Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber’s Notes

Texts printed in italics in the source document have been transcribed
_between underscores_. Small capitals have been replaced with ALL
CAPITALS.

More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the end of this text.

CHEATING THE JUNK-PILE

Cheating the Junk-Pile

THE PURCHASE AND MAINTENANCE
OF HOUSEHOLD EQUIPMENTS

BY
ETHEL R. PEYSER

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
RICHARDSON WRIGHT
Editor of “House and Garden Magazine”

Illustrated by drawings by
HARRY RICHARDSON
and by photographs

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 FIFTH AVENUE

Copyright, 1922,
BY E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY

_All Rights Reserved_

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

_Courtesy of Central Oil and Gas Stove Company_

BUNGALOW AND PALACE CAN BE FED WITH THE NEWER OIL RANGES WITH PLENTY OF SPACE AND OVENS]

To
“HOME AND MOTHER”
The Experience of Both has
Made this Collection Possible

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book cannot go on its way without acknowledging Richardson Wright, Editor of _House and Garden Magazine_, at whose request the chapters were written, as the source of it and as the stimulus to the gathering of the material. I also want to acknowledge the unflagging services of Celia Arbeit, his secretary, who at every point helped in collating the straying text and furtive photographs.

I must not forget the manufacturers, who have supplied me with information, illustration, and enthusiasm, and also the several experts who were philanthropic enough to read every chapter (before they came out in _House and Garden_) to eradicate any technical or scientific anachronism that might have lurked therein. To all these and others who have helped I am very grateful.

E. R. P.

New York City
August 1922

AUTHOR’S FOREWORD

Ignorant buying is the junk-pile’s subsistence.

This book is in no way intended to be a book on household efficiency, in the usual sense of the word--it is no religio-culinaris, no domestic Baedecker or home Taylor. It is merely meant to be a means to the purchase and care of the best household equipments and to be an instruction _before_ not after the purchase is made. Further, it is meant to cheat the junk-pile, by inspiring the buyer to get the maximum advantage out of every purchase of the thing he buys and by the proper care of it after he gets it. It is a book which conspires against the aspiring junk heap in the yard or in the store-room.

There is so much in the market to-day in the way of household equipments and devices, that a book like this is necessary to give the home-keeper as much of an idea as to what to _eliminate_ as to what to choose. It is necessary, too, to give the home-keeper an idea of the maintenance of what she has elected to buy, as the proper care of possessions adds 100% to their longevity.

In every case in this book the very best devices are discussed. If the reader feels that in any case a too expensive article has been delineated at least he (or she) will get from the discussion of the thing, an idea and ideal of what is to be demanded of this sort of device ... and if she (or he) be improvident, will immediately buy a _cheap_ thing instead of waiting until he (or she) can afford a better article if not the best. In short, the purchaser should demand in every purchase the largest collection of “best traits.”

So this book, then, aims to give the purchaser an idea of what things or _qualities_ to buy; to stimulate the manufacturer who is ready to furnish them when given a reason for doing so; to make of every purchase a paying investment, not a mere expenditure; and to cheat the Crœsus-like junk-man out of his expected heritage.

Due to the time it takes to print and publish a book the reader will realize that there may be new things created which could not be included herein.

E. R. P.