Marrying for shelter is and should be no longer necessary; and as for the
fear that this habit of bachelor quarters will be hard to break up and
tend to delay marriage, it will all depend upon whether it comes from the
merely animal layer of the brain or from the intellectual.
This housing of the individual instead of the family has introduced an
entirely new problem into house-building.
Formerly when a widow or widower, a maiden aunt, a homeless uncle or
cousin made his home with relatives, it was "as one of the family"; only
the minister was recognized as having need for a separate sitting-room.
The trials of this forced companionship have been told in many a witty
story; and pathetic instances that never came to print are matters of
common knowledge.
Will any one dare question the fact that the sum of human happiness has
been increased by the freedom given to these prisoned souls by the small
independent apartment?
I have been reminded that here is no provision for the different
generations to live together under the same roof; that the nineteenth
century held it to be of great social value to have the children grow up
with the elders.
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