A-B-C of housekeeping
Date: 2025-03-08T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Home economics

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Title: A-B-C of housekeeping

Author: Christine Terhune Herrick

Release date: March 8, 2025 [eBook #75560]

Language: English

Original publication: London: Harper & Brothers, 1915

Credits: Alan, Peter Becker and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A-B-C OF HOUSEKEEPING ***

A-B-C
OF
HOUSEKEEPING

BY
CHRISTINE TERHUNE HERRICK

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK & LONDON

HARPER’S A-B-C SERIES

A-B-C OF HOUSEKEEPING.
By Christine Terhune Herrick

A-B-C OF ELECTRICITY.
By William H. Meadowcroft

A-B-C OF GARDENING. By Eben E. Rexford

A-B-C OF GOOD FORM. By Anne Seymour

16mo, Cloth

HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY HARPER & BROTHERS

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PUBLISHED MAY, 1915

CONTENTS

CHAP. | | PAGE
I. | Choosing a Home | 1
II. | Furnishing the Home | 13
III. | The Table | 26
IV. | Concerning Household Accounts | 38
V. | The House in Order | 50
VI. | Hygiene and Plumbing | 63
VII. | The Home Without a Servant | 75
VIII. | In the Laundry | 88
IX. | When Company Comes | 99
X. | The Child in the House | 111

A-B-C OF HOUSEKEEPING

I

CHOOSING A HOME

THE choice of a home is usually decided by the pocket-book. Other considerations carry weight, but matters of convenience, preference, and location are lighter in the scale than the sum one can afford to pay for a shelter. What proportion this will bear to the rest of the income must be settled by each one for himself after an estimate of the other expenses which must be met.

When a whole house is taken and the cost of heating and the charge of the outer premises, as well as the entire care of the place, have to be assumed by the tenant, one-fifth or one-sixth of the income is all he should give for rent. The price of coal, the wage to be paid the person who is to clean snow from the sidewalk in winter and dirt from it the rest of the year, look after the furnace and ashes, put out garbage; the consideration of the services of the one who must sweep front steps, halls, and stairs; the small repairs every house demands from time to time, will all have to be added to the sum devoted to rent. While the tenant and his wife may perform part or all of these duties, it is only reasonable that they should understand how much they are saving in actual cash, and comprehend that what they economize in this respect is the equivalent of what they would pay to the landlord were they to occupy an apartment in a flat building.

This state of affairs justifies the man who lives in an apartment in allowing a larger proportion of his income for his rooftree. The details to which I have referred just now are included in the price paid for a flat, to say nothing of the reduction of work when all the living is on one floor, when stairs do not exist for the housekeeper, and her responsibilities end at her own front door.

The selection of a location is determined by the make-up of the family and the man’s place and time of business. These considerations must be taken into account before the house-hunting is begun. Distance from the center of the town usually means a reduced rent, better air, and more attractive surroundings. To counterbalance these are the long journey back and forth, night and morning, the cost of transportation, inability to come home for the midday meal. As a rule these drawbacks do not equal the advantages to be gained by a home remote from the business district.

In order to accomplish the strenuous task of finding a home with the least outlay of labor and worry—for in any case there will be enough of both these commodities—as much planning as possible should be done in advance. The number of rooms necessary should be settled, as well as the sum which can be paid for rent. The sections of the city which are suitable should be studied and, if feasible, traversed, so as to get a general idea of them. Sometimes even a cursory inspection of a neighborhood decides the would-be tenant against it.

Then, when lists of houses or apartments have been culled from advertisements and secured from real-estate agents the actual work of house-hunting is begun. One resolution to be laid down at first and adhered to positively is not to go over a house or an apartment if the first glance shows it to be undesirable. When six rooms are the limit for a flat there is no more sense in inspecting a ten-room apartment than there is in scanning a house at twelve hundred a year if seven hundred and fifty is the extreme price that can be paid for rent. Such examination not only consumes time and strength, but it also provokes dissatisfaction with smaller and cheaper quarters which may be seen afterward.

A few essentials must be fixed in the mind, to which any house or flat should conform. It must be light—not a dim twilight illumination, but, if possible, sunshine, either direct or reflected—in the living and sleeping rooms. The kitchen must not be a dark corner, not only because such work-places affect the health of those who occupy them, but also because of the additional charge there will be for gas or electricity burned by day as well as by night.

The matter of heat must next be considered. When a house is taken the rent is usually higher if there is a first-class heating arrangement included. Old-fashioned appliances mean lower rent, but they also require increased work on the part of the tenant or servant and are often unsatisfactory in the amount of warmth they supply. A good furnace or steam-heating plant may add to the actual sum of the rent, but it is generally cheaper in the long run. The quantity of coal burned by such a plant should be ascertained before concluding to take the house.

All these questions are eliminated for the man who engages a steam-heated apartment, but he may change the place and keep the pain. The comfort of the entire winter depends upon a sufficient amount of heat, and radiators should be examined and a number of direct inquiries put so as to make sure that adequate warmth may be secured in bitter weather. The time when the heat is turned on and off should also be learned, since it is quite possible to shiver and suffer in September and May as well as at Christmas-time.

Plumbing is always to be investigated closely, whether in a house or an apartment. No amount of gilding and marble fittings can compensate for cheap plumbing and a poor supply of hot water. The dweller in a house is dependent upon his own kitchen fire for hot water, as a general thing, but in nearly all apartment-houses the hot water is declared to be supplied from the cellar. Even in high-priced flats hot water is not always ready, and queries as to this are to be voiced before the lease is signed. More than that, care must be taken to make sure that the plumbing is in perfect repair and is not likely to give way at inconvenient seasons.

All these details are essential and there are others little less important. The quantity of closet room, the pantries, the facilities for washing and drying clothes, the quiet of the house as assured or banished by the character of the neighbors and other tenants, the cleanliness of paint and paper, must all be looked after.

No matter what inducements in the way of lowered rent are offered, it is always a mistake to go into a house which is not absolutely clean. This does not mean only that it should be swept and scoured before taking possession of it, but that paint and paper should be refreshed. The latter is not to be done by pasting fresh paper on over that which already covers the walls, as is the custom of many decorators—a custom connived at by landlords because of the saving of expense it implies. The incoming tenant must insist that the walls shall be scraped clean before the new paper is hung and that fresh paint shall be used wherever it is needed. It is hard enough to keep a house spotless in the best of circumstances, and when one enters a dwelling and establishes himself in the midst of the dirt of the departed tenants the task is the most discouraging that can be undertaken.

Moreover, vermin must be banished. This is an easy thing to say, but hardly a housekeeper of middle age can be found in the length and breadth of the country who has not had a struggle with the pest in some form or other. In one home it may have been cockroaches or water-bugs; in another it may have been black or red ants; in many it has been that worst and most dreaded of plagues, bedbugs. Sporadic cases of any of these may be conquered without much difficulty, but when once the enemy is intrenched in the home it seems almost as if the only way to get rid of them finally is by burning the house down!

On all considerations, therefore, the house-hunter must make sure that vermin are not established in the new dwelling. If there is even a possibility of their presence she must insist upon radical measures being taken before she will contemplate entering the house. When the pests have been there and have been driven out it is still wise to take reasonable precautions against their return. No picture-moldings should be tolerated in the bedrooms, since these make a lurking-place for insects. The walls of sleeping-rooms should be painted rather than papered, and dark cupboards, drawers, etc., should be scoured out, disinfected, and painted.

I have dwelt upon the need of such care in the bedrooms, but it is no less essential in the kitchen and pantries. While bedbugs occasionally get a foothold even here, the usual plague is the roach or Croton-bug. He is said to be inoffensive and he does not possess the deadly odor of the Cimex lectularius, but apart from the damage he undoubtedly does in nibbling table-linen and the like, he is an exceedingly unpleasant housemate. He frequents uncovered garbage-pails, bread and cake boxes which have been left open, wire safes with imperfectly closing doors, and the provision compartments of refrigerators; and it does not tend to improve the appetite to have him pop out of the cereal carton or run from under the cold roast.

So every precaution should be taken against such creatures as well as against mice and rats before renting the house. Mice-holes should be choked up with broken glass and dusted with red pepper; boiling water should, when possible, be poured down the runways of insects; borax scattered about their haunts. After that, strict care in the way of keeping food put away closely, pains to see that no crumbs or drippings are allowed on the floor or the shelves, and rigorous cleanliness of every vessel which has been employed in cooking are the best agencies against the return of the adversaries.

Other points should be looked to about the kitchen. The stove is the chief consideration after light, cleanliness, and pantry space.

Locality has much to do in determining by what means cooking shall be done. In the country, where gas is not and wood or coal is burned, a good range, suitable for either, must be depended upon. Of such ranges there are many, and there are divers items to be regarded in each make. The size and fashion of the fuel-box is one. The average kitchen stove will burn a ton of coal in from five to seven weeks, the time contingent not only upon the care of the cook, but upon the size of the range. One should be selected with a maximum of heat for a minimum of fuel consumption. The range with an upper oven is easier for the cook, who by its means is spared constant stooping and bending, but some ranges with the upper oven are said to burn more fuel.

No range or stove should be considered which does not provide adequate means for heating water. When there is running hot water in the house a boiler is usually arranged at the side of the stove, but in the country, where the water must be drawn by a pump or from the well and put into the reservoir by the pailful, a large enough receptacle must be furnished to make it possible to have the supply for the day all poured in at once. In this way the man of the house may attend to this heavy duty in the morning or at night, so that no woman may have to strain her back by filling and lifting pails of water during the day.

The coal or wood stove in the country may be supplemented by an oil or gasolene stove. Of these there is a good variety, each possessing its own special merits, but they are not to be considered in renting a house, since they are purchased by the tenant, not supplied by the landlord.

In every large city, and in many small towns, cookery by gas has superseded coal and wood almost entirely. The cleanliness and convenience of gas in cooking, while inferior to those of electricity, are yet so far ahead of the other means to which we have been accustomed that the amount of time and trouble the gas saves is incalculable. The stove is generally owned by the local company, who install it and keep it in order, but in some places effort is made by the landlord to charge the tenant for the use of the stove. Common usage will have to determine the tenant’s course in the matter, but as a rule the stove is included in the rent and it is worth while for the man renting the house to make an attempt to secure this concession.

There is a difference in gas-stoves and an up-to-date kind should be selected, fitted with an upper oven as well as a lower one, and possessing such features as a low flame for simmering, a plate-warmer, the latest make of broiler, etc. The inexperienced housekeeper is frequently imposed upon and the old-fashioned stove is foisted off upon her. This should be guarded against when the house is rented.

The inside of the house has received principal attention in this consideration of the rented home. The outer surroundings usually compel a measure of thought and are obvious enough to force themselves upon even the uncritical observer. Yet there are a few points worth emphasizing.

The character of the neighborhood in a country or a small town generally proclaims itself and the details that must be noticed have to do with sanitary conditions, the presence or absence of such nuisances as unsavory factories or businesses, the vicinity of noisy occupations, the over-close proximity to public schools with the accompanying racket at certain hours of the day, etc. In the city the drawbacks may be less self-assertive but no less objectionable. Before renting a house in a street it is always wise to learn something of the people who occupy the adjoining dwellings, to make sure that there are no unpleasing features connected with the section and so insure oneself against future annoyances.

II

FURNISHING THE HOME

THE first details to be regarded in furnishing a house have to do with the woodwork and walls.

Sometimes the landlord has settled these and the tenant has no choice. This is especially likely to be the case with the woodwork. If it is a cheap and unattractive variety of “hardwood,” so called, or is painted in imitation of hardwood, it is difficult to induce the owner to change this. When he will consent to paint to please the tenant selection should be made either of white or of a soft, neutral tint which will not conflict with any color of furniture. The painting which simulates the graining of a natural wood is distinctly bad and should never be tolerated except when it cannot be changed.

The kitchen should be painted throughout, walls as well as woodwork, and in some good light color, such as buff; this will give the room a bright, cheery look, and the steam which accumulates on the walls of a kitchen can be scrubbed off the paint as it cannot be from a kalsomined or papered wall.

In choosing papers, the tenant should bear in mind that they will have to be lived with for a long time, and should pick out such as can stand familiar association without becoming objectionable. Striking patterns and assertive hues should be avoided. When two or three rooms open into one another it is well to have them papered alike and thus avoid the patchy effect produced by several small rooms all with different wall-coverings. In this day cheap papers which are also pretty and artistic can easily be found and it is worth while to bestow a good deal of time and thought upon their choice.

If possible, all painting and papering should be done and the workmen out of the house before the tenant moves in. This plan permits the rooms to be cleaned and saves double toil to the housekeeper.

The furniture of the house does not always lie within the tenant’s power of selection. Few are the homes which are freshly furnished throughout by a young couple. Almost invariably there are “left-overs” and “hand-downs” which are presented to the newly married pair, and they are fortunate indeed if such relics are desirable and not discarded pieces which no one else wants.

When even a portion of the furniture is to be bought, it should not be purchased at random. “Sets” of any sort are best avoided. For the parlor of a modest establishment, wicker and willow articles are far better than the conspicuous styles which attain a sudden popularity and then become old-fashioned and out of date. Comfort should be considered in every item chosen and nothing taken merely because it looks well or is reasonable in price. While sets are deprecated, a room need not look like a harlequin collection. A certain uniformity of style and coloring is to be studied, that the apartment may produce a harmonious effect. Odd pieces, such as a deep arm-chair, a fancy tea-table, an attractive set of book-shelves, are entirely suitable and will not strike an incongruous note in the general surroundings.

Bare floors are more used now than carpets, and rugs may make islands of safety here and there on the smooth surface. When fine antique rugs have not been given and cannot be bought, the best choice is from among the many good varieties of inoffensive native rugs. Or a rug may be made of a quiet-toned carpet, the breadths sewed together to form a square of the size desired, and surrounded with a border to match. Good druggets or art-squares may be found for the dining-room, matting or bare floors and rugs will serve for the bedrooms, and hall and stairs are to be covered with the runners which come for these purposes or with a neat stair carpet in quiet colors and pattern.

The dining-room furniture demands a good deal of deliberation. It is a mistake to buy it in too great a hurry and so to be laden down with something one does not really want. The table and sideboard are usually purchased for a lifetime, and it is better to put up with makeshifts for a while on the chance of finding something really good and satisfactory than to buy in a hurry and repent at leisure.

The wood of the dining-room furniture is not so much a matter of choice in many cases as of necessity. One must buy what one can. Every one cannot have mahogany or Circassian walnut, and it is a comfort that so many of the less costly woods are made up into excellent designs. It is much better to buy a good article of a low-priced material than a cheap variety of the more expensive woods. Oak, ash, cherry, birch, gumwood and other native growths may be found in pieces of excellent lines which will satisfy even an artistic eye. When there is money enough to get all that is wanted for the dining-room, a serving-table and a china-closet of some kind may be added to the sideboard, dining-table, and chairs that rank as essentials.

The requirements of the kitchen will receive more detailed consideration later on. Among the must-haves are the range, to which reference has already been made; a good kitchen table, supplied either with a zinc top or with a shelf to draw out and use as a bread-board; a refrigerator; a wire meat-safe; liberal pantry room, shelf room, and, if possible, a kitchen cabinet.

When the bedrooms are to be furnished the same simplicity must be followed which is recommended for the other apartments. The less furniture the bedroom contains the better, from a sanitary point of view. The Biblical inventory of a bed and a table, a stool and a candlestick, had much to commend it. The bedstead should be of iron or iron and brass; the dresser, table, etc., of white enamel or some light-colored wood. The heavy pieces our grandparents took for granted are fortunately out of vogue in a modest household. A box-couch may be included in the furnishing of the room, or what is known as a utility-box for holding shirtwaists and the like, and it is to be hoped there is either abundant closet room or an extra wardrobe or clothes-press.

Such are the large and important furnishings of the house. These may be reduced or increased, simplified or elaborated, in accordance with the preference and powers of the owners of the dwelling.

Other articles, hardly less essential, have to be considered. Take the question of draperies, for instance.

Within the past few years the fashion has grown of having two and sometimes three pairs of curtains for each window—inner hangings of lace or some similar fabric, outer draperies of rich and heavy goods, and frequently these will be supplemented by sash-curtains close against the pane, to say nothing of one or two shades to the window.

This may answer for the woman who is at a loss what to do with her money and can devise no better use to make of it than a multiplication of her possessions, but the custom is not one the young housekeeper need feel it incumbent upon her to follow. One shade of a neutral tint at each window of her living-rooms, a pair of curtains of some material which can be readily washed, are all that she requires. For the principal rooms a good Madras, a pretty scrim, a pleasing though inexpensive lace (all fabrics which will look well after careful washing) will meet every necessity and present an attractive appearance.

In the chambers two shades may be demanded by those who wish to have a dark room for sleeping, but short white curtains of wash-goods, or sash-curtains, are sufficient here, and something of the same sort, but possibly a little better in quality, can be procured for the dining-room. As a rule plain, straight curtains, without ruffles, are not only more easily laundered, but look better after they are done up than those pranked out with frills.

When ornaments are to be considered one generally makes the best of what one has. The newly settled couple may be thankful if they have not been burdened with pictures and bric-à-brac which not only do not please their personal taste, but refuse to harmonize with one another or with anything else. In some cases one can only make the best of conditions, and after endeavoring to arrange the unwelcome gifts to the best advantage and scattering them over the house so as to dispel the curse to as many different quarters as possible, resign oneself to endurance until such time as the presents can be removed, one at a time.

Those fortunate persons who can buy their own luxuries will recall the Oriental proverb: “If thou hast but two loaves of bread, sell one and buy jacinths for the soul!” What form the jacinths may take will be determined by individual preference. One will find more joy and uplift in really fine pictures than in anything else; another will concentrate upon books and magazines; another will turn from both of these and toward music. It makes little difference which way the window is opened into the Infinite. The vital point is that such an outlet must be provided if soul and spirit are to be nourished and grow as well as body and physical strength.

However much the importance of such plenishing as this may impress either the man or the woman, the latter would be profoundly lacking if she did not display a keen interest in other essentials of her new home. The pictures, the books, the other arts, may rejoice and help her, but she would be wanting in femininity if she failed to select her table and bed linen with almost as much thought as she would expend upon her “jacinths.”

Even with unlimited means, it is not wise to buy more linen than can be used in a small household. Plenty there should be, but not a large stock which will lie aside and yellow from lack of service. Three or four dinner-cloths, each with its accompaniment of a dozen napkins, will be ample for her average needs, especially if she uses a centerpiece and doilies on the bare table for breakfast and lunch. In her purchasing she should avoid the fringed articles; these wear badly and are difficult to do up well. Fruit-plate doilies to place under finger-bowls, fish-cloths, centerpieces, tray-cloths, sideboard and dresser covers, tea and carving cloths, and other ornamental as well as useful linens will probably be given to her by relatives or friends, or she may pick them up from time to time as she has need for them or the chance to purchase them advantageously. As her table-cloths and larger pieces begin to wear out she can usually cut from them squares which will serve to lay under hot baked potatoes in the dish, to wrap about rolls or other hot bread, to use for fish-cloths.

A dozen each of dish and china towels she should have, and the same number of heavier towels for kitchen use, as well as three roller-towels. But the napery in this line she should keep under her own hand, if she has hired service in her kitchen and pantry, and give the towels out a few at a time in order to save her linen as well as to inculcate habits of care.

When bed-linen is to be considered, the housekeeper should follow the same line as that she has laid down in her purchase of table-linen. The ornamental may be selected as suits her fancy, but there are certain must-haves in the plainer articles. Six pairs of cotton sheets are none too many, and pillow-slips to go with them. If she and her family cherish a weakness for linen pillow-slips, some of these may be provided in place of so many pairs of the cotton cases. For three beds three or four spreads should be procured, so as to allow of change, and these spreads should be of the kind which wash easily and look well afterward. Mattress-covers are also essential, as are blankets and extra coverings. Silk or lace counterpanes cannot be reckoned among must-haves, any more than can like dressings for the bureau, but may be supplied at will.

At least two or three dozen fine towels must be included in the list of essentials, half a dozen good firm bath-towels, and wash-cloths at discretion, as well as a dozen heavier towels for the use of domestics. Guest-towels, bath-sheets, bath-mats, and the like are luxuries which may be accumulated after the necessities are attained.

When the housekeeper is filling out her list of household linens and cottons she must not overlook dusters, floor-cloths, mop-cloths, dish-cloths, or mops—I hope she uses the latter!—and other similar requirements. In this advanced day there are new articles in this line which present themselves constantly and which the housekeeper must decide for herself to be luxuries or necessities.

For supplying the china-closet a fixed rule is almost impossible. The best plan is for the housekeeper to make out for herself what her family will need and then to consult an intelligent clerk in a good china-shop. Sometimes it is cheaper to buy a whole set of china than to select from “open stock” the pieces that are absolutely required. Soup, dinner, dessert plates; plates for lunch and for breakfast, for afternoon tea, for salad, for entrées; service plates; meat and vegetable dishes in china or silver, can all be purchased in a charming variety and at a reasonable price. The same is true of glassware. Many gifts will fit in well here, and the stock of silver is pretty sure to be received from the family or friends.

In the kitchen matters are different. Few persons present culinary plenishing, and it almost always devolves upon the housekeeper to select it for herself. While she may have developed needs in certain explicit directions, there are a few rules which can be laid down for her general guidance, certain articles which it is safe to declare essentials. Such are the following:

Two 1-quart saucepans | One biscuit-pan
One 2-quart saucepan | One set muffin-tins
One 5-quart saucepan | Three bread-tins
One 3-quart double boiler | Three pie-plates
One 2-quart double boiler | One 2-quart pitcher

Two baking-pans for meat
or one plain baking-pan
and one covered roaster

Two jelly-molds

One large frying-pan | One pudding-mold
One small frying-pan | One steamer
One colander | One teakettle
One graduated quart measure | One teapot
One graduated half-pint cup | One coffee-pot
One meat-broiler | Fireless cooker
One fish or oyster broiler | Chopping bowl and knife
Three jelly-cake tins | Meat chopper or grinder
One large cake-tin | Soapstone griddle
Cake-turner | Bread bowl and board
Rolling-pin | Board for cutting meat
Board for cutting bread | Meat-saw
Bread-knife | Bread-box
Cake-box | Butter-paddles
Potato-beetle | Egg-beater
Scales | Lemon-squeezer
Meat-fork | One large crockery mixing-bowl
Two small crockery mixing-bowls | One platter
Two pudding-dishes | Set of skewers
Cheese or vegetable grater | Nutmeg-grater
Vegetable-press | Soup-strainer
Coffee or tea strainer | Coffee-mill
Corkscrew | Pair of scissors
Can-opener | Small vegetable-knives
Mixing-spoons | Flour-dredger
Salt-shaker | Cake-cutters
Split spoon | Skimmer
Ice-pick |

Other no less important articles are as follows:

Two dish-pans | A garbage-pail with cover
Sink-brush | Soap-shaker
Wire dish-cloth | Oil-can

Brooms, dust-pans, whisk brooms, carpet-sweeper, etc.

III

THE TABLE

THE judicious purchase and use of food is the chief economical possibility of housekeeping.

The rent is an incompressible item. Every month that immutable charge presents itself. It cannot be cut down. The only way to reduce it is by changing the dwelling.

Fuel may be used with a discretion which lessens outlay, but in cold weather the house must be kept comfortable, even though the coal bills mount high. When certain repairs are due they have to be made or the rooms become unbearably shabby. Only in the domain of food is it feasible to apply a wise judgment in buying, a cultivated skill in cooking which induces cheap selections to be as savory in taste, as nutritious in qualities, as those which cost far more.

Such ability in marketing and preparation does not come by nature. It must be studied and worked for, but it is worth the effort.

At the first glimpse nothing seems simpler than for the young housekeeper to sally forth to a good market, make her selections, order them cut off and sent home, and pay for them—or have them charged! (Usually it is fatally easy to open a charge account!) The same notion prevails as to buying groceries. If a good shop is chosen, there is apparently no trouble about the transaction.

Possibly there need be no difficulties if the family purse is so well filled that a little more or less expenditure is of no real importance. But few are the homes in which this state of affairs exists and most of us find it desirable, if not actually essential, to study the comparative prices of staples in different shops and localities, to learn if there is an advantage in making some purchases at one shop and some at another, instead of giving all the family custom to one merchant.

Earlier reference has been made to the proportion of the income which is to go for rent. Positive assertions as to how much shall be spent on the food of the family are far less easy to make, and the degree of definiteness with which they are uttered is hampered by the constant changes in the price of food.

Not more than ten years ago a liberal allowance for the food of an adult was from three dollars to three dollars and a half a week. This covered only the price of the commodities and did not allow for the fuel used in preparation, service, etc. To-day this expenditure would be totally inadequate for the same order of nourishment it would have included a decade back. At that time a breakfast consisting of fruit, cereal, bacon, fish or eggs, bread, coffee or tea; a luncheon comprising a solid dish of meat, fish, eggs, or cheese, one or two vegetables, or a hot bread, a simple sweet, and tea or cocoa; a dinner of soup, a meat, two vegetables, a salad, crackers and cheese, or a good sweet, and coffee—could all have been secured in the family at a little over three dollars a head, when there were three or more to be fed. From four and a half to five dollars per capita would be required at the present time for a similar provision.

The rise in prices may have altered the sums of our estimates; it has not lessened the necessity for a study of the proportion of the family means which must go for nutriment. This must be determined by the heads of the house in conclave. The harder part of the work devolves upon the woman, who must devise economies and carry them into effect, both in marketing and in cooking.

The inexperienced housekeeper should try to gain a few lessons in the best methods of purchasing. Sometimes a brief attendance at a cooking-school is of aid; or she may be able to join a class for learning how to market—such classes exist and are most helpful—or she may gain counsel from some older and more experienced housewife, or by conning books on these topics. In this day there is no excuse for even a beginner making the mistakes which have supplied material for many of the hackneyed jokes at the expense of young matrons.

Important as is the practical and personal lesson in knowing how to market wisely, much can be gained from manuals on the subject. Some of these furnish cuts and charts of the various animals, with descriptions of the portions and of the uses to which each may be put. Instructions as to the periods of the year when certain articles are at their best are also supplied. Prices can be learned from the market reports published in the daily papers and much is to be acquired by going from one shop to another. After a little the housekeeper will become acquainted with the appearance of meat and be able to judge for herself if it looks fresh and good. She can likewise observe how the shops are kept and in which certain obvious sanitary arrangements are complied with. She will not need much tuition to inform her that she should turn aside from shops where the food is not guarded from flies and dust, where strict cleanliness does not prevail in the salesmen and the appurtenances, and the objects on sale are not handled with proper care.

A few points it may be well to emphasize for the benefit of the beginner. The fat of meat should be white and clean, the lean a clear red, the joints of poultry must break easily and the skin look smooth and healthful. When a fowl is yellow, bony, and hairy it is bound to be old and tough. The gills of fish should be fresh and the eyes bright.

I cannot speak too strongly against the growing habit of marketing by telephone. Not only is the housekeeper who follows this custom at the mercy of her marketman, who can put off on her any cut which has been rejected by the wiser housewives who have come in person to do their trading; he is subjected to the pleasing temptation to cut off more than she has ordered or charge her for a heavier piece than he sends home.

The woman who goes to market gains other advantages beyond those of seeing for herself the appearance and the size of the piece she orders and has cut off while she stands by and superintends the process. She also has offered to her chances for bargains she would never get if she marketed by telephone. Often there will be a change in the market or in the weather that will bring down the cost of articles which are usually high-priced, and the woman who does her own marketing is the one to benefit by this as well as by suggestions which introduce variety into her bill of fare.

This same variety is to be studied by the sensible housekeeper, not only on account of the gratification it gives her to set a pleasing provision before her family, but also because of the genuine good that is gained by avoiding a monotony which fails to encourage the appetite. Moreover, saving is aided by this diversity, since cheap dishes can be slipped into the commissary without awakening the suspicions of the eaters that economy is being practised at their expense.

Among the rational details to be observed in buying meat is that of insisting that all “trimmings” shall be sent home. When a roast of beef or a breast of lamb or a shoulder of mutton or veal is boned and rolled, the bones should never be left at the market for the butcher to sell over again, but sent with the meat that they may be used as a foundation for soup or gravy stock. The giblets and feet of poultry should also be demanded. When chops are “Frenched” or a steak cut into seemliness, none of the scraps should be considered unworthy of saving. All have their place in the stock-pot or as stew-meat.

Too large a piece of meat should not be bought by the woman with a small family. Meat merchants have a way of discouraging the purchase of the smaller roasts on the plea that they dry out in cooking. If they do it is because the work is not properly done. It is quite possible to make a small roast toothsome and tender instead of dry and hard if the housekeeper will cook it in the right way and with due care.

Steak and chops, the frequent resource of the woman with a small family, are expensive luxuries. She is wise if she learns how to cook the cheaper cuts in a sufficiently attractive fashion to make her family contented with these instead of leaving them longing for the higher-priced portions.

A “run” upon any one kind of food should be avoided as much as having fixed days for specific viands. Fish on Friday one may take as a matter of course, but there is no real reason why one should have roast beef every Sunday or a boiled dinner on Saturday night. I know it is the plaint of the majority of housewives that it is most difficult to secure variety in the meat dishes, but this trouble should not exist in a family where practically all sorts of meat can be eaten. In one household such as I know, where veal and pork are both taboo, and fish can be eaten by only one person, the choice is narrowed down a good deal. Even then, however, with a knowledge of how to prepare savory stews, minces, hashes, scallops, croquettes, fritters, meat-pies, stuffed peppers, tomatoes and peppers with a meat filling, as well as roast, boiled, broiled, braised, and fried meat dishes, there should be no wail over the trials of the housekeeper in changing her menus frequently.

No time can be considered wasted which is bestowed on the study of how to cook cheap meat well. Always it should be recollected that many of the so-called cheap cuts really contain a greater amount of nutriment than the choicer selections. As I have said on various occasions, the housekeeper must be prepared to pay a price for excellence of food, and if she cannot pay this in hard cash she must supply the equivalent in careful cookery and wise seasoning. A knowledge of the uses of curry powder, anchovy, and other condiments in changing and modifying the tastes of familiar foods, a willingness to give the time to slow and long cooking which will bring out the best flavor of the meat, an acquaintance with the manifold ways in which left-overs of food can be utilized in pleasing combinations, are among the branches which a housekeeper of small means finds well worth her study.

Reference has been made to the help a fireless cooker is to the woman who keeps house well. It is a saving of time, fuel, labor, and food values. By its assistance the housekeeper can prepare her meal hours ahead of time and go about other pursuits in the calm certainty that when she is ready for her dinner it will be ready for her, and as good as if she had simmered over the kitchen fire all the afternoon, using up her fuel and herself. There are several varieties of these cookers, all of them on practically the same plan, and it will pay a woman to look about her to find which kind suits her best. For soups, stews, cereals, they are unequaled, as for making jams, preserves, or anything else which demands a long period of deliberate cooking.

Special attention has been given to the purchase of meat, but there is almost equal judgment to be shown in buying groceries. Here there is a chance for the inexperienced marketer to be imposed upon. Certain fixed principles she should follow.

The first of these is that it is, as a rule, unwise to buy in bulk. That is, there is little gained in a small family by laying in large supplies at a time. A barrel of flour is likely to be musty and weevily before it can be used; corn meal in large quantities develops vermin; so do cereals purchased by a number of packages or pounds at a time. Care should be taken to select an honest grocer or to know enough of prices not to be overcharged, and then to order supplies as they are needed.

Buying in bulk means more than this: it also refers to getting the “loose” crackers, cereals, and the like, instead of those inclosed in cartons. The latter is always the better plan, and care should be taken to select a good variety that is put up by manufacturers whose names are a guarantee of the excellence of the products. Until one has investigated the matter one has no idea of how many cheap and poor materials are foisted off upon a guileless public, bearing the stamp of unknown makers, with the assurance that they are “just as good” as like articles put up by well-known houses.

This fiction is especially prevalent about canned goods. When these are first-class they are admirable, and fortunately there are daily increasing numbers of fine and trustworthy establishments who can fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, etc., in conditions which assure the complete protection of the consumer. Yet there are still in existence small and unscrupulous concerns whose output is cheap and poor if not actually dangerous to health, and these should be boycotted by all housekeepers.

Care should be exercised in buying fresh vegetables and fruits. In most of our large cities the laws as to protecting these against dust and dirt are being enforced more vigorously with every year, and here, too, the housewife can help to bring about a better state of affairs by insisting upon purchasing only such articles as have been properly cared for. Vegetables which are to be cooked before eating may not suffer so much by being exposed to dust, but salads and berries and other fruits or vegetables which are eaten raw are a menace when they have been suffered to lie and wilt in a current of air laden with dust and disease germs.

IV

CONCERNING HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNTS

ONE of the first items of business to be considered by a newly married couple, or a pair who are about to begin housekeeping, is the division of the income between the husband and wife.

This does not imply that their interests are to be opposed or that they are to have absolutely separate purses. It does mean that there must be a clear understanding on both sides of what the expenditure is to be for certain purposes and that the funds for food, domestic service, and other strictly housekeeping outlay should be in the hands of the wife.

This point has been much debated and the pros and cons on both sides exploited. Some men argue that the possession of ready money will lead the wife to extravagance, that it is far better to have all articles charged and the bills paid by the husband, that women do not understand household accounts or bookkeeping. Enough foolish and shallow women exist to lend a trifling force to this position. But the general and growing view is that the housekeeper upon whom is laid the responsibility of purveying for an establishment rises to the emergency, that she does better work and makes wiser purchases when she is trusted with an allowance for such expenses, that an exhaustive knowledge of double-entry bookkeeping is not demanded for simple domestic accounts, that even the immature and untrained wife gains knowledge by experience and competence by errors made and corrected.

Certain disbursements seem naturally to devolve upon the man of the house. That he should pay the rent, defray outside or general repairs, perhaps meet the coal bill, appears a matter of course. But it is unquestionably the province of the wife to buy provisions and pay for them, either in cash or by weekly or monthly accounts. Charges for work done in the house, the replacement of cooking utensils, household linen and the like, the bills for gas and electric light, all should be within her control, to be settled by her as they fall due, after she has examined them and convinced herself that they are correct.

If other arrangement is made than this, it should be after careful consideration and unbiased discussion of the advantages and demerits of the system. As a general thing such a division as that just suggested proves the best.

Exactly what proportion of the income shall be placed in the hands of the wife is a matter which must be decided by individual circumstances. Estimate has already been made as to the allowance to be given to food, and it can readily be seen that this must be determined by the character and size of the family as well as by the conditions surrounding them. The household of a farmer or of one who commands a garden and dairy can be kept on a much smaller pecuniary expenditure for actual food than is possible in the home of a dweller in the city, who must buy and pay for every particle of food which comes into the house. The sum disbursed may amount to the same thing in the long run, since the cost of keeping up the garden plot or caring for the cattle must be met by the man of the house, but he will not need to give as much cash into his wife’s hands as will be required in other circumstances.

However the amount may be apportioned, whatever may be the charges laid upon the wife and those assumed by the husband, the necessity of strict and accurate household accounts should be insisted upon. I am not advocating any special system. I have known excellent outlines of domestic expenses which simply darkened counsel with words for some housekeepers and rendered the business of following their outlay confusion worse confounded. Sometimes a woman with little more than a common-school education and an ordinary working knowledge of arithmetic can keep her accounts with a conciseness and cleanness many a trained bookkeeper might envy. If a housekeeper has a system which proves satisfactory it is a mistake for her to try to change it for one which may be more scientific but is less useful.

Merely as a suggested guide I would advise the beginner to provide herself with two books, one small and cheap, to be slipped into the pocket when going to market, the other larger and of better quality. In the first one, to which is attached a pencil, is to be set down every purchase and its cost, as soon as made. The memory should never be trusted in these matters, but each outlay—no matter how small, if it be nothing more than a car-fare or a three-cent bunch of parsley—entered immediately. Then these items are to be transferred in ink to the larger book as soon as possible after the housekeeper’s return to the home. It is fatal to accuracy and to really helpful bookkeeping to let the accounts accumulate before they are written down and balanced.

Still keeping along the most elementary principles of household accounts, let me counsel that on the left-hand page be written the amount of money in hand, while the sums expended and the items for which they are paid out are set down on the opposite page. The two pages may be balanced each day or as the bottom of each page is reached, as best suits the housekeeper. The one immutable rule is that the sum which the written balance shows ought to be in her purse should absolutely be there. This may sound like the very primer of household expenses, but no woman who has ever gone through the anguish of trying to determine what has become of the stray dime her figures show should be in her possession, or of discovering how she happens to have a quarter more than her ciphering proves to belong to her, will ever make light of the endeavor to square her accounts and her cash balance. Such struggles are avoided by the consistent practice of noting down each payment as soon as made.

Possibly the most important decision the young housekeeper has to make in beginning her domestic bookkeeping is how she shall pay for her purchases. Shall it be cash or credit? And if the latter, how often shall bills be paid?

From the standpoint of wise economy it is safe to state that the strictly cash habit is probably the most economical method to follow. The old saying of “pay as you go, and if you can’t pay don’t go!” is put into practical effect. Foolish as it may be, the fact remains that we all feel a certain reluctance to part with actual cash which lays a detaining grasp upon us when we might be tempted to “plunge” if the charge were not to be presented until the end of the week or month. The housekeeper thinks more than once before she buys the more expensive cut of meat, the higher-priced fruits or vegetables than her purse shows she ought to purchase. And there is undoubtedly a comfort beyond words in the knowledge that no vexing bills are coming in after the food has been consumed and forgotten. When feasible, there are countless advantages in paying cash for everything which is brought into the house and leaving to credit only such items as cannot well be met except periodically—such as fuel, light, wages, and in some cases milk and ice.

On the other hand, the charge system has something to its account. It is much more convenient, in the first place. When one is in a hurry to finish her marketing and get on to something else the nuisance of having to wait for change is vexatious. Sometimes the article desired is not in stock and must be ordered. One hesitates to pay for it before it is certain that it can be obtained. Again, the telephone marketing or commanding of groceries, disadvantageous as it is, must sometimes be followed because of illness or inclement weather, and then the habit of paying cash is a bother. Moreover, there is little doubt that the charge customer usually receives a meed of consideration often refused the cash payer. It is also a genuine inconvenience to pay cash for milk and for ice and for certain other commodities, such as butter and eggs supplied by special dealers.

I have not touched upon the possibility that ready money may be lacking, as is sometimes the case with the man on a salary and still more with the one who does piecework and is not paid on a fixed day. Often the need for paying “real money” amounts to a hardship, not because the purchaser is not solvent, but because his remuneration is slow in arriving. At such periods the charge account partakes of the nature of a sheet-anchor. And yet there are strong arguments against it.

Perhaps it is useless to lay stress on the disadvantages of the charge account, and yet I would feel I was in error if I did not speak a word of warning against the fatal facility attending on credit arrangements. It is altogether too easy to have an article charged, forgetting that a day of reckoning can only be postponed at the best. The housekeeper who for good and sufficient reasons decides to pay by check periodically should lay down for herself certain fixed rules.

One of the chief of these is to have short accounts. A grocer’s or a butcher’s bill should be presented weekly and paid punctually. When the bill comes in it should be gone over carefully and the items on it checked up, to be sure, in the first place, that every article charged has been delivered; in the second place, that the charge set against it is that which was stated when the purchase was made. It is a common occurrence to find an increase of from one to five cents on several entries on a bill. The error may be due to the bookkeeper’s mistake or to the dealer’s dishonesty. In either event the blunder should be called to the merchant’s attention and corrected. He will respect the housekeeper none the less because he learns she is on the alert for possible discrepancies.

Another principle to be followed is that the marketer should not be led into making foolish or extravagant purchases because they are to be charged. In the majority of cases it is a mistake for the small housekeeper to buy in quantity, since the cash saved by the transaction is offset by the waste of the material, either by spoiling or because of extravagant use. Yet when the purchase can be charged it is easy to yield to the temptation toward what seems at the first glance like an economy.

Again, the possession of the charge account should not be permitted to lead the housekeeper into the habit of vicarious marketing—either by telephone or by messenger or by ordering through an employee of the concern she patronizes. Other mistakes may also be made, but these are probably the most frequent and those into which the woman who is not on her guard against pitfalls in the domestic path is likely to slip.

I have said that it is not feasible to state here a fixed sum to which the housekeeper must limit her outlay for food. Her best plan for arriving at an approximate estimate is by a process of averages. A single day or even a single week cannot furnish a standard any more than can a single meal. The wisest method is by the aid of strict system to keep track of her expenditures and then study how the economy of one time offsets the liberality of another.

To illustrate: when the holiday season is at hand expenses are bound to increase. The cost of the Thanksgiving or the Christmas turkey and pies cannot be appreciably reduced. But it is possible to make a science of economical purchasing and catering—this, too, without stinting the family or feeding them poorly—so that the burden of high-priced food may not hopelessly swamp the income.

A like principle may be followed on other occasions. If company must be entertained, if a family feast must be observed, prudent marketing and skilful cookery may delude the household into an ignorance of the fact that money is being saved to carry the housekeeper over the time of increased bills. Constant thought and consideration are required for this, but to the lover of housekeeping the occupation after a while becomes almost like a game in which she pits her wits against the cost of living and glories when she comes out ahead.

Here is an enterprise in which the habit of going to market for oneself and the custom of keeping strict account of disbursements both help the worker. She can pick up at a bargain a cut of meat, a selection of fish, a choice of vegetables or of fruit, or an occasion in canned goods which will at once bring down her average and permit her to lay aside a little toward the next heavy pull upon her purse. This is especially likely to be the case in the period of preserving, pickling, and similar pursuits, when often a happy “find” in fruit will help to lighten the unavoidable weight of conserving of any sort.

The wise student of housekeeping need not let her family recognize the alternation of a feast and a fast at the table. When they eat a larded lamb’s liver, they will not suspect an economy; when they rejoice in filleted sole they will have no idea that the cheapness of flounders is responsible for their treat, any more than they guess that a delectable trifle which redeems a rather simple dinner is made from the remains of stale cake, the left-overs of a couple of jars of jam, and a simple custard.

Some of the so-called economies do not economize. A bread-pudding which requires eggs, milk, sugar, butter, and raisins to the value of fifteen or twenty cents to use up three cents’ worth of stale bread can by no stretch of the imagination be regarded as a saving. Better make toast of the bread, save it for stuffing, or dry it and keep it for crumbs to serve in frying. But there are genuine economies galore, and the woman who makes a science of them will lay up for herself a series of agreeable sensations when she balances her housekeeping accounts at the end of the month.

V

THE HOUSE IN ORDER

PUTTING the house in order is one thing.

Keeping it in order is quite another.

Once upon a time there was a theory that every house, no matter how well kept, how frequently swept and scrubbed, must be torn up by the roots twice a year, for the spring and fall cleaning. At those dreadful periods mere men fled from before the devastating broom and scrubbing-brush wielded by the woman of the family. Even when they stole home in the evening to the slim meal which was all the worn-out housekeeper could provide, the halls and stairs were likely to be blocked by pails of suds, by furniture or rolls of carpet en route.

To the aged survivors of that epoch the phrase “housecleaning-time” is still enough to provoke a shudder. I have heard the assertion made that it lasted at least six weeks, although all seem to be agreed that the spring visitation was more severe than that of the autumn.

Even in this day and generation there are found certain authorities to declare that a house cannot be kept so clean that it does not once in so often require a thorough going-over. In a way there is an element of truth in their claim. In every home there are nooks and corners not in constant use, and therefore not regularly cleaned; store-closets, trunk-rooms, cupboards or drawers reserved for extra bedding, clothing, furnishings, into whose closed confines dust mysteriously seeps, wherein moth and other vermin make their breeding-places.

At least once a year—and better, twice in a twelvemonth—these “glory-holes” should be emptied, the contents looked over, beaten or dusted, the floors, walls, shelves, etc., wiped off carefully. This is the time to give away or throw away treasured possessions no longer of use to their owners and which may be of service elsewhere; to rearrange such articles as escape banishment; to put aside for the next season the summer or winter clothing, hangings, and the like which are not needed at the moment. So long as dirt and dust continue to exist and to work themselves into the most jealously guarded precincts, so long must the housekeeper bestow at least a semi-annual inspection on her reserves and their quarters.

She fails signally to understand her business, however, if she permits an accumulation of dirt with the comforting conviction that it will all be removed in the spring and fall clearance. More and more we understand the importance of purity to health, and with this comprehension we have grown to perceive that the best method of retaining high cleanliness is by never allowing the dirt to get the better of us. A little brushing and sweeping and cleaning here and there as it is needed, a more attentive treatment once a week, will keep the house clean without making the labor a burden.

The system which should be the housekeeper’s most valued ally in the effort after efficiency comes into play here. By the time she is fairly settled in her new home she should have evolved a routine which, so far from being an irksome groove, will be rather a track on which the domestic wheels revolve without undue friction and the consequent wear and tear.

Take into consideration first the round of the day as it has to do with keeping the house in order. When the maid or the housekeeper herself comes down in the morning to start the breakfast, either by making a fire with wood or coal, or by lighting the oil or gas flame, or turning the key that sets the electric current to work, she should open the windows to let in fresh air and the light which reveals the dusty or the untidy corners.

While the kettle is boiling or the cereal simmering she may have to set the table, or if this has been done the night before and a light cloth thrown over it to protect from the dust, the dust-pan and broom may be called into service or the carpet-sweeper run over the places which demand attention. The fortunate woman who has a vacuum-cleaner, either one of the hand variety or the larger style which connects with the electric current supplying the house, has work simplified and time saved, as well as strength conserved.

In those homes where an early and rather hasty breakfast is obligatory for the sake of the commuter or the business man who must get to his office promptly, or the children who must be off to school, it is better to have done what superficial tidying was possible the night before and to let the sweeping and dusting go until after the morning meal is despatched and the workers on their way. If a system is followed which obliges the readers of books and newspapers to put them in their place before going to bed, which insists that toys, tools, and clothing shall not be left lying about for some one besides the scatterers to put away the next morning, there need be no confusion encompassing the breakfast-table. A few moments should have been snatched for dusting the more conspicuous portions of the dining-room furniture, and distress of digestion should never be induced by the presence of dirt or disorder in the surroundings.

When the housekeeper has the home to herself, has disposed of the details of dish-washing, bed-making, etc., has planned for her meals and made out the list for her marketing, she should turn her attention to the removal of the “matter out of place,” as dirt has been gracefully termed. The living-room will probably require her first efforts after she has reduced the dining-room to the proper condition of shining tidiness.

I have referred to the vacuum-cleaner. I wish I could put one into the hands of every housekeeper! Several kinds are on the market and I carry no brief for any special make, but I know there is more than one good variety. The woman of slender means can use one of the hand-machines, which, while perhaps more tiresome to work than the cleaner run by electricity, will yet make much less call upon the strength than the ordinary broom and do the work much more effectively. Not the least of the advantages of the vacuum-cleaner is a merit it possesses in common with the ordinary carpet-sweeper—that it does not scatter dust as well as gather it up.

More than this, the vacuum-cleaner enables the worker to remove the dust from draperies without taking them down, to clean walls by a less arduous means than going over them with a cloth-wrapped brush or broom. Decidedly, one of the best investments a housekeeper can make is a good vacuum-cleaner; and she will find that it soon pays for itself in the amount of time and toil it saves. The work it takes a woman hours to accomplish is done by the vacuum-cleaner in a fraction of the time she would bestow on cleansing by the old methods, and more than one housekeeper has found that she saved the wages of an extra helper by the purchase of a vacuum-cleaner that she could handle herself.

When such a cleaner is out of the question, a substitute for minor work in this line is a carpet-sweeper. True, it cannot go into corners and its accomplishment must be supplemented by a dust-pan and broom, but even so, it saves much stooping and struggle to the housekeeper. A trustworthy variety should be selected; it should be emptied regularly and kept in perfect working order. With this there should be provided what is known as a dustless mop—there are several makes of these—to use on the bare floors after the rugs have been treated by the sweeper.

As a matter of course everything of this sort, as well as the use of a broom which raises dust, should be concluded before the housekeeper attacks the furniture with the brush for the upholstered pieces, a flannelette or cheese-cloth duster for the hardwood, or one of the so-called oiled dusters. Of these, too, a good choice is offered at house-furnishing establishments. While the cleaning goes on the windows should be open, but not in such a way as to blow the dust, and the doors into the other part of the house should be kept closed. The old method, still practised by untrained maids or by housekeepers whose zeal is in excess of their knowledge, of cleaning two or three rooms at once and driving the dust from one room to another should be entirely out of date in these sanitary days.

The same sort of surface-cleaning should be followed throughout the house, in halls and chambers, as well as in the down-stairs rooms. Even in the tidiest household dust is likely to gather from day to day, and if neglected twenty-four hours its presence is unpleasantly conspicuous.

This superficial care answers excellently for part of the time, but it is not sufficient without a more thorough attack at least once a week. The housekeeper need not follow the modes of her mother and grandmother and have the whole house swept from top to bottom on one day of the week, unless she finds, after study of ways and means, that this simplifies living for her. A better plan is to have one room or two done a day, so that the labor is lightened by being spread out through the week.

The same method should be followed in each room that is to be cleaned. The smaller ornaments should be wiped and laid away, either in the bureau drawer or on some large piece of furniture which cannot be moved but may have its surface and the objects put on it covered with a sweeping-sheet. Lighter articles, such as chairs and small tables, should be dusted and then carried from the room. The postponement of the dusting until they are brought back after the room has been swept means a fresh scattering of the dust about the clean chamber.

Sweeping-sheets, made of cotton cloth bound with red, that they may not be confused with the regulation bed-linen, should be at hand to lay over such large pieces as cannot be removed. The sweeping should be done from the sides of the room toward the center, recollecting always to have at least one window opened and all doors closed. When the dust is all in one compact heap it should be taken up in the dust-pan, transferred at once to a newspaper, this rolled up tight and put aside to be carried down to the furnace or the ash-can. After the dust has settled the walls can be gone over with a cloth or with a broom about which has been wrapped a duster, or a hair brush with a long handle, such as comes for this purpose.

The above method can be followed in a room with a carpeted floor or with a large rug fastened down. When small loose rugs are used they may be swept first, then rolled up and carried from the room, after which the bare floor is dusted or wiped off with oil or rubbed with one of the good waxing preparations which the popularity of the hardwood floor has brought into the market. In a house supplied with a vacuum-cleaner the floor and the rugs can both be cleansed without the labor of carrying out the latter, and the upholstered furniture will not need the offices of the small brush in removing the dust from folds and tufts.

Water should not be used on a hardwood floor. It may be wiped off with a cloth dipped in crude oil and turpentine mingled in equal parts, and the mixture must be well rubbed in. In default of this, kerosene may be employed, observing moderation in the quantity of the oil applied. Too much of any kind of dressing makes an unpleasant odor which lingers persistently.

It may be said, by the way, that when oilcloth is washed the cloth should be wrung out nearly dry. If the water gets under the oilcloth this will rot.

When windows are to be washed the dust and dirt from the frames should be removed before the glass is touched. If not, the panes will be streaked. Warm water should be used, and no soap; this would make the glass cloudy. A little borax or ammonia may be added to the water, and in cold weather alcohol should be mixed with the water to prevent this from freezing on the cloth.

In scouring paint the soap or other preparation should be applied on a flannel or the paint will be scratched. Hardwood finishings, such as door-posts, window-frames, and the like, should have the same sort of oiling as is used for the floors.

If the silver which is in daily family service is always washed as it should be after each meal there is no reason why it should become dull and dingy and require a weekly scouring. Scalding-hot water is an essential; the silver should be rinsed off in hot suds, dropped into the almost boiling clean water, fished out quickly, a piece or two at a time, and dried immediately. No draining of silver or glass should ever be allowed, no matter what compromises are permitted in this line with china and crockery.

Close to the worker’s hand should stand a few helps toward keeping her silver and glass bright and shining. A bottle of household ammonia or a box of borax is one of her best aids. Also she should have a little coarse salt with which to take egg stains from silver, and a cake or box of good silver polish in case some of the pieces look less brilliant than they should. A chamois-skin to give a final polish is also a desideratum. If silver has been laid away and become dull so that a general scouring is demanded, it is well for the housekeeper to have one of the patented devices by which silver can be cleansed by an immersion in a bath of soda and salt contained in an aluminum pan. Again, there are several good articles of this kind for sale at reasonable prices.

The daily equipment for dish-washing should consist of two dish-pans for the housekeeper who does not possess a butler’s-pantry sink with running water. In one of these pans the silver and china should be rinsed free of all grease before they are put into the clean hot suds of the other pan. The glasses should be washed in the clear water before soap has been added; next come the silver pieces, and these, like the glasses, should be wiped dry as soon as they are taken out.

The ideal method is to dry the china in the same way, but if it is perfectly clean when taken from the suds, the pieces ranged in a rack and boiling water poured over them, they will usually dry evenly and show no marks or streaks. This method undoubtedly saves much time and bother. A dish-mop is better for use in washing dishes than a dish-cloth, since it keeps the hands from the hot water, but should be scalded after each service and boiled once a day. The towels should be washed and boiled with equal regularity.

VI

HYGIENE AND PLUMBING

SOME of the apparently minor details of housekeeping really possess more importance than those which seem to bulk larger.

Consider drains, for instance. In this day it is taken for granted that no one buys or rents a house without being assured that the plumbing is in perfect order, as well as having been of the best quality in the beginning. I say that this is taken for granted, and yet I feel I should modify this statement, recollecting homes in which I have been a guest where the plumbing is obsolete and neglected to a degree which would be dangerous with even the most up-to-date fittings. When such carelessness exists relative to the old-fashioned closed plumbing with the cheapest and least scientific of traps and stop-cocks, one gains a rather alarming notion of the hazards to which householders recklessly subject their families.

Let me state here that the absence of evil odor is no proof that drains and traps are in excellent order. The deadly sewer-gas is practically without smell, and persons can be badly poisoned by it with no warning on the part of their olfactory nerves. There are tests which will demonstrate the presence of noxious vapors, but these must be made by sanitary engineers or specialists in this line. Unless the dweller in any home is positively assured that the drains, plumbing, etc., are in perfect condition there should be no delay in making such tests and in proving the good or evil state of the house-fittings.

This is not sufficient, however. The drains must be kept clear, not only for such a simple hygienic reason as the desire to guard against disease, but also because a greasy or dirty pipe soon means a choked pipe, and this in turn brings the inconvenience of a sink which cannot be used, of a backed-up overflow of waste water, with the possible accompaniment of injured floor-coverings, walls, and ceilings.

The expert may be required to decide as to the perfection of drains. The veriest beginner in housekeeping needs little education to know how to keep them free. In the first place she should see that nothing is thrown down a waste-pipe but the things it is meant to carry off. When wads of paper, broken pasteboard boxes, rolls of hair-combings, and similar refuse are flung into the mouth of even a wide and generous waste-pipe there is pretty sure to be trouble sooner or later. When grease and particles of food, tea-leaves, coffee-grounds, and collections of dust are dumped into a sink, or a corresponding amount of debris is permitted to try to make its way through the pipe running from the wash-basin, no one but the person guilty of such gross carelessness may be to blame, but the whole household is likely to suffer for the offense.

In view of the fact that most persons are heedless, the housekeeper should protect herself and others against risks. One of the simplest helps to this is the use of washing-soda—a chemical which is absolutely ruinous to clothing when used as a detergent in laundry-work, but is admirable for cutting grease or fat which has accumulated in waste-pipes and for eating away other foreign particles which have gathered there. I hasten to add that it will not disintegrate strands of hair or bone buttons—both of which are often found by plumbers in the joints of choked pipes they have been called in to open!

Another aid to keeping the pipes clean and free is household ammonia. This does not need to be poured clear into the pipes, but when it has been employed in rinsing greasy dishes or in cleansing the sink, or in brightening glass or silver, the hot water to which it has been added is of distinct benefit to the waste-pipes. It may be suggested, by the way, that one of the best methods for using the washing-soda is to lay a good-sized lump of it over the drain-pipe from the sink so that the water which goes down carries particles of the soda with it on their cleansing errand.

Either ammonia or a solution of washing-soda should be used in rinsing out the set-tubs after laundry-work has been done. When one thinks of the human waste from the skin which adheres to the clothing and is washed off from it in these tubs, there is a degree of foulness in the notion of letting the tubs pass with no more cleansing than the rinsing they get from the second or third water through which the clothes are passed.

Other cleansing preparations come which are perhaps less severe in their effect on the hands than the common washing-soda. Many of those on the market are known to be excellent by the proof they have given housekeepers. The names of several of these will at once suggest themselves to any one who keeps up with the times in the line of domestic helps. Whatever the chosen cleaning medium may be, a bottle or box of it should always stand in the bath-room, not only for rinsing out pipes and keeping them clear, but also for preserving the purity of basin and tub and toilet-bowl.

I have often been impressed by the carelessness of housekeepers in this detail, especially in homes where there are several children. Evidently these have never been taught the niceties of rinsing out the tub after bathing, or the basin after washing the hands. Around each vessel runs a high-tide mark of soap or dirt, the mere sight of which is enough to deter the observer from using bowl or bath. The touch of the hand to the inside of either will almost always discover a sediment or accretion of grease or dirt or both. This accumulation is readily removed by a soap-rubbed cloth or by one dipped in ammonia or other detersive. Such care may seem a trifling detail, but it is one which should never be neglected.

In connection with this a word does not come amiss as to the superior attractiveness of nickel bath-room fittings, or of those of the kitchen or butler’s pantry, when they are kept bright and clean, over those which are suffered to lapse into dinginess. When the nickel coating is hopelessly scoured off it is not a serious matter to have the fittings done over and made to look like new.

The whole care of the bath-room deserves more attention than it usually receives. Soiled towels and wet wash-cloths should not be flung down here and there, or stray medicine-bottles and medicine-boxes left in untidy rows on the shelves. The medicine-cabinet should be kept in order; the towels and wash-cloths folded neatly and hung up after using; clean towels in plenty in readiness for the chance guest; the soap-dish should be scoured scrupulously as often as once a day. Of course it takes time to do these little things, but their presence or absence marks the difference between the good and the careless housekeeper.

Washing-soda has another use beyond that of keeping drain-pipes clear. A solution of it is excellent for washing out the ice-box or refrigerator. This process should take place at least once a week. When this is said it is not meant that the ice-box should not be cleared out oftener than that. A new piece of ice should not go into it if there is a possibility of bits of food of any sort having been left in the corners or cracks of the ice-chamber. Daily inspection of the contents of the refrigerator will make sure that all food in it is keeping well and is sweet and fresh.

In most well-made refrigerators of the day the shelves are so built that they can be slipped in and out. By this plan they can be scrubbed clean and the sides of the refrigerator can also be scoured off, as would not be feasible with non-detachable shelves. After it has been made clean a few pieces of charcoal should be laid in the corners. This will keep the place sweet by absorbing the odors from food, and every few days the fragments of charcoal should be thrown out and new ones put in their place.

Even with this care the ice-box will sometimes get a close smell; at such times a small shovel should be made nearly red-hot, a little ground coffee sprinkled upon it, and this put into the refrigerator for a few minutes. It should be understood by every housekeeper that butter, milk, and cream should never be kept near strong-smelling articles of food. They absorb the odors and taste of the items they have been with.

Milk is usually kept in open dishes or pans for those who wish to get the full good of the cream which rises to the surface, and nothing else except other milk products or perhaps fresh eggs should be permitted near it.

When highly flavored foods of any sort must be kept in a refrigerator they should either be closely covered—which is not always possible or desirable—or put in a chamber by themselves. Butter should not be suffered to remain in the wooden boxes or plates on which it is often sent home; lettuce and greens should either be washed before they are put away or wrapped in clean paper. Lettuce is best rinsed and then done up in a clean cloth before it is laid near the ice.

When canned goods of any sort are opened they should at once be turned from the tin. They will keep indefinitely in the can while this is sealed, but as soon as the air gets at the contents a chemical change is wrought by the contact of the fluid and the tin and the food soon becomes affected and a positive menace to health. The housekeeper should always have in her stock a number of small bowls or dishes into which to turn the fruit, vegetables, etc., which have been sent home to her in a can.

A wire meat-safe is an important item to have in the pantry, when there is room for such a convenience. Lacking this space, the dweller in flats achieves a compromise by a box built outside of her kitchen window, covered on top with oilcloth or other water-proof material, that the contents may be kept dry. According to the exposure of the window to the sun, the sides of the box may either be of wire netting or solid wood. In length the box matches the width of the window and is usually high enough to allow of two shelves. In this improvised outdoor pantry can be kept in cool weather many articles which would otherwise crowd the refrigerator unduly and would perhaps wither or spoil in the warm kitchen or pantry.

Every convenience she can lay her hands on the housekeeper is within her rights in securing. When it is worth while it pays for itself in sparing her busy hands and feet, in easing the tire of her overworked back. On her floor she should have linoleum, as it is easier to keep clean than the bare boards, more sanitary and more convenient than rugs.

The study of how to arrange her kitchen so as to save herself steps is one of the first things the new housekeeper should undertake. The table should stand near the sink and not too far from the stove; the utensils most frequently in service should be hung on a row of hooks close at hand or be ranged on a couple of shelves above the table. Here, too, should be such articles of seasoning, etc., as are in constant demand—the salt-box, the pepper-cruet, the vinegar-bottle, the flour-dredger, and the like. The bread-box and bread-board should be near the table on which the loaf is to be sliced; the bread-knife should be close by.

One of the greatest conveniences for a kitchen is that piece of furniture called a kitchen cabinet, which unites the functions of a dresser, a receptacle for provisions, a table or shelf at which to make bread and roll pastry, and various other qualities that must be known to be appreciated fully. These cabinets come in different sizes, styles, and finish, and are easily made by the clever home carpenter.

The fireless cooker must not pass unnoticed, whether this be of the home-made hay-box kind or of the more elaborate variety containing plates to heat for cooking the contents of the vessels of the cooker. Whichever make is selected, the cooker itself is one of the most potent aids the housekeeper can have as a saver of time, of fuel, of labor, and of fatigue. By its assistance the meal virtually cooks itself, once it has been started in the right way. Food prepared in the fireless cooker preserves its flavor as it cannot do if cooked in the oven or on top of the stove, and there is far less waste of the material of each article than if it were suffered to go off in steam and aroma.

The most popular fuel of the day is undoubtedly gas, since the cost of electric equipment puts it beyond the reach of most housekeepers of moderate means. Yet there are many parts of the country where all cookery must be done by coal or even by wood, and where the only solace of the worker is that she has the comfort of the heat in winter and the benefits of slow cooking at all times.

For housekeepers who must buy their coal it is well to know that the most advantageous mixture for the average-sized range is a mixture of egg-coal and nut-coal, in the proportion of equal parts of the red ash and the white ash. The latter burns more slowly than the former, while this gives a stronger fire and makes fewer cinders.

A fresh fire need not be made more than once a week if the housekeeper is careful to rake out the ashes at bedtime, put on fresh coal, open the draughts for ten or fifteen minutes or until the new coal is fairly kindled, then close the draughts and leave the upper door of the stove open. In the morning the draughts have only to be opened after the upper door has been closed and a little fresh coal put on as soon as the fire has begun to be red. Not until this has begun to burn well should a further small supply of coal be added. This mode is much more economical of fuel and work than making a fresh fire every day.

VII

THE HOME WITHOUT A SERVANT

THE housekeeper who undertakes to run her establishment without a servant is beset by certain disadvantages. When she has had a bad night, is suffering from indisposition of any kind, or wishes to undertake some piece of work, such as dressmaking, for which she desires to have her time free, it is inconvenient to feel that without her personal effort no part of the business of the house will be done, that all responsibility as well as all performance falls upon her.

On the other hand, great are the comforts of the woman who has no one but herself to do her work. These should be considered, since an enormously large proportion of American housekeepers employ no regular servant and many others call in assistance only for such toil as washing and ironing and heavy cleaning.

The woman who does not keep a maid can run her kitchen to suit herself and have things done as she prefers. She need not be constantly worried because the cook neglects to line the garbage-pail with a newspaper or to put on the cover, persistently leaves the refrigerator open in hot weather and will not save left-overs. The mistress knows that the dishes are washed by an approved method, since she does it herself, and this position also enables her to have the utensils and general plenishing of the kitchen and pantry in the order she likes.

The same freedom obtains in other parts of the house. There is no uncertainty as to whether towels and napkins are used in the prescribed routine; no doubt if the beds are properly aired and made, the corners of the rooms swept and the top shelves dusted, sanitary precautions observed as to drains and similar niceties of care followed. The woman who does her own work can be sure of an attention to details which she could not compel from a hireling except at the cost of close watchfulness and more or less nagging.

More than this, the economies to be compassed in a house where no maid is kept far exceed the mere outlay for food which is required to supply an extra person. No one but the mistress of the home will watch for small leaks, and, having bought judiciously, will take pains that the saving thus practised is not lost by careless use of materials. She will plan her meals so as to utilize remnants, will see that the trifle which seems of no importance is put aside to combine with another apparently negligible quantity, will guard worn-out household linens for other services than the rag-bag, will watch for the first breaks in table-cloth or napkins and stop them with a wise stitch or two. Through it all she will possess the delightful sense of having her home to herself, of knowing there is not a nook or a corner of it where she does not reign supreme, and that her theories are put into practice from the top of the house to the bottom.

Such delightful sensations as these are of course out of the question for the woman who undertakes housekeeping without a good working knowledge of how to conduct it. The theories to which reference has been made may be the best of their kind, but unless they are backed by the ability to do the things they describe there is likely to be trouble. Still, the woman who has more book instruction in the line of housekeeping than actual experience can learn by doing and in time reach a point where her independence is a joy to her. The best aid she can have in this endeavor is system, the habit of doing each task at a certain hour and in a certain way, and she need not consider the time wasted she bestows on planning out her routine so as to make it at once easy and efficient.

In a city apartment or a small house fitted with the latest improvements the way is much simplified. If one can have a fire by striking a match and turning on the gas-stove, is supplied with hot water by a means outside her own kitchen, has milk, ice, meat, and other provisions brought to the door of her pantry, and no responsibility as to getting rid of ashes or garbage, she may feel that her lines have fallen in pleasant places.

Naturally, a woman who lives in these conditions must direct her work in a very different way from that incumbent upon the dweller in a village or on a farm, who must build and keep in her own fires for cooking and heating, warm every drop of hot water that is used—often perhaps having to draw or pump it first—fill the lamps by which the house is lighted, and do all the many other duties which are performed for the dweller in a city flat and taken by her for granted. Yet as much efficiency, as delightful a life, exist in these conditions as can be found in a home where the work is reduced to a minimum. The housekeeper who must put up with inconveniences will generally find that they are offset by benefits which go far to counterbalance the drawbacks.

If the city housekeeper with all modern improvements at her command requires system in her work, it is even more necessary for the one who must do without such aids. At the same time she must secure every help she can. When she can get one of the gasolene-stoves which, if properly managed, are hardly second to a gas-range in excellence, or, if lacking one of these, she can secure a good oil-stove with an oven; if she can provide herself with an oil hot-water-back or heater which will warm the water for cooking and bathing; if she purchases all such aids as fireless cookers, steamers, hand vacuum-cleaners, and other up-to-date appliances, she will simplify her labor and at the same time preserve the youth and strength that would be devoured by the adherence to the methods of her grandmother in a day when twentieth-century living is taken for granted on even the remote rural free-delivery route.

In addition to this she should study the art of sparing herself in other ways, even of shirking when it is wise. By this advice there is no implication that she should be careless of work that should be done or perform it in the wrong way. But often duties can be postponed with no harm to anything except the housekeeper’s supersensitive conscientiousness, just as there are times when it is even wiser to leave the room unswept or undusted than to wear oneself down to absolute fatigue and the fretfulness or irritability such weariness connotes.

One of the first rules for the home-worker to lay down for herself is that no positive moral superiority is displayed by standing at one’s occupations. There is no reason except a custom better broken than preserved why a woman should not have a high stool or chair on which to sit while washing and drying dishes, while preparing vegetables, beating eggs, creaming butter or flour, and performing other such tasks, as well as while ironing small pieces. The stool or chair should also be accompanied by a hassock or footstool on which to rest the feet. The fact that some of the old type of housekeepers will call the practice lazy does not in the least affect the common sense of the suggestion and the habit.

Another means for rendering kitchen work agreeable is to have the right sort of utensils with which to accomplish it. I have spoken of some of the conveniences already. Certain of them are high-priced, but many of the aids to easy and pleasant cookery are inexpensive. To have plenty of bowls and spoons, the right kind of measuring-cups, pans, and pudding-dishes, is as essential in its way as the purchase of a bread or cake mixer or a washing-machine. Too often housekeepers put up with the poor outfits they have and let a mistaken economy prevent their securing the right kind of tools. Nothing worth having is gained by washing dishes in a rusty and battered pan, drying them on ragged towels, any more than by serving your puddings in a chipped bake-dish or measuring ingredients in a leaky cup. This is not real economy; it is either slovenliness or sloth. When a woman does her own work she can surely trust herself to take care of the articles she uses, and she should not stint herself in buying those she needs.

Also she should dress for the part of maid-of-all-work when she is filling that rôle. Tightly fitting waists and long skirts should never be worn, and wash frocks are the best, since the material not only does not harbor odors of cooking as does a woolen fabric, but the garment can be washed when it is soiled.

A shirtwaist and short skirt or a one-piece frock is the best uniform, and always there should be a large and comprehensive apron with a high bib and shoulder-straps. In addition to this it is well to have a couple of aprons supplied with sleeves, which can be slipped on over an afternoon frock when getting dinner ready or when washing up afterward. All the aprons should be long enough to come down well to the hem of the gown and should be of some pretty goods, such as gingham or percale, or one of the crinkly fabrics which do not need to be ironed after washing. There is no reason why a woman who does her own work should not look attractive while she is at the process. Above all, she should abjure curl-papers, kid curlers, and similar atrocities both while at her duties and when presiding at the breakfast-table for a family which should surely take away with them an agreeable mental picture of the mistress of the house. If these adjuncts are actually necessary to render the wearer presentable later in the day, she should at least conceal them under a pretty boudoir cap. Such a cap is advisable not only on account of the appearance, but as a protection to the hair from smoke and steam.

After the morning meal is over the housekeeper may either put her dishes to soak in hot water, leave her beds to air, and go out to do her marketing, or she may decide to postpone the purchasing until later in the day and despatch her household duties before she leaves the house. Often it seems wiser to go to market late in the morning, or even in the afternoon, and thus have the best part of the forenoon unbroken for domestic occupations. The systematic housekeeper can usually plan her meals so that this plan can be followed without inconvenience.

In the well-kept flat there is not very much to do when there are only two in the family. With so few in the house articles do not get out of place to any marked extent, and when the windows have been opened in the chambers and living-room while breakfast was going on there is little to hinder the housekeeper from devoting only a short time to pushing furniture back into place, running a carpet-sweeper over the floor, and doing necessary dusting. A bed or two must be made, the bath-room put in order, the dishes washed, and the dining-room and kitchen set to rights; but in the apartment where the woman does her own work there will be no accumulation of other persons’ dirt to be removed.

When a whole house is occupied there is more to be done. Halls and stairs must be brushed, perhaps front steps swept, stoves looked after in winter, and flies beaten out and rooms shaded in summer. Other duties will present themselves if there is more than a single floor to be kept in order—a floor on which are found kitchen, pantry, and dining-room as well as chambers and bath-room.

Whether it be an apartment or a whole house, the same order of work should be followed. The morning should be the time applied to turning off any heavy or disagreeable work which has to be done. Cleaning, sweeping, dusting, making ready of vegetables for dinner, preparing the pudding or other dessert which is to be cooked later in the day, should always be planned for the early hours of the day. This is the time when the energies are at their best and freshest, and it is also the period when interruptions are least likely. In the afternoon one cannot be secure against callers or other demands upon leisure—to say nothing of the comfort one feels in knowing that the unpleasing portions of the day’s toil are done and over with!

The young housekeeper who becomes absorbed in her new occupation sometimes slips into the fault of yielding herself to it too unreservedly. When a woman really loves the work of cooking and planning, of keeping her house in exquisite order and contriving to make supply and demand meet one another, she is in danger of becoming given over to it. Her husband is not likely to be able to understand her attitude, and although he may enjoy a well-kept home, he will probably feel he desires something more in his wife than a domestic devotee.

Against the danger of drifting into this position the young housekeeper should be on the alert. No one else is as much interested as is she in the business of running her particular home, and the sooner she appreciates this the better for her and the more agreeable for every one else. At first she will possibly wish to talk of little else, but after the very earliest novelty has worn off she should wake up to the perception that there are other things in the world besides her home. She should see that she must keep herself in good mental condition as well as keep her house; that the time is not wasted that she spends in reading, in wise recreation, especially in permitting herself a little rest each afternoon which will help preserve her freshness and vigor and put her into condition to make life pleasant for her husband when he comes home at night.

For this is as important a point as any other in housekeeping. Even a man who loves his home wearies of finding a worn-out wife at dinner every evening, and of being confined for subjects of conversation to the round of the happenings connected with the butcher, the baker, and the grocer. He likes a lively, fresh wife awaiting him; he enjoys being entertained after the hard toil of the day; he is pleased when she is glad to go with him for a little outing or a mild dissipation. To be in readiness for this is an object the housekeeper should have in view through the work of the day, and she should resolutely cut out any additional labor which will interfere with her making the dwelling a home as well as a mere place to live in.

As a practical illustration of this let me commend the habit of letting the dinner-dishes wait to be washed until the next morning when there is something on hand with which this work would clash. While it is undoubtedly agreeable to go to bed with the pleasant sensation that there are no “hangovers” in the way of undischarged duties, it is often wiser to postpone a task than to perform it at the cost of hurry and flurry. The dishes may be put in a pan with hot water and a little washing-powder, and left until after breakfast the next day, when they may be washed without haste or nervousness.

VIII

IN THE LAUNDRY

WHETHER or not a housekeeper expects to do her own washing and ironing, she should know in every detail how it is to be done. The occasion may not arise for her to put her hands into the wash-tub or to wield a flat-iron, but she should understand the operations and know how to correct intelligently the errors of her laundress.

There has been a good deal said of the burden of laundry-work, and yet I have known many women who preferred undertaking it themselves to trusting it to the charge of an ignorant or untrained washerwoman. This is sometimes the only variety that can be secured in the country or in small places, but the laundry, which is the resource so often of dwellers in the city, is frequently far more injurious to clothing than the treatment of the poorest laundress. In such circumstances or when economy seems necessary the housekeeper who has the ability to do up the clothing of her family and the bed and table linen possesses a power which means not only comfort, but saving of wear and tear as well as of money.

In the effort to provide the A-B-C of laundry-work a beginning must be made with directions for sorting and preparing the clothes for washing.

The first step is to separate towels and bed-linen from starched white garments and place them in different piles, with flannels and stockings in a third gathering. This should be done on the evening preceding wash-day, as the labor is much lessened by putting the clothes into soak overnight. The method—or lack of method—of the careless laundress is to throw those garments to be submitted to this preliminary treatment into a tub of warm water to which has been added some washing-powder or detersive and leave them thus all night.

Instead of this the clothing should be looked over carefully, dipping the worst-soiled portions into warm water and rubbing the spots well with laundry soap. Each garment should then be rolled up with the soaped side inward, and all the rolls thus made packed down into a tub of lukewarm water to which has been added a small quantity of borax, household ammonia, or other equally good and harmless detersive.

Just here it is well to make a slight digression on this subject. I have already spoken of the injurious effects of washing-soda in laundry-work. It cuts and perforates the linen on which it is used, but it is so potent in taking out dirt that I have known laundresses to bring it with them in their pockets when its use was forbidden by a housekeeper. Washing-soda is possibly the most destructive of these agencies, but there are others on the market, sold as patented preparations, which are hardly less harmful. Of a number of them it is true that they are helpful if used in moderation. The trouble is that the unskilled worker is likely to imagine that where a little is good much would be better, and to apply the powder or fluid with a liberality that has disastrous results.

Even when borax or ammonia—probably the least deleterious of all detersives—is used, it should be in small quantities when the clothing is to be left with it for any length of time. Therefore there should be very little put in the tub in which the raiment is to be soaked.

Woolens, cotton and wool, or silk and wool, colored clothes, and stockings are not given this soaking, but left to one side until the next morning.

When the actual washing begins flannels should have the first attention. They should be given especial care, since upon this depends their coming from the wash smooth and soft instead of thickened and rough. Soap should not be rubbed upon them unless there are badly soiled spots, and then these should be soaped without applying soap to the rest of the garment. A little ammonia should be added to the water in which they are washed, and this should be lukewarm and made into suds by the addition of shaved soap before the flannels are put in. They should not be rubbed on the board but between the hands, with frequent dipping up and down in the water until they look clean.

The flannels are then squeezed between the hands until as much water as possible is gone from them, when they are thrown for rinsing into water of the same temperature as that from which they were taken. This is essential. Water which is either colder or hotter will thicken and shrink the flannels. After a thorough rinsing they are again wrung out and hung to dry at once, in the shade, if an outdoor drying-place is used. They look better if they are ironed while still slightly damp. When both colored and white flannels are to be washed the latter should come second, that specks of lint from them may not disfigure the colored articles.

The second water from the flannels will answer very well for the first washing of the other clothes. It is not necessary to practise this economy in a flat furnished with hot water from the cellar, but the fact is worth recalling when the supply of warm water is insufficient.

Too many pieces should not be put into the tub at once, as the clothes cannot be washed properly if crowded together, and plenty of water is demanded to get them clean. The water should be warm and the clothes which have been soaked overnight will require little rubbing on the board in order to make them clean. It may be mentioned that clothing which is worn long enough to become badly soiled will need an amount of hard rubbing which will wear it out much sooner than garments that have been thrown into the wash before they are very dirty.

The boiler, half full of cold water, should be at hand. Colored clothes are never boiled, and they may be washed separately if this seems more convenient. After the soiled spots on the white clothes have been well soaped the pieces should be dropped into the boiler. The addition of a tablespoonful of kerosene to the water is beneficial. The boiler should be put on the stove and the water brought to a boil, stirring the clothes up from the bottom with a clothes-stick from time to time. The boiling should not continue long, but the clothes be removed as soon as the water has fairly boiled. Too long on the fire yellows the clothing.

Clean hot water should be at hand and into this each article should be dropped as it comes from the boiler. Careful rinsing is one of the secrets of having clothes a good color after washing. Each piece should be turned inside out to rinse it sufficiently. The garments to be blued should be transferred from the rinsing water to cold water to which a few drops of bluing have been added. Judgment must be used in this addition or the clothing will be too blue. A favorite trick of careless laundresses is to save themselves the scrubbing which would make the garments clean, and cover their fault by making them very blue.

After the bluing the unstarched pieces may be wrung and hung out to dry. The other pieces must be starched as will be directed a little further on.

The rinsing water in which the clothes were dipped after coming from the boiler will serve for the first washing of the colored garments. As these need no bluing, such of them as do not require starching may be rinsed and hung out at once to dry. Those that must be stiffened may be dipped into the starch, wrung out, well shaken, and dried.

For boiled starch, a half-cupful of the dry starch is needed in proportion to a quart of boiling water. The starch is made to a paste with cold water, the boiling water poured upon it, and the mixture stirred over the fire until it is clear and smooth. Some laundresses insist upon boiling the starch an hour, but good results may be gained with the preparation made as just directed. This starch is of the right consistency for shirts, aprons, etc., but it must be thinned to use for either table-linen or for delicate underwear until it is little thicker than single cream. If shirt bosoms or cuffs or the cuffs of shirtwaists are to be stiffened, raw starch must be added to the boiled. Raw starch is prepared by moistening a handful of the raw starch to a paste with a little cold water, increasing the water until a quart of it has been used, and stirring it with a piece of fine white soap.

The pieces which have already been passed through the boiled starch may be dipped into the raw starch for additional stiffening, after the first starch has dried in them. They are well moistened in the raw starch, rolled up and left for half an hour or so, and ironed while damp. The quantity for which direction has just been made is rather large for a small family, but the proportions may be used in smaller measure.

Cheap soap and starch should never be employed; they are an extravagance in the end. The soap should be bought, in a small family, about a dozen cakes at a time and dried. One cake is enough for a small wash, unless left floating in the tub after its use is over.

All stains should be looked to before the clothes are washed at all. Fruit and wine stains, like those from coffee and tea, may be taken out by stretching the spotted part over a basin and pouring boiling water through the fabric. The process should be repeated several times or until the stain is gone. Soap will often “set” a spot which would come out if washed in clear water. Fruit stains, rust stains—such as iron-mold—and sometimes ink stains may be removed by wetting the spots with lemon-juice, sprinkling salt upon this, and laying the article in the sun. The operation must be done more than once before the spot will come out entirely. The same treatment will sometimes obliterate mildew stains, but if these prove obstinate, boiling in buttermilk the article marked will perhaps take them out. Turpentine will remove paint stains, and oil marks must be washed with cold water and a good white soap. Grass stains are sometimes taken out by rubbing with butter and then washing this out. All spots or stains are far harder to get rid of after they have once been put through the regular wash.

Fine pieces of linen like doilies, centerpieces, embroidered and lace-trimmed handkerchiefs, or very delicate lingerie underwear should never be washed with the ordinary clothing unless the housekeeper gives her special attention to them. They should under no circumstances be rubbed on the wash-board, but rubbed between the hands in a good suds made of warm water and a fine white soap, and rinsed very carefully. If they are to be stiffened at all the starch water through which they are passed should be no heavier than milk. While still warm such articles should be pressed on the wrong side; and if embroidered, a thick woolen cloth must be laid under the ironing-sheet. By this method the work on the article stands out well.

A little experience with ironing is worth more than instruction. When the clothes have been well sprinkled and folded, the work done evenly, and each piece rolled up tightly when dampened, a strong arm and steady, smooth strokes will give good results; but practice is needed to make the work entirely satisfactory. Experience will tell when the iron is the right heat. For starched clothes a greater heat is needed than for flannels; the iron must be tried on a piece of paper to make sure it is not too hot. Each piece pressed should be ironed until dry to make a smooth finish. Table and bed linen should be ironed lengthwise. Always the irons should be well wiped off before using, and when not in service they should stand on end on a shelf. Never should they be left on the range when not in use; this roughens the surface.

The electric iron is a great aid, but this must be used with care or it will be short-circuited and burned out. Always the power must be turned off when the iron is laid aside for even a few minutes.

No advice as to laundry-work would be complete that did not speak a word relative to mending. The woman who does her own work will be on the alert for breaks or thin places in any article and will lay pieces thus damaged to one side as they are pressed. As a matter of course it is well to make repairs before the washing is done, when this is possible, but many garments are far pleasanter to mend after laundering than before. Stockings do not gain enough harm by being washed before darning to offset the unpleasantness of having to mend them while they are still soiled.

When possible, fine articles which have to be darned or carefully mended with a patch or by piecing are best repaired before they are ironed. After they have been washed they can be put aside until the housekeeper has time to mend them properly, and they can then have an iron run over them and the mended spot smoothed.

The life of fine table-linen can be prolonged indefinitely by attention to the first break in the hemstitching, the first wear of a thread in the fabric, the first hole in lace. After the material once begins to go, even long and careful mending will scarcely save it, but watchfulness for the earliest symptoms of wear will postpone the evil day.

IX

WHEN COMPANY COMES

ELABORATE entertaining should not be undertaken by a young couple of moderate means. Hospitality should be a matter of course, but never on a scale that makes it a burden to carry out at the time or to pay for afterward.

Perhaps the best and in many respects the most agreeable form of hospitality is that which calls in the occasional guest to an informal meal—a sort of improvised party. The husband asks a crony to dine on a certain night, the wife invites a friend to meet him. Little change is made in the family meal—perhaps a salad added as well as a sweet, or more unusual items ordered, or a special dessert prepared, but nothing which would bring the repast into the line of a dinner-party. There is no state and ceremony and everything is pleasant and jolly. Such little dinners are among the most charming forms of entertainment that can be achieved by young people of moderate means. When it seems well to widen the circle of invited guests, all to be done is to increase the provision made without departing from the simplicity which is one of the features of this kind of entertaining.

In the properly regulated home, where the observances of polite society are followed as much when the family is alone as when there is company, guests have no terrors. When the unexpected visitor arrives the table is found spread for two in the same style that it would be for ten. The napery is fresh and well laundered; the silver, glass, and china are shining—clean and arranged in correct order—the knife at the right of the plate with the soup or bouillon spoon, the fork at the left with the napkin; the bread-and-butter plate, with its slice of bread or roll and the butter-ball, near the fork, to correspond with the water-glass on the other side.

In such a home the maid is taught to follow the orderly sequence of courses, changing the plates and crumbing the table with as much pains for one as for half a dozen. Little by little she becomes accustomed to the routine, so that when a more formal entertainment is planned her work seems to her merely an amplification of that to which she has grown wonted.

At the same time a warning should be uttered to the housekeeper of small ménage against attempting to ape the hospitality of those whose incomes far exceed her own. Pretense is always absurd, and the woman who undertakes to imitate the style of the wealthy and fashionable hostess only renders herself ridiculous without in the least impressing those with whom she is striving to compete. Such entertaining strains her income and is in reality far inferior to the little parties she might give that would possess a merit all their own.

The hostess who aspires to give dinners should make them small, in the first place. Six is an excellent number—four besides the man and woman of the house—and it is rarely safe for the beginner to have more than eight all told, unless she is prepared to hire extra service. Fully as much attention should be bestowed upon the selection of the guests as upon the items of the bill of fare. Friends may be unexceptionable taken alone or in their own environment who do not mix with those from another circle, and in these conditions even the most delightful develop unexpected powers of boring and being bored. To get the right persons together at a dinner and to seat them in the proper combinations requires a good deal of social skill, and for this reason it is better for the tyro in entertaining to start with small parties and only work up to the larger affairs as she becomes more accustomed to exercising general hospitality.

Experiments in food should never be tried on company. Only those articles should be served which the maid has proved her ability to prepare perfectly and to serve correctly. When innovations are to be presented it should be in the privacy of the family circle. A dinner that is confined to a few courses should be remarkable rather for their excellence than for their unusual character or for their costliness. I have known housekeepers who won themselves a reputation for their dinners when the items of these were of the simplest character, but were beautifully cooked and served with a touch of unusualness which redeemed them from the commonplace.

Again let me warn the hostess against attempting too much on such occasions. In any establishment not supplied with a corps of trained servants a great deal of the work of even the quietest dinner falls upon the hostess. To her it comes to see that the table is set, the many small and fussy details looked after; generally she must give the final touches of seasoning or blending to soup, sauces, and salad-dressing. It is no wonder if sometimes she comes to the table too tired either to enjoy the food or to lead the talk of the board and play the part so important for a hostess who desires to have her guests enjoy their evening.

Such fatigue is not necessary if the rules I have laid down are followed. If, for example, the cook can make an unapproachable tomato or oyster bisque; if she can roast a leg of lamb so that it will melt in the mouth, prepare candied sweet-potatoes to tempt an epicure, and spinach with the knack of a French chef; if there is some special sweet dish for which she has made herself famous, whether this be a prune soufflé with whipped cream, or a frozen mousse or ice—then let the hostess confine herself to these items for her company dinners until her maid has acquired further accomplishments. What difference does it make if precisely the same dinner was served to a knot of friends last week? The guests are different this time, even if the dishes are unchanged, and these are good enough to stand repetition though they appear half a dozen times in succession!

In a neighborhood where dinner is usually served in the middle of the day and the period for social festivity is in the evening, supper may take the place of dinner and be no less attractive. When this is the case, I would advise the hostess to adopt some specialty and stick to it, with only a few variations.

For instance, I know one housekeeper who was transplanted from the South to another section of the country, and who there became famous for the meals she served from her mother’s cook-book. Fried chicken with cream gravy, Southern sweet-potatoes, beaten biscuit, Sally Lunn, waffles, fried oysters, batter-bread, syllabubs, were among the dainties she offered her appreciative guests. Not that she had all these at one time, but she rang the changes on them, to the delectation of the company.

Another woman I know who was born and raised in New England made a success much farther south than this by feasting her friends on such delicacies as genuine baked beans, cooked in a bean-pot (she made the fireless cooker take the place of the ancient brick oven), Boston brown bread—she called it “rye ’n’ Injun”—fried pork with cream gravy, even creamed codfish and boiled potatoes, made to taste as no one had ever before dreamed such things could taste. Of course doughnuts and coffee were included in her menus, and pumpkin-pies and other dishes of that sort. It was amusing and, in a way, pathetic to see the joy of the exiles from New England before whom were placed the viands they had been used to in the long-ago.

The simplicity of the provision should not be made an excuse for departing from the orthodox methods of service. A supper such as I have described can be served with as much daintiness as a formal dinner, and the courses should follow one another in as orderly a style.

As strict in the lines of its etiquette as a dinner is the lunch, where usually women are the only guests. Such a meal as this may also be limited in its items. It may begin with bouillon or soup in cups and, without pausing for an entrée, may go directly on to a solid course, such as chicken in some form, chops, cutlets, and the like, with a vegetable or two; this be followed by a salad with crackers and cheese, and the meal wind up with a sweet of light character, and coffee. When one has a well-enough trained maid to introduce such an entrée as oyster pâtés, crab meat au gratin, eggs à la Bénédictine, or something of the kind, and can reconcile the extra cost to her economical conscience, the guests will probably enjoy the additional provision, but no hostess can feel she is guilty of social stinginess if she omits these features and follows the simpler lines.

The same caution may be given here as with the dinner—to introduce no novelties for the first time. Use the family as an experiment station before presenting the new dishes or the untried fashion of serving them to outsiders.

Like the luncheon is the breakfast-party, with this difference—that men are frequently invited to the latter, while they are seldom at the formal luncheon. For such a breakfast, to be served at twelve-thirty or one, the first item may be fruit; the soup may be omitted and the meat course, consisting of some such dish as broiled or fried chicken, chops or steak or fish, should be accompanied by a good hot bread as well as by potatoes daintily cooked; and coffee in large cups may be served the same time. A sweet to wind up a meal like this is rather out of place unless it takes the form of waffles or griddle-cakes of a delicate variety with maple syrup or honey. Sometimes the breakfast concludes as it began, with fruit, although of a different kind from that with which the meal opened. When oranges or grapefruit prelude the repast, grapes, etc., may end it.

All these affairs I have mentioned are for a small number. The afternoon tea is the best method of entertaining guests on a larger scale, and with a minimum of expense.

I do not need to go here into the details of sending out cards for such an affair. Whether the tea be a single one, given for the amiable purpose of wiping out social obligations, or as a means of introducing a visitor to the local friends of the hostess; or a series of three or four afternoons, the method followed is the same and the guest who comes expects nothing beyond a light refreshment. At the more elaborate affairs of this sort coffee or chocolate may be served as well as tea, or a bowl of punch offered. The edible provisions are always practically the same and cover a range of sandwiches of different kinds—piquant, solid, and sweet—varied by toast buttered plain or sprinkled with cinnamon, hot scones, small buttered biscuit and similar cates, followed by cakes of various kinds, plain or fancy, and in some cases bonbons and salted nuts. The last are not really necessary.

At such a tea as this, if it comprise more than a few intimates, the maid is usually in attendance to open the door, direct the guests to the drawing-room, bring hot tea or hot water when needed, remove soiled cups and perhaps pass the food. In the latter service the hostess may have the aid of her friends, who usually appreciate the honor of being asked to “pour” or to help act as hostesses in introducing new-comers, looking after the comfort of strangers and making sure that no one is neglected in the distribution of refreshments.

Thus far reference has been made to hospitality exercised in the home where a maid is kept. Far more numerous are those establishments in which no regular service is employed. Even in these one’s friends may be entertained as delightfully, if not as formally, as in the houses supplied with hired domestics.

The regulation dinner is practically out of the question, and it is wiser not to attempt it. But merry informal suppers, luncheons, and breakfasts can be compassed and often these are greater successes than those parties given under the supervision of a staff of trained servants. The main point to be guarded against is the attempt at anything which cannot be put through well. As soon as struggle is made to do the impossible the effort becomes not only a burden to the host and hostess, but a sort of nightmare to the guests. Better have a roast-oyster party in the kitchen, where selected members of the company do the cooking over the gas-stove, while others take upon themselves the responsibility of serving the eaters, and the whole affair is a jolly picnic, than to endeavor to manage a stately function with insufficient aid and appurtenances.

The same sort of informality may mark the afternoon-tea party in the home where no maid is kept. All the making ready can be done in advance, the sandwiches cut and piled, the cakes arranged, the china and tea equipage set out, so that nothing is needed but to start the kettle to boiling and make the tea when it is needed. A friend will preside at the tea-table, other friends will look after other details and leave the hostess free to welcome and entertain her guests. Such a party as this is one of the pleasantest, least costly, and generally satisfactory ways of gathering one’s friends about one for a social hour or two.

The hostess of small means and no maid should concentrate upon some such line of entertaining as this and stick to it. She should aspire to become known for her merry afternoon teas, her pleasant Sunday-night suppers, her gay and informal after-theater spreads, where the chafing-dish is the principal feature and where her guests are so well amused that they think far less of the simple food put before them than they do of the good-fellowship they have enjoyed. Formal entertaining may have to be foregone, but the substitutes she offers are more genuinely satisfactory both to the guests who share them and to the host and hostess who have to pay for them!

X

THE CHILD IN THE HOUSE

WITH the introduction of a baby into an establishment the whole general management of the place is changed.

That is to say, it is changed for a while. A serious mistake is made when even so important an event as the arrival of a new member of the family is permitted to cause a permanent alteration in the conduct of the home. The most devoted of husbands and fathers will yield his position as first-and-foremost for a while to the latest advent; will take it for granted that his wife shall be absorbed in the needs of the baby, shall have no conversation but that which deals with its joys and woes, its accidents and accomplishments; but eventually any man worth a row of pins will recollect that after all he was a human being, a husband, and a householder before he was a parent, and will claim a few of the rights coming to him in those capacities.

The prospective mother who grasps this truth and puts it into practical service after the baby comes is much more likely to make a success of her wifehood and matronhood than the one who is all mother and nothing else. If the child is well and is properly trained there is no reason why it should not be a satisfactory member of society and a joy to the household and to all about it instead of a nuisance to every one except its most devoted parent.

A great deal more of the comfort of the child and its future good habits is settled within the first month of its life than is suspected by those who have had little to do with the care of babies. If it is started with regular habits of eating and sleeping, is from the beginning accustomed to lie in its cradle or crib instead of being held in the arms constantly and lifted and rocked at its first whimper, it takes such treatment for granted and forms no habit of making demands for that which is difficult for the attendant always to supply and does no good to the child to receive.

With a delicate or sickly babe the same strict rules cannot be enforced as with a healthy infant, and yet even a puny child is better off if kept to a steady regimen than if fed, taken up, and put down at uncertain intervals, and allowed to accumulate a crop of irregular fashions of eating and sleeping. Sometimes the struggle to implant a sense of law and order is a difficult undertaking when the ill health of the child or the carelessness of the first nurse has brought it into bad ways, but persistence in the effort is worth while for the sake of the comfort success is bound to bring later to all concerned.

The periods of feeding are determined by the doctor, to begin with, and the space between them is gradually widened as the child grows older. The system which should be the guide of the housekeeper in her home has as large a field of usefulness applied to children as anywhere else. The baby should be washed and dressed at a regular hour; the time for its meals and its outing should be invariable; the hour for undressing it, washing it, and making it ready for bed should never vary except in cases of rare exigency. If it is a healthy child it will fall naturally into the habit of taking a morning nap after the bath and the meal, of waking at a certain time, and then of lying comfortably in the bed or on a couch or in its carriage with no wails to be lifted and walked with. Modern medical science has declared that the less handling a little baby receives the better for it, and that for some months its growth should be in most respects as much like that of a vegetable as possible.

As the child gets older and begins to use its limbs it will be good for it to be exercised rather more, but nature is a pretty safe guide to follow in this respect. The baby who is well and normal is not slow to show its growth and progress, and it is far wiser for the parent to be led by these than to attempt to hurry development either of body or of mind. The child will assert itself soon enough, and so decidedly as to leave no room for doubt as to its proclivities.

Possibly it may sound a trifle absurd to say that from the first the child should have the habit of obedience implanted, yet this is no absurdity, but a serious and important fact. At an astonishingly early age the infant endeavors to pit its small will against that of its seniors, and the initial step in revolt is promptly followed by others unless the attempt is checked at once.

Neither time nor place is sufficient here to go into the reasons why the training of a child in obedience, even at the cost of suffering and punishment, is not the exercise over the weak of the tyranny of the strong, but the display of superior wisdom for the benefit of the inexperienced. It is enough to remind those who think that a child should be allowed to grow up naturally, unrestrained by rule and severity, when severity is required to enforce discipline, that all through life the human being must conform to constituted authority as exemplified in the laws of health, of the state, of teachers and employers, of morality, of religion. In view of this the sooner the child learns to defer to those in whose charge it is the better for it later on, the less cruel the lessons life holds in store for it.

Apart from this there can be no doubt that the well-trained child is actually happier than the one with no law but its own whim. Also it is much pleasanter company than the self-willed, undisciplined infant who follows its own sweet will regardless of the comfort or preference of others.

The same kind of regimen established for a child in babyhood should be pursued when it grows older and begins to share more actively in the life of the household. The mistaken custom of permitting a child to keep the same hours, eat the same diet, and follow practically the same life as its elders cannot be sufficiently condemned. The habit of going to bed early after a light meal, of having the heaviest repast in the middle of the day, of partaking of such food as is particularly suited to the needs of a growing child, of being debarred rich and indigestible articles of diet, of having postponed until more advanced years exciting amusements and pursuits instead of being hurried into them while hardly out of infancy, should all be enforced. A child is not a miniature man or woman, but an immature human being who must develop naturally, as plants grow, and is wronged by being forced into premature bloom or fruition, mentally or emotionally as much as physically.

The child’s food should be carefully considered by the mother and she should not regard the time wasted she bestows in studying food values and devising the best sort of diet for the nursery. Not until the first teeth begin to come should starchy food of any sort be given, and then with caution. Until the saliva flows freely to help digest starch, bread in any form, crackers, etc., should be withheld. As the child reaches the stage where solid food is allowed this should continue to be simple in character. A child does not have the longing for variety common to more sophisticated palates.

For the breakfast of the child of two or more years of age a cereal, well cooked, with plenty of milk, should be given. Sugar should not accompany it. When sweet is desirable, as it often is, it should be taken in some other way than as an adjunct to a regular article of diet. With the cereal and milk the child seldom needs anything more, but if the consumption of the porridge is not sufficient, a soft-boiled egg or a poached egg may be supplied, with a little toast. Milk should be the drink.

In the middle of the morning a supplementary meal may be taken, and this may consist of a piece of bread and butter and a glass of milk. Whole-wheat bread is better than that made from the bolted flour. When there is a tendency to constipation Graham bread is good.

At noon the substantial provision of the day is to be served and a cup of soup may begin the dinner, followed by a very small piece of steak or chop cut up fine, or by an egg, if one has not been taken at breakfast, a baked potato, well mashed, with butter or cream and salt upon it. Rice is also excellent when served with plenty of good butter. A plain sweet, like stewed fruit, a milk pudding, one of rice, of arrowroot, tapioca, or a custard, will answer. Milk may again be drunk unless the child has eaten a meat soup or broth and meat besides.

Generally the little one who has taken so substantial a meal as this at noon will need nothing more until supper-time, when bread and milk, crackers and milk, or something of the sort may be provided; or bread and a good plain jam or stewed fruit, like prunes or apple-sauce, with a glass of milk. After this comes the child’s bed-time, and it should be put to sleep in a quiet room, alone, with the door open if symptoms of nervousness declare themselves, but without a nurse or other attendant. This may sound hard-hearted, but the child who is accustomed to such solitude from infancy will not feel it an infliction, and the saving of inconvenience to the parents in the habit of going to sleep unattended is incalculable.

The good manners of the child should receive early consideration. The habit of courtesy implanted in infancy gives a finish of manner in later life that no surface polish can impart. It is as easy for a little boy and girl to be taught to rise when elders come into the room, to take their turn at the table, to handle a knife, fork, and spoon properly, to eat in a decent fashion, to say, “Thank you,” “If you please,” and the like, and to show the thoughtfulness for the feelings and comfort of others which is the foundation of all good breeding, as it is to let the youngsters grow up as they will and hammer superficial manners into them when they are older. The good old rule that “children should be seen and not heard” is sadly in need of a revival in many homes, and parents cannot wonder at the unpopularity of their offspring when they reflect upon the disagreeable qualities these often possess.

All this does not mean that children should constantly be snubbed and repressed until individuality and initiative are crushed out of them. In most children these characteristics are strong and triumphant. But a certain measure of deference to elders should be inculcated—a respect which will prevent a child from interrupting the conversation of his seniors, a regard for the conventions which, after all, have more to do with peace and amity in the family than many of us are willing to admit.

As the child grows older and begins school and kindergarten, other children will be associated with him, and from them he will learn many things it would never occur to his parents to teach him. Sometimes it seems as though the least that children acquire at school is their regular lessons. These become almost a side issue. The influence of the strange boy or girl often carries more weight with a child than all the precepts of father, mother, and teacher. Part of this effect is transitory, but much of it sticks through life; and while the children are little more than babies it becomes incumbent upon the parents—by which is usually meant the mother—to strengthen the bond between herself and her child so that she may the more effectually offset the outside forces that sway him.

The sooner the mother recognizes that this is her lifelong “job” and a most important one, the better for all concerned. The mere animal care of the child any competent nurse could bestow, and sometimes it seems as if the charge of a specialist who understood the ins and outs of dietetics and was able to study the child’s constitution impersonally might perhaps be better than the attention received from the average parent. With regard to the question of instruction in book learning there is little doubt that a well-qualified teacher is far more capable than the most devoted father or mother. All such duties as these can be delegated to those who are trained and paid for the work.

When it comes to the companionship, however, it is another matter. Here is something only the mother can give. It is “up to her” to study the ins and outs of her child’s nature; to know where and how to bring pressure in order to counterbalance another influence; to make herself so one with him that he turns to her instinctively, with complete confidence in her ability to meet his need; to be so close in his intimacy that she grasps his thoughts almost before they are formulated; to persuade him unconsciously to rely upon her judgment, her companionship, her understanding to an extent that will hold him in temptation and move him to range himself on the side of right against wrong.

Of course it is not always easy. The mother does not resign her own individuality by the mere fact of motherhood; she does not lay aside her special interests when she takes up those of her child. Yet if she lets him suspect that anything comes ahead of his well-being in her heart she makes a fatal mistake; she starts the rift between them which may widen into a chasm not to be bridged by all her agony and tears.

It may sometimes be hard to yield up one’s own will and preference in this way, and yet the mother gets her pay as she goes along, and her labor brings its reward in a fashion unequaled in any other vocation in the universe. Nothing in the whole world pays so well as being a mother!

THE END

Transcriber’s Notes:

Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.

Perceived typographical errors have been changed.

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