“Yes, a little more hope for them, certainly,” responded the lady somewhat dubiously, with a sigh that contrasted strangely with her bright, hopeful face; “but I must say frankly, that the more I see of the poor, the more hopeless I sometimes feel and the less able to make generalizations and give advice. I used to think it a comparatively simple thing, requiring merely money and hard work. Ten years ago I could have given you advice very glibly, but I don’t feel so sure about anything now; there are so many sides to everything, and so many exceptions to every rule. “Of course, good tenement houses are a great thing, provided you can have a janitor and a housekeeper to keep them in order. But the best model tenement house in the world would be completely ruined if entirely given over to the class of tenants I know about. They will just as likely as not throw their ashes and garbage down the waste-pipes, and pile all their bedding out on the fire-escapes, blocking them up so as to make them almost useless in case of a fire. It requires the patience of Job to deal with such people. They don’t care for your new improvements, and they don’t propose to be restrained by any regulations or rules. “As for the model tenement houses that we have, doubtless they are excellent. But they don’t as a general thing reach the lowest class of people, and in any event they are a mere drop in the bucket. There’s just one consolation about it all, as I say to myself when I go about,—these people have never been used to anything better, and they don’t know how miserable they are.” “That is just what I think is the worst of it,” said Mrs. Rollins, as the speaker paused. “The fact that they don’t know anything better, don’t expect anything better, don’t want anything better, is the frightful thing about it. As to whether things are getting better or not I can’t say, but I know this, the tenement house has come to stay; it cannot be eliminated from the modern problem of living. Thousands of our well-to-do people are living in flats and suites simply to avoid the burden and expense of having to entertain so much company, and these buildings, like the Spanish flats or the Dacotah, are really only another kind of tenement house. As I say, the tenement house has come to stay. Separate houses for separate families are going to be fewer and fewer in our large cities, where land is becoming more and more valuable. The thing that remains for us to do is to build with more skill and wisdom, so that while the separate house must more and more give way, the home need not be sacrificed.”