When The Heat Is Greatest

1901

When the heat is greater out of doors than indoors, it is a mistake to think that open windows will cool a room. Instead, in the early morning, after the room is dusted and put in order, the windows should be shut and the shades drawn down and kept so until the sun has gone.

When the sun shines on the window most of the day, it should be protected by an awning of some sun resisting color that will keep out all stray sunbeams. An awning, even with the shades lifted, will keep a room comparatively dark and cool.

When it is necessary to keep a sickroom cool, an excellent plan is to open the door and almost shut it as fast as possible for about 20 or 30 times in succession; nothing changes the air in a room so quickly or so well. Then wet cloths should be hung before the open windows or anywhere where a draft of air may pass through them. Plenty of cracked ice is necessary in hot weather within reach of the patient, and in the room quite a good sized block of it in a deep pan will help keep the temperature down. — Helen Tripp in American Queen.

Duties of Brides Taught In College

1920

CLASS NOW LEARNING "HOW TO STAY MARRIED."

Engaged Girls Strive Hard for Immunity Against Grouchy Mates and Alluring Vamps.

DENTON, Texas, Jan. 1. — A school, unique in its purpose and unprecedented in the Southwest, is being conducted under the auspices of the College of Industrial Arts, a school for women here. "How to stay married" is what it teaches, and eighteen young ladies, from various towns in Texas, whose engagements have been announced, are the pupils.

For the purpose of giving these and other young ladies who expect to make homes for some good men, proper instructions in the art of housekeeping and home making, two cottages have been rented by the college. The members of the "How to Stay Married" class are actually keeping house in these cottages, and under the tutorage of a very successful married woman, are wrestling with the various problems which confront the housewife from the altar to the grave.

Right Down to Brass Tacks.

Those young ladies are making up the beds, mopping the floors, preparing sample meals for the prospective husbands, sweeping, ironing, dusting, arranging pictures on the walls, setting the table, washing dishes, polishing stoves and brushing the ceilings. Also they are preparing for receptions, entertaining guests, giving dinners, presiding at social functions and doing a little of any and everything which may fall their lot in after life.

But the mere drudgery of housework does not compose the entire course of "How to Stay Married." There are courses in the business of housekeeping. The students keep accurate sets of books showing imaginary expenses their "house" involves. They do the buying of groceries, complain about the prices, battle for reduction and full weight. They wrangle with the ice man and argue with the butcher. They skimp here and there and deposit their "earned" savings in the bank. They make old gowns over, Johnny's pants from father's old ones, convert worn out dresses into aprons for the girls or themselves and even make dishrags from old flour sacks.

Find Delight In Their Work.

They have their meals for "husband and the family" on the dot and they are all prim when the time for "hubby" to come home from work or the office arrives. It's a strenuous life, but the students declare they like it and are learning things which will be useful to them.

The matron in charge of the class and the president of the college have told the girls "that if they complete the course arranged for them and carry out the practices inculcated therein they will have husbands when they have grandchildren." The teacher said "girls who complete and follow this course of instruction need never fear any vamps, late nights, grouches or divorces."

The college expects to increase its activities along these lines during the next term of school. It is said already a number of young ladies have applied for the course next year. Those who graduate are given special diplomas.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 8.

Hubby's Helping Hand

1920

We see no reason under the sun why a husband should not do chores around the family home, wash dishes, make beds, sweep, mop and dust. Nor do we see a good reason for a husband seeking to make a wife pay him for putting paint on the front steps or doing necessary repairing with nails. Our opinion, thus publicly expressed, says the New York Morning Telegram, is upheld by the learned jurist, Vice Chancellor Backes of New Jersey.

George W. Newberry has a home at Belmar, N. J., and lived there with his wife. He now is having law difficulties with Mrs. Newberry, which have nothing to do with what we are considering. In the course of the legal contests Mr. Newberry put in a bill for work done around the house and other chores. Newberry demanded $2,600 for doing these chores around the place.

This first-rate judge said: "If I were to allow your claim, any husband who washes dishes for his wife might ask $8 a week. This kind of work is a gift."

That is just what it is — a gift. The dishes that he washes are as much his as his wife's. The floor he sweeps and the beds he makes and the steps that he paints are his as well as his wife's.

We are pleased, we repeat, that the status of idle husbands has been fixed by Jersey law. It has been said that a "woman's work is never ended." It will be ended, and the woman can rest and enjoy life if the husband takes a hand in doing the housework.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 6. (Some errors were corrected to make sense of one passage. A random phrase, "an order, also, forbidding Mr. Newberry from interfering with his wife's property." was part of the article as well.)

Lamps For The Library

1902

The newest lamps for the drawing room and library are of metal and naturally form a fitting foundation for those beautiful bent glass domes in leaded effects or other metallic settings. A number are in art nouveau effects; one of these is of oxidized brass. In shapes they range from graceful forms (not the very squat shapes) to tall monumental affairs of the banquet variety.

A clever thing of Grecian form with low, graceful supports is in mandarin bronze, and is very attractive. One charming oxidized bronze lamp is in the old Dutch style, a simple, sturdy loving cup as to shape and the column resting on three savage looking griffins.

Choosing a lamp is easier than choosing a shade, for a shade must look well when lit up, and it must be becoming. — New York American.

Economy in Small Ways

1896

The little leaks in the household expenses, says the Jenness-Miller Monthly, are the most mischievous. The big ones are prominent enough to compel attention. Do you not, for example, trust all your tradespeople implicitly? You can't afford to do so.

The head servants in the Vanderbilt and Astor, and other wealthy families have among their chief duties that of weighing the household supplies. Dry goods measurements in the large shops are generally very accurate because the employes are under strict orders to be exact. But grocers and butchers will bear watching. Get for yourself or your kitchen priestess a set of measures and some scales, and after you and she have learned to use them, you will be amazed to see how much you have been paying for that you haven't had.

Even in the most reliable shops — so called — the weighing is very lax. Butchers claim that the deficiencies in their weights are all due to the waste in trimming. Very well, order the meat sent untrimmed. You will get fresher meat, and what you trim off will often give you nice bits for the stock pot, suet, etc. Try it and be convinced.

A quick-witted housekeeper says she has earned many a dollar in plumbers' bills by buying a force cup and learning to handle a wrench. Despite washing soda and potash, now and then something unmeltable slips through the sink strainer and clogs the pipe. All the more modern plumbing has a nut at the bottom of the "goose-neck," just below the sink. By setting a pan beneath this, and with a wrench loosening and then removing the cap, the obstruction will generally be found right there. Sometimes the force-cap applied over the strainer in the sink will be sufficient to clear the pipe without taking the cap off the gooseneck. If both fail, no harm will have been done, but one or the other, or both, succeeds often enough to make it worth while to exercise one's ingenuity a bit.

Objects To Boys Sewing In School

Illinois, 1910

We received a very strong letter this week from a mother protesting against her boy being taught sewing in school when the time is needed to each branches more suitable for the scholars, at least the boys.

She says: "I think it's a shame. My son has to put two and three hours a week at sewing when they don't half know their arithmetic. John forgot to bring something to sew on this morning, so his teacher sent him home at 11:15 a.m. to get something to sew on, and as I was not at home he couldn't find anything, and when he went back to school again he forgot it. Well, his teacher got angry and shook him and sent him down to the principal. The principal sent him home, with a note and told him he couldn't come back to school again until his father came with him.

"I think it's an outrage in these civilized times to waste two and three hours a week at something they will never have any use for. I think every mother ought to sign a petition to have such nonsense stopped and to have that time devoted to the need of the times, which is business. I think it a shame taxpayers have to pay for such nonsense."

—Suburbanite Economist, Chicago, Oct. 28, 1910.


His Accent

An American-born girl was boasting of her English ancestry in public, and said: "Grandpa has lived in this country over 40 years, but he's just as English in his accent as when he went to Oxford; for instance," she added, "he still says horanges!" — Harper's Magazine.

Managing a Husband

1910

Men are like children; they want managing, although you must never let them dream that you think so. No child likes to be ordered about, no man will endure coercion. But managing! It is an art so subtle, so elusive, that few women understand even the rudiments of it.

Sisters mine, let us reason together, says Woman's Life. In every human being there is a spark of the divine; it is yours to fan that spark into a flame — that is managing a man — it is to get the very best out of him there is to have, and not two women in ten can do it. Do not think that there is anything unworthy in managing a man — to bring out the best is a high vocation.

Only let us see to it that we are worthy of it. There are women who have made angels of men, but at the cost of their own divinity. There is room for more than one unselfish person in a family.


His Bad Break

"Will you love me when I am old?" she whispered. "Didn't I tell you that I love you now?" he responded. And she didn't speak to him again for a whole week.


Not Risking a Quarrel

Heiress-Tell me truly, Arthur, is it your love or your reason prompts you to marry me? Arthur—Just as you like, dearest.


To Credit's Discredit

Business will have its periodical reverses so long as a man who couldn't pay cash for a wheelbarrow is able to buy an automobile on credit.

Letting the Wife Know Guests Are Coming

1914

It is difficult for some men to see that it makes it much easier for a wife, in her domestic arrangements with the cook and behind the scenes, if her husband sends her word before the arrival of a guest that he intends bringing home for dinner or over night, ventures the Ladies' Home Journal.

Of course, in any well regulated family the latch string always hangs out, as the saying goes, and an extra plate is easily laid for the unexpected guest. But does a man in his business like to get an order that he cannot fill? Does he like to say he hasn't it in stock? Does he care to be caught shorthanded? Neither does a good housekeeper nor a good cook.

In households where there are money and food to throw away the case is different. But in most homes, where every penny — or every potato — counts, it is only fair for the office side to the let the distaff side know beforehand. It is the right of the wife to know.

Crepe Lingerie

1914

A girl who is courageously preparing to face comparative poverty with the "dearest fellow in the world" is making all of her lingerie in white cotton crinkle crepe — because she knows that for several years, at least, she will have to do her own washing.

Please don't imagine that this bride's undergarments are anything like the atrocities marked "a bargain — 59 cents each." They are lovely, dainty white combinations, petticoats, night dresses and negligees handmade and cut from the latest French patterns. Some of the sets are finished about the neck, front and sleeves with white lingerie beading, through which narrow ribbons may be run, others are edged with hand-embroidered scallops and several are trimmed with narrow cluny, the one sort of imitation lace which washes well and doesn't look cheap on underwear.

This girl has made her boudoir set, so called — although the nearest she'll come to owning a boudoir for years to come will be a bedroom in a small flat — of white crinkle crepe. It consists of a spread for the dressing table, a cover for the sewing machine, a square pillow for the lounge, a pair of sash curtains and a bed spread to match the lingerie outfit and it will always look fresh because she can wash it with her own hands.

Woman's Humor — "Looking For a Maid"

1905

Mrs. Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman was discussing, at her home in Metuchen the popular fallacy that woman has no sense of humor.

"Woman," said this powerful writer, "has a keen sense of humor, and of this fact I am continually hearing excellent proofs. Often it is a sad and bitter humor. But I do not like it less on that account. "From a friend in Exeter I heard a good specimen of woman's humor the other day.

"An old bachelor of Exeter had advertised for a maid of all work. A robust woman of middle age answered his advertisement. The bachelor told her that her appearance, her look of strength, pleased him, and then he proceeded to enumerate the duties that would be required of a maid of all work in his house.

" 'To suit me,' he said, 'a maid will have to do the cooking, the washing and ironing, the sweeping, the cleaning and the marketing. She will have to tend to the garden. She will have to look after my clothes, pressing my trousers once a week, sewing on my buttons, mending my shirts, darning my stockings and so on. She must pay all the bills, and she must keep an account book to show where the money goes. She must—'

"But the woman of middle age held up her hand to interrupt the old bachelor, and his flow of talk ceased.

" 'Well?' he asked.

" 'You,' said the woman, 'don't want hired girl. You want a wife.'

"And with a grim smile — the smile, maybe, of a widow who knew whereof she spoke — she walked away."

Why Some People Are Poor

1879

Silver spoons are used to scrape kettles.

Coffee, tea, pepper and spice are left to stand open and lose their strength.

Potatoes in the cellar grow, and sprouts are not removed until the potatoes become worthless.

Brooms are never hung up, and are soon spoiled.

The flour is sifted in a wasteful manner, and the bread-pan is left with the dough sticking to it.

Clothes are left on the line to whip to pieces in the wind.

Tubs and barrels are left in the sun to dry and fall apart.

Dried fruits are not taken care of in season, and become wormy.

Bags, strings and paper are thrown into the fire.

Pork spoils for want of salt, and beef because the brine wants scalding.

Bits of meat, vegetables, bread and cold puddings are thrown away, when they might be warmed, steamed, and served as good as new.

—The Bucks County Gazette, Bristol, Pennsylvania, Feb. 20, 1879, p. 1.

Miserable Homes – Let Home Be Home Indeed

1874

What a mistake some good people make when they maintain, within the home circle, the rigid rule and decorum which becomes irksome even during committee meeting; when parents and children assemble at the table in solemn silence, and finish the meal within the prescribed minutes; and the late arrival at the breakfast table is scowled at, reprimanded, and remarked upon by mother and father, aunt and uncle, until the more punctual juniors come to regard him as a black sheep.

Oh, horrid home, where the little boys are never seen without their school books, or the little girl without a towel to hem; where ma no more dares to buy a rattle for the baby without mentioning the expenditure to pa, than anybody dares to throw open the parlor shutters or tuck up the curtains, or even at the table to have more of this dish or less of that.

The small boy who hates fat is not accommodated, as Jack Sprat's wife was, by anybody. The tall girl, who naturally likes pudding, has her triangular wedge, and no more; while the eldest son, outgrowing his liking for the dish, is reproved for the leaving of a piece on his plate.

Order and good housekeeping are charming, but the good order of a person, and the regular supply of rations necessary in a workhouse, are not suitable for home. Home is no home unless as far as reason will allow, the taste and wishes of the youngest child are consulted; unless there is freedom of word and action, speech and love, and good will without measure.

When I was a child home was the place where the wicked ceased from troubling, and the weary were at rest. Everything was always forgiven there. There was no awful rod behind the door, no domestic dungeon under the roof. I do not think I grew up a worse woman because I was not whipped, or put to bed without my supper for dressing the bed-post in grandmother's best lace cap, or making paper dolls, against orders, in the front parlor — because life was not made a burden to me by forcing fat into my unwilling mouth, and sugar candy forbidden as though it was poison.

I could shed tears over the wretched homeless children of the house where discipline, as strict as that of the army, is maintained, though their fare is costly and the dress perfect, and their future prospects as to an inheritance final. They are more to be pitied than the children of any poor man, who clusters about their parents' knee without any fear of chiding; who are encouraged to tell their troubles, and kindly lead away from follies; and who will not, in later days, remember "pa" as the old gentleman who flogged them, and "ma" as the old lady who kept the keys, and boxed their ears for them, but think of them with that respect and reverence due by a child to its parents. — The Household.

The Trained Housekeeper — So Your Maid Knows What She's Doing

1895

Benefits Derived from a Scientific Court of Learning

The domestic problem is one of the most vexing as well as important problems of the day.

Training schools for servants are as necessary as they are loudly advocated, but the mistress needs training quite as much as the servant — a training which a season at a fashionable cooking school is inadequate to give.

And it is the middle class housekeeper — the woman who keeps only one servant, the woman whose mother in nine cases out of ten was a notable housekeeper, and did her own work — who needs systematic and scientific training far more than do the heads of more luxurious households, for among these it is no unusual thing to find women who are perfect in every department of housekeeping.

The best housekeeper I know possesses millions in her own right. She never has trouble with servants, for one reason, because she can afford to pay the highest prices, and for another, because she thoroughly understands what duties to expect of each and is quick to recognize the slightest deficiency. She does not always get perfect servants, but she does get the order of intelligence capable of profiting by the instruction given. Her new maids are always turned over to the care of a valued and trusty servant, whom she herself trained many years ago.

When every mother recognizes it as one of her highest duties and privileges to make thorough housekeepers of her daughters, then and only then shall we have cause to congratulate ourselves upon the "New Woman." — New York Herald.