Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 13

JjRAUB. 24 PAGES PART TWO PAGES 13 TO 24. TOM TWENTY-EIGHTH YEAR. DECATUR, ILLINOIS, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1908. NUMBER 84 THE landlord has troubles of his own which, by comparison make the woes of the tenant, dwindle into nothing.

There is no disputing that because the landlord himself says that I it is true. He knows. "Apparently every man who has ever been a landlord," said a veteran in the game, "thinks there's nothing to it more than collecting the rent the of-the month and that the tenant is always there anxiously waiting for the first of the month to arrive so that he can testify his appreciation by handing out the dough. Say, if I had my money out of the residence properties I'd never get any more in that line. Make something? Of course I make something.

"What am I here for? Bo- you think its all a joke and that I'm here, for amusement? Scarcely. Evidently you think that its all peaches and cream, this business of having houses for rent. That proves you don't know anything about It. The thing that makes me hot is not the whining of the tenant, but the assumption on the part of the man that doesn't know, that the life of the landlord is one rosy dream of pleasure. "When he comes in and tells me what a snap I've got its my turn to say a piece.

Frailties of Tenants. "What is the great drawback to the business of a landlord? Do you know a few of the frall- ties of human nature? Well all of them stick out and develop abnormally when a man becomes a tenant. I've known fellows who sold their residence property and rented a place to see if it was not cheaper. They don't make tha best possible tenants. They want everything on earth that they would not have had in their own home when they had the bills to pay.

rwro-r- They go look at the house when its empty and suggest that certain repairs will put it in first class condition. Even though they imagine, the necessity for things that cannot add to their comfort or their happiness, I go on the theory that I am getting a good tenant in a man who will be careful of the property because he has been a property owner and has an appreciation of what is necessary. I do all that I agree to do before the lease is signed. He gets into the house and immediately begins to find fault. If there was ever-anythlng needed in a tumble down shanty SCORNS TO SHOOT AT STANDING GAME, DOES I THIS FOURTEEN YEAR OLD DECATUR DIANA DNTERS in Illinois' are niostly- i he'll manage some how to find the same thing -needed in a house better than any he ever owned himself.

He's a nuisance. What Children Will Do to a Tenement connned to the male sex. There are.fof -course, a' Xew'o'f the fair-' ones that hunt game, but the number can easily be counted on one's finirers Delia Ii. Proudfoot, the U-vear-old I I daughter of Albert Proudfoot. 154 I North Lowber street, is one of the few women to take out a hunter's license.

Incidentally she is the youngest hunt ress in the state today. Last week Miss Proudfoot triDDed I lightly into the county clerk's office and applied for a license to hunt. The papers were made out and her record was handed to her. She received it de murely and remarked that she could hunt-now to her heart's -content. JBISIlilililB Rivaling Diana as a marksman, the "Children? Well, A.TjRroblem.

Got any kids at your house? Then you know something about it, of you should. Personally I'm fond of children. -You know the size of my They break things in my house as children always Window panes "are made for their amusement. The paper on the wall Is there solely for the purpose of being torn off; there's no place so convenient for the boy to make pictures as on a hard wood finish with an old jack knife used as a pencil. I gave the kid the knife because there was so little of It I knew he couldn't cut his fingers, but I never dreamed of the combination that he finally made.

My little girl climbed on a chair and stuffed paper into the stationary wash stand in the bath room and choked the waste pipe. That made a plumber's bill of course. I paid for all of the window glass the bunch broke out and I expected to do so for It was my house, and above all my kids' did the mischief. "When my boy-poked a stick through the reg-. isters and knocked down the heat pipes in the basement he did not realize what it would, cost me to have a man come and put them In place, again, neither did he know.

that just at that time-: with the repair bills, the winter's supply of coal and for various other, reasons I was- a little short of but I did not squeal to him. -Expect Landlord to Pay the Bills. "Now all of the things that ray kids do in my 'house and I knowthat they did them all of those I would have simply patched that side of the room and believe that would have been sufficient but I couldn't match the paper. The result was that I papered the walls all the way round and the never knew It, for I'll bet he could not tell what sort of paper was on any of the walls. I have never said anything to him about it.

I'll tell you what he did do. He made a roar when. I asked him to have the furnace fixed. When we moved in he said it had just been overhauled and was in perfect condition. When fall came and we started a fire, the thing smoked until It drove us out of the house.

He said that it was because we didn't fire It right. He doesn't know it, but he'll pay. that bill. I've paid the furnace man and have a receipt for it. When I leave that house I'll hand him that receipt as a part of my rent.

I had to get a man to put in a large part of the day fixing the pipes. I didn't ask him what was the trouble, but paid the $3. Landlord His Own Carpenter and Locksmith. 'Some of the things offered to renters are amusing. I know one landlord who has a box of old door knobs, old fashioned locks, screws, nails, etc.

When he wants builders' hardware he sorts it out of that box. What a motley assortment he has in the way of door locks, and the keys were probably fashioned during the early days of the stone age. At his home he has a pile of old-lumber and when there is a call for carpenter work on any of his houses, he's there with some of that old lumber and a rusty meat saw that is positively a joke. I have never lived in one of his houses and hope I may spare my family that affliction, but I've seen him monkey around his houses, and the funny thing about it is that he's always talking about how well he keeps up his properties. "Honest, to a man who has an appreciation of the ridiculous and some knowledge of what a workmanlike job should be, the work of thi3 -landlord is simply side splitting, and he's a pretty good fellow for all of that, although I don't want to live in any of his houses." Had to Pay for the Paper.

"My experience has taught me," said a tenant, "that it all depends on the nature of the man. That is, a man who becomes a landlord does not undergo a transformation to get. to that position, nor after he gets So if you have the good luck to get a landlord who. lives by -the' golden you're fixed, otherwise your, experience will be just what you might expect from such a' nature as that developed by your landlord in his every life, outside of his house renting business. I've been up againsi some peaches In my time and believe that I've had every experience that -ever came to a tenant dealing with p-i other species.

I lived in one house until I had by my contributions on the first of each month, paid almost $2,100. In all that time there had been nothing spent for repairs or improvements for the house was new when we moved in. My wife was away from- home for a visit of several weeks and I planned a surprise for her. I wanted to have some papering done but the landlord refused to stand for it. I figured that the entire cost would be In the neighborhood of $50.

A month's rent would pay little more than half that sum. I detailed my plan and told him that if he would allow me a month's rent I would agree to spend at least that much more without -cost to him. He declined and stayed declined, on that proposition. What did I do? That's part I handn't- expected to tell. My heart was set on a surprise for my wife.and- I was fool enough I expect to blow $50 repairing part of that house.

Yes, still live in the same house. Got to do that you know, to get value received' for what I spent -in addition to my rent." Agent Sees Both Good and Bad. "This world, is. far from perfect, that is the people here are not all just right," said an agent. times my sympathies are with the landlord and sometimes with the tenant.

Its' up to the individual. I known landlords that were simply the limit in expecting to make money out their property. According to my notion of the business they "were, pursurhg the wrong track. Wouldn't spend a cent. Let everything 1 go" to ruin while they milked -the property for every "cent that it would stand.

The result al--ways is that 'the properties get worse and worse and finally no one will have, them, and instead of a few dollars that the original repairs mfght have cost, the income of several months is gone for ever. "On the other hand I've seen so much -of this -thing of working the system that Its cheaper to move than to pay rent, that sometimes I don't -blame the landlords for anything that they do. I've had some years experience and in all that time I never knew one dollar back rent to be paid. Perhaps "the man will never- wilfully beat the landlord." and that sort of thing got him behind and he was forced from, the house. Perhaps he never got behind at any other place but he never caught up to the extent that he could or would pay the back rent.

Hard to Collect Back Rent. "One a landlord tol6 me he wanted me" to handle his property and in addition to paying the usual commissions for that, work agreed to give medouble commission for all of the back rent that I. collected. He was surprised when I refused to. take: property.

I told him that if he wanted to begin with a clean slate I would- agree to see that there was no more back rent, but I wouldn't try to collect.a centnhat had. accumulated before I came into the game. He laughed at me first, but in the end he cameback and told me to do the best that I could with' the property. I took jvith the understanding that there jwas no back rent and he has never lost a cent since J- have had the property. -j "That's' the real unpleasant thing about the real estate business," said" a "broker.

"You are ex- pected to -have a list 'of properties for rent "as well as for sale. The landlord does not want to come in contact with the tenants and-, the latter are after you all. the time for repairs and improve- jnents that you know the landlord1 will not make, Whose" to blame? Ask aneasy one. an opinion? Say if I was to tell half of my opinion either about the landlords or tenants, Td be compelled to move out of town or defend myself with arms. Landlords and tenants" in Decatur are the flower of the That's my public I fair huntress spends much of her leisure time in the woods, sometimes mak ing trips into the country that last sev eral hours.

She rarely returns without her game bag well suplied with rabbit I and whatever other game there hap pens to be in season. Miss Proudfoot is good looking, has a robust constitution and above all possesses the main requisite for true marksmanship a sharp eye. She is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 132 pounds: Father Tnucht Marknmanxhlp. The story of her life is interestingly told by her. She was born in the village of Kinmundy and is one of eight children.

Later the family moved to Maroa. Instead of walking two miles to school as she should have done, the girl went hunting, some times walking five and eight miles In preference to going to school. am going to tell you how I learn ed to shoot," said Miss Proudfoot to the reporter. "I had often heard of shooting so I saved my earnings in order to buy a rifle. One, day a neighbor of ours bought a new gun and he sold his old to watched my father shoot and it did not take me long to learn.

The most game I killed at one time was 7 rabbits and 5 quail. I That was a good three hour's hunting." Miss Proudfoot is in the sixth grade I of the street school. She is a bright pupil and takes much interest in her school work. Almost every Sat- mmm i urday she can be seen walking toward the country with her gun upon her Tilings are uone oy tue uiiiiuicu ul wc tciKwivo. If they would make the repairs and pay the bills it would be different, but they don't.

If. they don't move out "and say nothing about the damage let you. find it out when they have gone, they make excuses, declare hat the window glass was cracked when they came, that it was" about to fall out of its own and so on all through piece. That's the reason that I can't afford to have children in my houses. Any man who is responsible, and will give me assurance that he will leave the property in a condition as good as he found it, can take a dozen kids into any one -of my houses, but he's got to' let me be judge- of the extent, of the damage and I have never found one that would do that.

"Why, if the conditions were what some persons imagine if a house once ready for a ten- ant would remain forever in first class condition, then the rent returns we receive in Decatur would be something worth having. The first year is not a fair basis on which to figure. Walt three or rather five years, until you have papered and repapered the house, painted It, made repairs paid taxes, insurance, special assessments and, Heaven only knows what, and then tell me that the net income Is -ample compensation for all of the trouble you have bad as well as an Investment return. 'Tve lived in several, houses in Decatur and have owned property which I occupied with my family," said a renter, "and I'm willing to admit that some of the landlords are a tough proposition, viewed from the standpoint of the tenant. My experience as a property owner inclines- me to the belief that they get better returns on their investment than comes to the man who will deal only in real estate mortgages.

I know the- alffertfnee in the security and all that sort of thing, but-1 Relieve that rents are too high. don't' I go into the business of orenting residence properties? -I don't like the business, or fancy that. I not like It. Now that aoesn't. undo my argument'.

that Its profitable. I might ask you why you do not go into the saloon-business and. -your reply that you do" not fancy the business would; "not -dispute a previous statement that it was profitable. "Have my children' damaged property? Tou -bet they have and I -paid the bills. My kids tore nearly all "of the paper from-one side, of a room one day before we knew there was a loose bit fop their little fingers to get hold of.

They saw it long bere toy wife or I knew that' it was there. I shoulder and her game-bag hanging empty: The return is always made happy by the knowledge that she has had a good day's sport. A look at the heavy game bag proves this. Unlike other hunters Miss Proudfoot will not shoot at game unless it Is running over the ground' or" flyin through, the air. She recognizes that it is no honor to kill game standing still.

the earnings she lias saved from the sale of rabbits and other game the young huntress has made several payments on an organ she I purchased some time ago. Her father is employed in the shops of the Illinois Traction system northeast of the city. She Sleep "Weeks at a Time Lowell Dispatch to the New York World. After succumbing repeatedly to slum ber that lasts from one to three werks, Louisana Piette is wrapped in another sleep. She has not been awake since last.

Friday Ker last long -sleep was from June 5 to June Physicians are at a loss to account for -her slumbers. Piette seems to feel no ill effects from her long periods of unconsciousness. It is her usual iia- Ipression that she has been, asleep only MJSS DELIA PROUDFOOT Ion if.