy up the low- lands which are natural courses of creeks and boulevard them. This would enhance vajue of the surrounding property only that, it would enhance the value of the entlre city “One thing I would criticlse Omaha for is the straight lines upon which it is lald out. Nature does not form her lnes of beauty in straight lines, but in curves. An artist would be a fallure were he to have stralght lines with no curves in his paint- Ing. Straight lines may be mathematical and precise, but they do not add to the beauty of a city In its residence section, nor to Its ultimate wealth, for it s the beauty of a location which attracts people and makes the wealth of a city. The beauty of a stream or a brook is In Its curves and sinuous lines, Our woods would not be nearly so beautiful if laid out in mathematical lines. We should follow nature in the planning of our residence sec- tlons and our boulevards and drives. There 1s too much commercialism in lay- ing out grounds with mathematical preci- sion and In too small tracts. It may bring @ few more dollars at the outset, but in the long run a section which is laid out for beauty will be the one that will bring| the greatest price. We should not nar- Tow our streets too much and we should not make the lots too small in order to &et 50 much more money for them. We have immense broad prairies here and are not restricted to our ground. We have plenty of room for all the city that we want to bufld. “With reference to parks and boulevards, we have not enough ground laid out for this purpose when we come to consider other clties. Take Swope park in Kansas City. I think it has about 1500 acres Keeney park in Hartford has 1,600 acres, and there 15 & park in Los Angeles that has 3,00 acres. Hartford is not so large as Omaha, but it has many more acres in varks and much better kept. However, we cannot criticlse our Park board, mor the lack of the extent of our parks too much, for I think we have done exceedingly well In Omaha with the appropriations granted. Hanscom park and some of our other parks show up admirably for the money spent, but 1t {s time now to induce larger appropriations, if possible, while the ground Is cheap and the city is growing, for larger parks and larger boulevards. This will make a more beautiful as well as larger city and a more desirable place in which to live. A good many of you probably have seen Belle Isle in Detroit and know what & beautiful park ft fs. It is a na- (‘rnl park. They hired a landscape gard- Mer to lay it out. He did not follow Na- ture’s ways, but stralght lines, and when the Park commissioners found out how ft was golng to despoll a great many of the magnificent trees they pald him off and |let him go and laid out the park to suit themselves, following nature's pattern, and You can see how much more beautiful it Is with the trees which they retained. Plant Hardy Trees. ‘Tt 19 quite necessary also to get parks “nd grounds at an early date so as to set out trees. It takes decades here to grow @ tree, and what is more beautiful in any j clty than trees? Wo should not plant so many soft maple, but more elms, oaks, sycimores and trees of'that class. They are not only more stable, but lend a beauty that Is not attained by soft maple and are not so easily broken. I would also advocate the flowers and shrubs and hardy freely than are planted here. We are not a city of flowers. One can readily see this when visiting any eastern city such as Hartford or Boston In Toledo where they have some of their finest residences it was at one time low ground and noth- Ing but & mud hole. They have a beauti- ful residence seetion which has been made largely by flowers and shrubs planted long the curb line, maintaining & uni form parking line, and It is as beautiful a section as one will ind today Omaha should be a elty ¢ beauty hav hills and valleys, and by uniform plan and adopting a method of parking streets and different small € planting of plants more We permanent per- demands it sidewaulks, distance Waste tracts with flowers, we can make It & beautiful place and attract people, nbt only tourists, but people who are/ looking for hom ( Uniform Streets the Best. I would have a uniform width of streets in the residence sections, varying haps in sections where traffic We should also have uniform vurbing and a uniform between the house and the street. Referring again to Toledo, some of the most beautiful vesidences have lots with & depth of 200 feet or more, the house being set back at least twenty-five to fifty feet. In a good residence section the iot should be 100 or| 20 feet. There should be a sirfor law regarding the distance a residence should be bullt from the street We can well seek more variety of style In the architecture of our homes. One can notice the difference In the architecture between the Kansas City houses and ours There 1s more variety there, and 1 also think we should have more brick, stone and cement. It looks more permanent and adds to the stability of a city, We also notice this largely in eastern ocities, in Pph cement enters largely into the con- «fruction of the houses. They have grow- ing vines to relieve the solidity, and trees and shrubs grouped about the place. One thing notably lacking with us s forming | THE we have no river driveway. When we drove along Cliff Drive in Kansas City we were all highly pleased with it. We can not have anything so nice here. as we do not have the lay of eountry that is so well adapted to it, but we could have had some- thing that would have attractive tc |our eity and might yet be able to have it A drive along the bluft line overlooking the river would be an attractive spot to the city | Asain, I would sugiest in the laying out | of subdivisions that more attention be paid to fitting them up thoroughly and attrac- tively before putting them on the market This requires a great deal of money, but where a subdivision is properly lald out in |the first place, with a view to beauty, it | been OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: NOVEMBER 21, 1909. NEWS OF THE BUSY HOME BUILDERS |eannot be defaced afterward. Tt 1s this | motley checkerboard-fashion which spolls | {our subdivisions. This can be readily seen In some of our subdivisions which could | have heen made beautiful, but have been | spofled by the different styles and cost of | architecture and grounds, every man suit ing his own taste agy to what should be | done in laying out his place | This 1dea of laying out to beauty may not seem commercial, but it 1s, for if you will lay out your city and your parks and | your boulevards, and your subdivisions |and your homes with a view to beanty and attractiveness, and not count how much the last foot will bring or how much | money you get in the place, vou will find {that in the end you will be the gainer, for the beauty of a ety and a subdivision and |& home will attract people, and If people | {are attracted to it this will be the means of selling property, and that Is what yon are all after. It is the attention given to Hnes of beauty that will eventually bring | wealth and make the larger city Norris and Martin have just closed a | deal with Jetus R. Conkling for a beau- | tiful tract of ground on the Florence | Boulevard and Miller park. This land |was sold to Jetus R. Conklin and Charles W. Conkiing by Samuel 8. Cur | tiss 1n 1885, and in 1892 they deeded a | strip through it to the eity of Omaha for | boulevard and park purposes, and today this ls one of the prettiest spots on the boulevard system. The ground has a frontage of 515 feet on Miller park and over 1,400 feet of frontage on the boule- | vard which, at this point, is from 120 to 160 feet wide and beautifully parked. | | They will plat this ground, put in bre cement walks, and all improveme Suitable restrictions will be put in each deed with a view of making a beautiful residence district. Work will be started on these improvements at once. GREAT BOON TO TRAVELERS Wireless Telephone and Train Stop- ping Devices Work Wonde: Wireless telephony applied to moving trains was demonstrated yesterday to be a success'on an Erie train running at thirty miles an hour between Newark and South Paterson, N. J. The operators talked without Interruption with operators elther end of the run, and officials of the Erie who participated in the demonstra- tlon were delighted with the results. The inventor, Fred Lecroix, sald his system when perfected will permit of conversation from a train running at cannonmball speed within a radius of 1,000 miles. His confident statement was relied upon implicitly by the officfals who witnessed the test yesterday. The wireless telephone was operated from the engine cab. The electric current is taken up from a small third rall at the side of the track. Per- fection of the system, 1t is sald will reduce almost to zero the possibilities of train accl- dents by attachments In the cab that show when a train is stalled ahead wnd indlcates how distant it is, Another device operates the air brake attachments tne fnstant the recorder shows there is a stalled or de- ralled train within two miles ahead. The road officials pronounce it a marvelous invention. Lecroix, the inventor, is little more than a youth. He is twenty-four years old and looks younger. He learned electrical en- gineering In Texas, and is sald to have & remarkable comprehension of the broad subject. While the test yesterday was con- fined to the engine cab the development of the invention means that a man in a Pullman sleeper may be aroused from slumber to answer a call and talk to his mother, wife, sweetheart or business friend 1,000 miles away. It is predicted the inven- tion will be as wonderful in its develop- ment as wireless telegraphy; and its ac- companiment, the device to prevent rail- road accldents, makes it the more remark- able, The third rall which carries the power for the Lecroix system of wireless tele- phony it not “deadly” as a person may walk upon it without receiving the slight- est shock. The test was watched by a few road officials and several news- paper men. They crowded into the engine cab, as many as could find standing room at one time. They found a recelver and transmitter much llke the ordinary tele- phone attachments on the side of the cab. Close by were the dials and attachments of the device for sounding the Warning of danger ahead. The members of the party first talked through the transmitter to a train dis- patcher at elther end of the line and re- celved messages in response. The train was running at twenty miles an hour, then the speed was increased five miles, and then to thirty miles. There was not the slightest interruption of the conversation even at the moment the speed was in- creased. To make the test severe the speed was increased quickly, so that the cab shook &nd the cars wabbled, but there was no Interruption of the talk. The wireless telephone having been tested to the satisfaction of the officlals, the train stopping device was demonstrated The train was run In close upon a passen- ger train and the moment the danger zone was reached, the engineer having his grip ‘Ion the lever, the air-brake attachment was {operated automatically and the train on MmN Mark Twain likes a joke upon himself almost as well as he does to play them on other people. One day after stepping off a car with a friend and three other men he commenced to freely comment upon the three fellow passengers, giving his opinfon of their character as Indicated by thelr appearance and actions. ‘Now there’ he said, goes a well groomed young fel- low. He is almost a block ahead of us already. He apparently is going some- where to accomplish something. That man will succeed, if he has not already done s0. That next man a little way behind him apparently has a good position, but is taking his time to get to it. He is a man who will make a fair living, but never be anything in this world but a wage-earner. This next man just ahead of us, with the baggy trousers and worn coat, a shuffling walk and & gait that carries him from one side of the side- walk to the other is apparently & man with no aim in life and will never amount to anything; to which remarks his friend replied. ‘Yes, Sam, that is true, a man shows what he s to a large extent the way he goes about his work, but by the way, did you happen to notice that we are the men behind.’ We are all apt to go through life criti- cising the other fellow, but not making the best of our own opportunities. A man be- hind the times will invariably criticise things in general, no doubt on the theory that nothing looks as well from behind People who let their contracts during the late spring and summer, are the men be- hing in the bullding line. They are losing money through not appreciating the value of an early start. They know that build- ing materials are cheaper during the win- ter, that lack of work creates close com- | petition among contrac that the mill man can get out his mill work more| promptly during January and February than at any other time of the year, even | though they hold it for late spring de- livery, but knowing these facts, he often lets the precious time slip by until the awaking of spring stirs him to action. Every contractor has his limitations. The best contractors through having good credit and buying In large quantities are |stopped within fifty feet, when running at twenty-five miles an hour. There was no | sudden jar; it came to a standstill grad- | |ually. —New York Press | | Sharply Repulsed, The plump waiter girl at the lunch | | counter, having nothing to do at the mo- ment, was trying to reash with her fin ger nails a place on her back well up | between the shoulders, but with her | |short and chubby arms she was unequal to the task. In vain she squirmed and struggled and twisted her face. She falled to_achleve the desired connection. The elderly man on the outside of the counter, who had been fighting a_piece of overdone steak, leaned forward an. spoke to her in a low tone, but with in |tense nestness. | "My dear, young woman,” he said, “par {don the "freedom of & man who has| | a8 old as you randchildren almost are. | But it vou wil come a litile closer 1 shaii take pleasure in seratching that spot for | |you as 1 see that you ean't uuite—— “Mind vour own business,” she snapped. | | “How seldom—=Oh. how seldom!"—is q | |good deed or a menerous impulse appre- | clated in this ungrateful world'—Chicago Tribune Chocolate Eating Nations. renchman visited this country recently expressed amazement at the great who amount of chocolate consumed by us. He |had thought the Parisians, of all people | on the face of the earth, excelled in the eating of chocolat. sweets, but here he found the custom o' costing things with chocolate so prevalent that he said the ple of his city had something in the | ine to le from r'rhup. that while lghtly and for its o us. He did not know, | take our chocolats n sake guite as much a8 French people do, we also approve of it in our diet for the nutritious gualitics it possesses.—The Epieure, able to figure lower than the poorer class of contractors when they want to. They can only handle so many jobs properly however, lack of time and lack of capital being their limitations. When they reach this point they place their estimates so| high that they seldom get a contract untll part of the work on hand is completed, when they figure low again in order to keep busy at thelr full capacity. This creates a situation in the early spring and during the following summer very similar to a land lottery. The man who is lucky enough to draw No. 1 gets his choice of the best contractors. It means that he will get honest work at @& reasonable price, that thero will be no labor liens o his house when It is complete and that he will have the pleasure man who intends to d is right If he delays g taking out a build- iIng permit that numbers several thousands of dealing with a just what 100 lon from the first of the year he will find th best contractors all busy and taking no further orders except at very high prices, which means that he must either delay the building of his home or pay high |prices for it, or take whichever unem- ployed contractor he can get, regardiess of his standing, financially or otherwise. If & man knows he is going to be in a positipn to bulld during the coming ye be should go over all matters preliminary to the preparation of his plans at once. The planning of & home is a serious mat- ter and every consideration shouid be glven (o detalls before the plans are com. ploted. This takes time, or rather should take Ume, for, as & matter of fact, very by | CARTHUR €€ LAUSENS RN o TReTe SIS TN T ORSI B AL N0 muhe Getting Best Results in Home Building Arthur O. Clausen, Architect. [ THE BEE’S PLAN | | Through an arrangement thur C. Clausen, architeot || ers of The Omaha Bee can copy of his beautiful book, ¢THE ART, for One Dollan ters and 200 lllustrations, pi heavy enameled paper, stamped in gold. It deals |l ing complete information of home. There fs practical than making the and to lnsure sanitary and warmth. The author of || aims to give || bulider advice on subjects buying the lot, planning t letting the contract, materials, ete. || doors, windows, are taken up in detail with good common sense. questions that could are answered and the 1 about to plan a home. I fusely illustrated. Send all | Arthur C. Clausen, || Exchange, Minneapolis. the amount of time he ought study things out in detall hatr immediately a solution of t work and considerable study, of talent and experlence artist who paints with materials. It takes| |time to paint a picture, many artists spending months of study on a subject | before painting it. A mechanical inventor will seldom create a proper machine at the first attempt, although his knowledge of the working model makes him better fitted to create the perfect machine, but to do so often requires years of study. Beautiful homes embody both the inven tion of an original design and the artistic element of color, which should be care- tully studied Many people procrastinate on the home building problem in the hopes that they nay be able to shirk the responsibility of puilding one and obtain one already built which exactly suits in every respect. Some- times very good bargains can be obtained when usually with practical side of homebullding, the intending choosing Problems about front tairways, places, exteriors, interior finish, etc and Many have the mistaken idea that after an ar-|presses his regret that he could not obtain chitect has received a few preliminary in-| more data on a subject which he finds far structions he runs his hand through his|from dry obtains an inspiration and jots down | BOOK with Ar- the read- obtain a SCIENCE AND SEN- TIMENT OF HOMEBUILD- This book contains forty-six chap- rinted on cover with the giv- on the planning and designing of every kind nothing more home ar- tstic, bullding it on scientific lines conditions the book home- such as he home, the tire- treated early all be anticipated book should prove a great help to those who are t s pro- orders to 1136-37-38 Lumber few people are willing (o give an architect | to have to people he problem with the ald circumstances require a man to sell his hom at a sacrifice, but these Instances are very rar for most homes if bullt a few years back are sold fo more than they cost to build. If houses have been bulit to sell, they usually show it. A man who builds homes to sell, re cently remarked to his contractor in the any way to skin the job and give me this to a contractol after the work has been covered up with & little paint and nish, may glve a greater profit to the | ma bullding to sell, but would prove a mighty poor investment to the man buying. There are three essential requirements that econfront every homebullder. The home must cost & certain amount of money, must be adapted to his needs and be bullt In & desirable locality. The latter requirement is especially important if \eSECOND FLeoms !lhl're are children in the family, since | their associates will have much to do with the moulding of their characters. When all of these requirements can be found in & home already built by a man who built | his home to live in himself, but is forced |to sell, either through some unfortunate | circumstance or & desire for a larger home, | the opportunity should certainly be taken |advantage of, for the building of & new home 1s a serious responsibility and not |an easy matter. The right combinations |are very seldom met with and for a man |to wait an indefinite length of time for |such an opportunity is not advisable, for |it may never come just as he would want it. To recelve figures in the spring or summer the man behind will pay about 6 or § per cent more as & penalty for hav- |ing delayed letting his contract until June |or July, than the man with foresight enough to take advantage of the prices and close competition which prevails dur- ing the early part of the year |KEEPS TALLY ON SON’S TIPPLE | Mothers with Telepathic Gifts Riv an Automatic Reg. ister. Wives and mothers with telepathic gifts |may be able now to keep tally on the convivial glass of husbands and sons if the |plan reported by the Rev. Dr. Newell Dwight Hillls, pastor of Plymouth church of Brooklyn in the current number of the Journal for Psychical Research, comes into general use, His communication was directed orlg- inally to the Rev. Dr. Isaac K. Funk, and Prof. James H. Hyslop, in printing it, ex- Dr. Hillis begins his communication with the observation that a prominent woman Every house is a different problem, very | member of his church had e grown son few being just alike; and to work out the|who had a cultivated thirst. best solution of each problem means hard | frequently admonished on the subject. He had been The | young man went to several cities, and re- An architect is|turned after meeting with merry compan- both an Inventor and an artist, an original design being an invention, and he is an|south lons, his mother meanwhile being in the She returned in April, and sum- moned her son to her boudoir and bade {him to sit down beside her. Now, then,” said she, as quoted in the letter of Dr. Hillis, “I want vou to tell me all about what has happened in ¥ Don’t decelve me. I saw you In the hotel, I saw you surrounded by men, and I saw | you when you took the first drink.” The young man told his mother what had happened, thinking that some one pres- ent had written to her. After that chapter had been thoroughly discussed she said she wanted him to tell her what happened in such and such a city. He discovered that she knew all about this episode Dr. Hillls adds that another occas- ion the son had been slightly injured in a railrond accident, and that she had, al- though miles away, visualized the inci- dent, Prof of the ments at unable to | sons cone It is an e Hyslop whote count long distance, for on further details liquid re but Dr. Hillis was urnish them, as the chief per- rned did not care to give them. deplored,” writes Prof. Hyslop in itorial note, “that the person men- tioned in this Incident would not consent to ecording experience. It have recelved such not had an of it b has been deemed wise of the kind of difficuity search has to meet who elaim to accurate this might not as it now obtains But 1t account 1 made » give an example that psychic in cenuection be re- with per sons intelligent and t leave the reporting of the (ruih those with whom they decline to associate’— New York Herald —— Quick Action for Your Money—You get that by using The Bee advertising columns. 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