Chapter I: Part 1

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 2-quart saucepan
One 5-quart saucepan
One 3-quart double boiler
One 2-quart double boiler
Two baking-pans for meat _or_ one plain baking-pan and
one covered roaster
One large frying-pan
One small frying-pan
One colander
One graduated quart measure
One graduated half-pint cup
One meat-broiler
One fish or oyster broiler
Three jelly-cake tins
One large cake-tin
One biscuit-pan
One set muffin-tins
Three bread-tins
Three pie-plates
One 2-quart pitcher
Two jelly-molds
One pudding-mold
One steamer
One teakettle
One teapot
One coffee-pot
Fireless cooker
Chopping bowl and knife
Meat chopper or grinder
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.