ashionable and
unfashionable alike live in "flats." In America, people have not yet
learned this lesson, but cling to the old and barbarous custom of
living _perpendicularly_ in isolated towers, with all the cares and
worries that go with isolated management.

[Illustration: Figure 1.]

Nothing shows more clearly than this, how much man is a creature of
habit. In his savage state, the nature of his existence necessitated
the isolated hut. As civilization advanced, however, the necessity
for, and enormous advantages of cooeperation became evident, but habit
perpetuated the isolated dwelling long after the reasons for its
existence had disappeared, and it required centuries for civilized men
to learn that cooeperation is an element as essential to perfection in
the arrangement of their habitations as it is in other things.

_A given accommodation may be obtained in the form of a "flat" for
less than one-half the outlay required to obtain it in the form of an
independent dwelling built on the same land._

The form of comparison herein presented has never, to my knowledge,
been heretofore made, and the results are as surprising as they are
important and interesting.

The estimates of cost have been made by several competent contractors
on scale drawings and accurate specifications, are easily verified and
hence may be accepted as reliable.

Figure 1 is one of the plans of our apartment-house which is to be
built on the Back Bay, Boston.

Figure 2 shows the floor-plans of an independent house which might be
built on the same land. Both figures are drawn to the same scale for
convenience in comparing the dimensions. The independent-house (which
I shall, in contradistinction to the "flat," designate as the "tower"
to mark its prominent point of difference from the "flat" in form)
contains a kitchen, pantry, furnace-room, fuel-cellar, laundry,
dining-room, china-closet, parlor, eight bed-chambers provided with
suitable closets, two bath-rooms, a trunk-room, a front staircase
extending from the first floor to the attic, and a back staircase
extending from the basement to the third floor. What will these
accommodations cost in this form and what in the form of a "flat" in
an apartment-house?

The apartment-house contains a public kitchen, steam-heating,
ventilating and electric-lighting isolated plants, fuel-cellar,
laundry, cafe, billiard-room, gentlemen's smoking-room, ladies'
parlor, small public dining-rooms, and e