The Rent Strike Scheme Next Door
A clever tenant proposes a noise-based sabotage plan to force a landlord into a lower rent agreement.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The blonde neighbor never had called before, so the brunette was somewhat surprised to see her. 'We’ve been neighbors for some time,' remarked the blonde, after the first formal greetings had been exchanged. 'Almost a year,' returned the brunette. 'Long enough,' continued the blonde, 'so that either of us might reasonably call upon the other to do a little favor.' 'Either of us might,' admitted the brunette, guardedly. 'And we really ought to be friends,' persisted the blonde. 'We can be of great assistance to each other.' 'It’s quite possible,' the brunette conceded, still guardedly, 'Is there something you wish to borrow?' 'Oh, dear, no,' answered the blonde. 'I thought, perhaps, you were just out of coffee, or wanted a little of my best china and silver to help out at a little dinner, or something of that sort.' 'Not at all,' said the blonde. 'I was thinking of your children. You have several, I believe.' 'Four,' was the reply. 'And they cry some and occasionally play leapfrog and other noisy games.' The brunette became haughty at once. No woman cares to have a stranger cast reflections on her children. 'Oh, that’s all right,' the blonde hastened to explain. 'So do mine. All children are noisy, and the only thing to do is to take advantage of their noisiness. Now tomorrow morning about 10 o'clock a tall man with a black beard will call at my flat, and if you’d watch for him and set the children crying or playing leapfrog or making a great racket of some kind—' 'Madam!' 'Don’t you understand yet?' persisted the blonde, ignoring the indignant interruption. 'The man with the black beard is the new landlord and he is coming to see me about renewing the lease. Now, if you and your children can only make yourselves out to be seriously objectionable neighbors, don’t you see what a chance it gives me to force a reduction of the rent? And later, when your lease expires, I’ll do as much for you. What? You won’t do it? Well, I don’t blame the men for saying that most women have no head for business.'
“Don’t you see what a chance it gives me to force a reduction of the rent?”
This 1903 sketch highlights the perennial struggle of tenants against landlords, using a humorous, fictionalized narrative that reflects the real anxieties of early 20th-century urban apartment living in Walla Walla. It captures the 'business' of survival in a rental market where tenants were often forced to get creative to manage costs.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.