through the kitchen, while the only entrance to our
kitchen would be almost certainly over either a coal-box, an ironing
board, or the rusty little stove, any method of which would require a
certain skill, as well as care in the matter of one's clothes.

But these objections seemed unreasonable, no doubt, for the janitor, who
was of Yorkshire extraction, became taciturn and remarked briefly that
the halls were warmed and that nobody before had ever required more heat
than they got from these and the range, while as for the sun, he
couldn't change that if he wanted to, leaving us to infer that if he
only wanted to he could remodel almost everything else about the
premises in short order.

We went away in the belief that he was a base pretender, "clad in a
little brief authority." We had not awakened as yet to the fulness of
janitorial tyranny and power.

We went farther uptown. We reasoned that rentals would be more
reasonable and apartments less contracted up there.

Ah, me! As I close my eyes now and recall, as in a kaleidoscope, the
perfect wilderness of flats we have passed through since then, it seems
strange that some dim foreboding of it all did not steal in to rob our
hearts of the careless joys of anticipation.

But I digress. We took the elevated and looked out the windows as we
sped along. The whirling streets, with their endless procession of front
steps, bewildered us.

By and by we were in a vast district, where all the houses were
five-storied, flat-roofed, and seemed built mainly to hold windows. This
was Flatland--the very heart of it--that boundless territory to the
northward of Central Park, where nightly the millions sleep.

Here and there were large signs on side walls and on boards along the
roof, with which we were now on a level as the train whirled us along.
These quoted the number of rooms, and prices, and some of them were
almost irresistible. "6 All Light Rooms, $22.00," caught us at length,
and we got off to investigate.

They were better than those downtown. There was a possibility of heat
and you did not get to the parlor by climbing over the kitchen
furniture. Still, the apartment as a whole lacked much that we had set
our hearts on, while it contained some things that we were willing to do
without.

It contained, also, certain novelties. Among these were the stationary
washtubs in the kitchen; the dumb-waiter, and a speaking-tube connection
with the basement.

The janitor at