THE LABOUR-SAVING HOUSE

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

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NOVELS

THE HAT SHOP

MRS. BARNET-ROBES

A MRS. JONES

PLATE I

A FINE OLD RAEBURN MANTEL-PIECE AND FIRE-PLACE FITTED WITH A MODERN "DOG" GRATE AND GAS FIRE AND ALSO WITH GAS "CANDLE" STANDARDS

THE LABOUR-SAVING HOUSE

BY MRS. C. S. PEEL

LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD

NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXVIII

The greatest Labour-Saving apparatus which we possess is the Brain: it has not been worn out by too much use.

SECOND EDITION

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THE ANCHOR PRESS LTD. TIPTREE ESSEX

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Some portion of this book appeared in the form of articles in The Queen and The Evening Standard. My thanks are due to the Editors of those papers for permission to republish them.

Dorothy C. Peel.

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

In almost every English house at least a third of each day is wasted in doing work which in no way adds to the comfort of its inmates.

CHAPTER I

What this Chapter is About

Why Labour-Saving Houses are Needed

THE LABOUR-SAVING HOUSE

CHAPTER I

Why Labour-Saving Houses are Needed

Why do we need Labour-Saving Houses?

Because:

1.—Life is too short and time too valuable to waste in doing work which is unnecessary and which adds little or nothing to our comfort.

2.—There is a scarcity of labour. Girls of the class from which domestic servants were drawn formerly now dislike service. The would-be employer finds it difficult to obtain servants and to keep them when obtained.

3.—Unless great changes are made in our houses and households it will become even more difficult to obtain servants, because so many professions are now open to young women that they are in a position to choose how they will earn a living.

4.—When servants are not obtainable, the mistress is driven to turn to and do the work of her own house. That is why a demand for labour-saving mechanism is making itself felt.

5.—Owing to modern inventions, it is now possible to achieve a house in which a family may be housed and fed in comfort at half the cost of labour which is absorbed in the labour-making house.

6.—It is pleasanter to spend money on the things one likes than to squander it on unnecessary coals and kitchenmaids.

House-keeping. Home-making.

What do these words mean?

They mean so much that is vital to the individual and to the nation that one could weep for the stupidity which permits any untrained and ill-educated girl to become a nurse, a cook, a housemaid, a mother, and the mistress of a home!

CHAPTER II

What this Chapter is About

The Ignorant Employer—The Incompetent Servant—Wanted! a New Race of Mistresses—Domestic Training for all Girls—Its Value to the Nation—"Menial" Work—The Surplus of Governesses, Secretaries, and Companions, and the Scarcity of Servants—Genteel Professions—What the Servant Dislikes—How to Popularise Domestic Service.

CHAPTER II

The Servant Problem and some Solutions of it

I

"Servants? We haven't a single-handed cook or a house-parlourmaid on our books, madam."

This, in many cases, is the reply of the registry office to-day, and as time goes on the shortage of domestic workers will become more and more acute. Of highly-paid upper servants, with under-servants to wait upon them, there is no lack, for the supply of persons wishing to fill the few "plum" posts in any profession is always adequate; but as there is a lack of under-servants, even the very rich find it difficult to secure a satisfactory household; while the mistress who needs a house-parlourmaid, a single-handed cook, a "general," or even a single-handed house- or parlourmaid finds it almost impossible to induce a suitable girl to accept her situation.

Why should this be?

"The war," says every one. "All the young women are busy conducting tramcars, selling bacon, and punching railway tickets."

But why are all the young women anxious to be anything but domestic servants?

As a matter of fact this dislike to service has not been brought about by the war; it has been growing steadily for many years, and to a great extent employers have only themselves to thank for a state of affairs which they so bitterly deplore.

PLATE II

THE DAVIS "ADAM" GAS FIRE IN AN ADAM STYLE MANTEL

The Ignorant Employer.

What sane person would undertake the management of a business knowing nothing of the conduct of it? Yet this is what young women of the moneyed classes have done ever since it became the fashion to despise domesticity, to imagine that housekeeping was a pursuit fit only for women too stupid to do anything else. The girl marries: to her, cookery and household work are deep, dark mysteries. How do you clean silver? How long does it take to turn out a bedroom? Do you allow 2 lbs. or 12 lbs. of margarine per week for a household of six persons? What is dripping? The cook says soup cannot be made without soup meat. Can't it? And what is soup meat? Imagine the annoyance of working under the control of such an employer!

Honest, competent servants become disheartened, the incompetent remain incompetent, while the ignorance of the mistress makes the temptation to be dishonest well-nigh irresistible. It is the ignorance of the mistress also that has enabled the perquisite and commission system (polite names for theft) to flourish, and which make it possible for tradesmen to employ men at low wages on the tacit understanding that a high wage may be gained by fleecing the customer.

PLATE III

AN "ADAM" DESIGN GAS DOG GRATE PLACED IN A FINE OLD FIRE-PLACE IN A LARGE HALL

Note also the attractive gas candle brackets. (Richmond)

No Chance for the Incompetent Servant.

Again, had the servant-employers of this country a proper knowledge of their duties, the incompetent servant would have little chance to exist. She would have been taught her work, and if she would not do it, have been dismissed.

But nine times out of ten the mistress does not know how to teach, and is so dependent on her servants that she must keep anyone rather than be left servantless.

The result of our genteel dislike of "menial" duties has not only encouraged dishonesty and incompetence in our servants, it has actually lessened the supply. The mistress who has never cleaned a room or cooked a dinner cannot realise the difficulties of either task. Hence it is that because domestic work generally has been done by paid servants, we have made but little effort to plan and furnish our houses in a labour-saving fashion. We have also failed to move with the times, and to realise that no matter if we approve or disapprove, young girls now demand more variety and more freedom in their lives than was formerly the case.

Wanted! a New Race of Mistresses.

A race of competent, sympathetic mistresses might have made domestic service one of the most sought-after of the professions open to the average woman. They might have eliminated practically all the hard and dirty work of the house, they might have organised regular hours for exercise and recreation, and by their own example shown what war is now teaching us—the incalculable value to the nation of the good housekeeper. In their scorn of domestic duties Englishwomen have forgotten that the sole duty of the housewife is not to know the price of mutton: it is her duty, and that of those who work with her, to bring up a race of decently behaved, clean, well-fed people, and to make of her home a place of peace and goodwill, a centre from which radiates a right influence.

Is this the work for the woman too stupid for aught else? or is it the work of a true patriot?

It is often said that the English govern their Government, and there is truth in the statement. The Press keeps its finger on the public pulse: when that shows signs of excitement, the Press acts, and between them, Public and Press set Parliament moving.

Domestic Training for all Girls.

Possibly, in time, the serious lack of domestic labour will excite the Public and the Press to such a pitch that the Government will realise that every girl, no matter of what class, should be taught how to cook and to clean and to wash, tend and feed a young child, and not only be taught how to do these things, but impressed with the idea that in so doing she is as surely performing her duty to her country as are the soldier, sailor, doctor, scientist, or merchant.

But the fact that you teach girls these things will not cause them to become servants, you object.

I am by no means sure that you are right. When all girls have been through a course of domestic training, and when they have been impressed with the national importance of such work, they will regard it from a point of view different from that which now obtains.

The girl who becomes the employer will know what she is asking of her employée; she will realise that to labour indoors from 6.30 or 7 to 10 or 10.30 five days a week is not attractive to a young girl. The work may not be continuous: there will be half-hours of rest and talk with the other maids; but the fact remains that the servant is on duty and liable to be called upon at any time during those hours.

The mistress, who has been a worker, will also realise how hard and disagreeable are some of the tasks required of the servant in a labour-making home.

On the other hand, the servant will know that she cannot take advantage of the ignorance of her employer and that her employer is not demanding of her work which she herself regards as derogatory. The maid, too, will start knowing her work: she will not have to pick it up as best she can, often from persons knowing little more than herself. The life of many young servants is made almost unendurable because they have to struggle along as best they may, scolded by mistress and upper-servant alike for not knowing what they have had no opportunity to learn. A child in a fairly well-to-do working home, whose mother has been a servant, goes out to service with some knowledge of her work, but as a rule the conditions in cottages and town workers' dwellings are so utterly different from those in the homes of the well-to-do that the young girl can scarcely be blamed when she breaks and spoils and makes more dust and muddle than she clears away.

Domestic Training will improve the Physique of the Coming Generation.

A three or four months' course of intelligent domestic training would do much, not only to solve the servant problem, but to improve the physique of the coming generation, for it is sheer ignorance of domesticity which accounts for a high percentage of the infant mortality which is a disgrace to this country. And this ignorance of the importance of cleanliness, sanitation, etc., is not confined to the poorer classes. Fashions filter downwards, and when the educated women of the upper classes show that they consider household work beneath their attention, why should they think it strange when they find the same opinion expressed by the working-girl?

Ignorance of the national value of "menial work" is one reason for the unpopularity of domestic service.

This attitude is not confined to the uneducated—only to the unthinking.

PLATE IV

THIS ILLUSTRATION SHOWS HOW MODERN COAL GRATES IN BEDROOMS CAN BE FITTED WITH GAS FIRES WITHOUT MAKING STRUCTURAL ALTERATIONS.

This type of gas fire can be fitted in almost any shape or size of coal grates; its initial cost, as well as cost of fitting, is extremely low. (Fletcher Russell)

II

Menial Work.

The wide dislike of menial work which exists was brought before me vividly a short time ago.

A secretary was advertised for, an educated, quick, methodical worker—good typist and shorthandist. The lady who needed the secretary almost required one to deal with the letters she received in reply to her advertisement.[1]

A holiday nursery governess was advertised for: again with the same result. Women with every qualification were anxious—desperately anxious—to obtain the post. These educated women sent stamped envelopes for a reply and offered to come long distances to secure an interview.

A cook at £30 a year (single-handed) was advertised for over and over again. Registry offices were haunted, friends worried, for tidings of cooks. No cooks were forthcoming. Here was a situation where the two maids had a roomy comfortable bedroom and their own bathroom, a sitting-room with a gas fire and every labour-saving apparatus to make the work easy.

These servants were offered not less than 10s. a week wages, as much good food as they could eat, clean, sanitary quarters, with comfortable beds and hot baths galore. Their washing was paid, an off-day, from 3.30 to 10, once a week, and the same on alternate Sundays, and two weeks' holiday (on full pay) granted, in addition to as many other outings as could be arranged.

Had suitable applicants appeared and demanded £30 or £34 a year, they would have obtained those wages.

PLATE V

A LONDON DINING-ROOM SHOWING DRAWING-ROOM BEYOND

This picture shows how a gas fire may be fixed in an antique grate without disturbing the old fire-place. When alight the effect is of red-hot coke.

Too many Governesses, Secretaries, and Companions in Normal Times.

And yet there is a glut of women who wish to become governesses, secretaries, companions, and shop-assistants, in spite of the fact that such work is not well paid, that it is uncertain, and that those girls who must take lodgings or "live in" are generally badly housed and badly fed. Except in a few shops, girls living "in" live very roughly. Nurses in the generality of nursing-homes do the same, and women workers who earn under 30s. a week and live in a bed-sitting-room in a lodging-house are in no better case, though the latter do have the luxury of a room to themselves. In many houses, however, this luxury could be granted to the servants.

The life of a servant in a good situation is healthy; she can enjoy cleanliness, good food, and warmth, she can take her pick of situations, and leave one which is undesirable, knowing full well that she can obtain another for the asking. A girl earning good wages in service can save, and she is not dogged by the terror of being suddenly thrown out of employment and finding herself penniless and unable to obtain another post.

So much for the advantages of domestic service as a profession. What are its drawbacks?

Lack of freedom and the fact that the profession of a servant is not considered genteel! The girl who adopts it does not rank as a "young lady."

Service is not a Genteel Profession!

Is it not time that we ceased to cherish such vulgar ideas?

War, tragic and terrible, is bringing home to us the fact that we should honour the women who can and will work, and despise those who exist merely as parasites on the labour of their fellow-beings.

The educated woman who desires to earn her living has a great chance before her. Let her do for the domestic worker what an earlier generation of women did for the sick-nurse. As domestic workers, educated women will be of incalculable value to the nation, and they can secure for themselves well-paid, healthy work under reformed conditions.

Domestic Training Colleges.

To bring about this change, first of all we need to establish domestic training colleges, run on somewhat the same lines as the Norland Nurses' Institute, where girls of good education may learn their work and obtain certificates and character sheets. These institutions should provide accommodation for members on holiday or when changing their situations. They should also demand for their members a fixed scale of wages, a reasonable standard of food and accommodation, and free time. The workers should wear the uniform of the institution. Well-trained girls could demand high wages, and employers could afford to give them to conscientious, capable workers, who would neither break nor spoil nor waste, and who would disdain to practise the small dishonesties by which the servant often augments her wages.

But if the educated woman worker is ready to do her part in the scheme, her prospective employer must realise that she, too, has a duty to perform. It rests with her so to arrange the work of her household that the positions she has to offer shall appear desirable to the class of woman she desires to employ.

What the Servant Dislikes.

To sum up the situation, the scarcity of domestic servants is accounted for by the dislike of girls who have to earn a living for a life which entails long hours, little freedom, and which carries with it something of social stigma.

The shop-girl, the clerk, the tea-room waitress are "young ladies."

They are known as Miss Jones or Miss Smith. The servant is a servant, a "slavey," a "skivvy," a "Mary Jane." A young man of the superior working class prefers to walk out with a young lady, and the servant knows this and resents it. Even if a girl goes into a factory, she may work harder than the servant and in many cases under less pleasant conditions, but she is free in the evening, on Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday, and she lives amongst her equals. She does not inhabit "servants' bedrooms," and eat "kitchen butter," and drink "kitchen tea." The tea that she does drink may be inferior, but at all events it is as good as that consumed by other members of her world.

And all these things matter, though the average employer likes to believe that they do not.

To Popularise Domestic Service.

So to make domestic service popular we must make it fashionable. It should be as fashionable to be a domestic servant as to become a hospital nurse.

Alter the conditions of domestic service until the profession of domestic worker attracts the educated woman, and the problem is solved.

"Go into Service! Not I!"

That is what young girls say.

"I don't know what to do, I cannot get servants."

That is what the employer says.

What is she doing to make domestic service an attractive profession to the young girl?

III

Study the psychology of the question, find out what it is young women want of life. Be progressive. Do not say, "Because it was, it ever shall be." Thank God, things do not stay as they were, or we might still be working little children eighteen hours a day in factories, starving and whipping lunatics, and burning witches.

Having realised that it is the human attitude which is of first importance, then let us go on to see by what means we can lighten the work of our households so that we may make service attractive.

We can solve the domestic problem—

1.—By becoming entirely, or partly, our own servants.

2.—By employing outside workers, who should be trained, uniformed, and paid at a fixed rate per hour.

3.—By changing the conditions until domestic service becomes as attractive to the worker as any other profession open to the woman of average ability and education.

Other changes can be made: indeed, it is certain that sooner or later they must be made unless we are to go servantless. When the necessary alteration of mental attitude towards the subject is achieved, the next thing to be done is to call to our aid all the labour-saving devices which are available, for it is by making full use of them that we can eliminate the hard and disagreeable work from houses and make the profession of a domestic worker attractive to an educated woman.

In the industrial world it is now realised that to obtain the best results the worker must be saved all unnecessary fatigue, and that the mental atmosphere in which he works must be as free from strain and anxiety as possible, for it is found that the labour of an over-tired worker becomes practically worthless.

It is time we applied modern methods to the working of our households, in which they are needed as much as in the office or the factory.

"They build these 'ouses," said Ann, "as though girls wasn't 'uman beings....

"It's 'ouses like this wears girls out."

KIPPS.

CHAPTER III

What this Chapter is About

The House that Jack builds without the help of Jane—A Hot and Cold Water Service—What happens when you do away with Coal—How to Save a Third of your Household Work—Light and Air—Kitchens and Offices—Service-rooms—Furniture and Decoration—Bathrooms and Washing-rooms—Some Labour-Saving Details.

CHAPTER III

The Labour-Saving House as it Might be

I

The other day I was re-reading that delightful story of a simple soul, Kipps, and was struck anew by the truth of the difficulties which beset Artie and Ann when they went house-hunting.

"'They build these 'ouses,' said Ann, 'as though girls wasn't 'uman beings.... There's kitchen stairs to go up, Artie.... Some poor girl's got to go up and down, up and down, and be tired out, jest because they haven't the sense to leave enough space to give their steps a proper rise; and no water upstairs anywhere—every drop got to be carried! It's 'ouses like this wear girls out.

"'It's 'aving 'ouses built by men, I believe, makes all the work and trouble....'

"The Kipps, you see, thought they were looking for a reasonably simple little contemporary house, but indeed they were looking either for dreamland or 1975 A.D., or thereabouts, and it hadn't come."

The House that Jack Built.

I am inclined to agree with Ann in thinking that having houses built by men makes at least a great part of all the work and trouble, for my own experiences—somewhat limited, I admit—of architects point to the fact that they are concerned to provide you with a house which looks charming and which may be stoutly built, but that such details as the make of the bath, the size of the service lift, the position of the kitchen range, and the arrangements for cupboards, housemaid's pantries, and so forth, concern them not at all.

When rebuilding a house for ourselves it was left to me to suggest a service lift, and I was only by a happy chance in time to prevent it being of such an absurd size that no good-sized joint on a dish to correspond, or a coal scuttle, could have been put into it!

I also had to point out that to arrange for all the hot-water pipes to pass through the larder seemed scarcely advisable, and that a box-room in which all the boxes were to be stacked one upon the other was not quite as labour-saving as one fitted with strong, cheap slatted shelves on which the boxes could stand in tiers and be removed one at a time as required with ease and dispatch.

Men, as a general rule, do not have to keep house, neither do they have to do housework, thus it is not surprising that such details as these escape their notice.

PLATE VI

THE "BROWNIE" IS THE IDEAL COOKER.

For use where space is limited, or where the requirements of the family are small. The oven is fitted with one grid and one browning shelf.

PLATE VIa

THE "WALDICK" COOKER

Combines a cooker, gas fire, and water boiler. All parts of the stove are under separate control. Where hot water is available by other means the "Waldick" can be supplied without the side boiler. The gas fire in the oven door is always supplied with this cooker, as shown above. This stove is specially designed for use in flats, and other places where there is limited space. (Wilson)

Women Architects.

For that reason every architect, if he be a man, should number a clever, resourceful, and experienced woman amongst his staff. Or why should not the architect be a woman?

Before discoursing of the labour-saving house as it might be, it is well to state that I am well aware that one man's meat is another man's poison, also that, owing to the fact that gas and electricity are not always available in the country, the labour-saving house must, more often than not, be in a town or a suburb. Still, much may be done with the country house, even the small country house, and after all we move quickly nowadays, and soon it may be possible to obtain gas and electric current everywhere.

PLATE VII

A DINING-ROOM WITH A GAS FIRE AND GAS "CANDLE" BRACKETS

A Hot and Cold Water Service.

Another point which strikes me when coming to consider my labour-saving house is this. Why do not the Water Companies supply us with a Hot Water Service on much the same terms as they now supply us with a Cold Water Service?

Let us try and realise what this would mean to the householder. His home would be fitted with radiators and warmed by hot water. He would turn the radiators on and off as he needed them. He would turn a tap and hot water would be at his command at any hour, day and night, for baths, washing-up, and cooking. He would turn another tap and cold water would gush forth.

Imagine the economy of such an arrangement! Instead of millions of stoves heating water, there would be a few large furnaces doing the work. Imagine, too, the difference in the atmosphere when you eliminate coal from all dwelling-houses. The house is heated and provided with hot and cold water on every floor, in every room if you like, with no more trouble to yourself than turning a tap and paying the bill. When you do not have to cook water in addition to food you need far less fuel, and for this purpose electricity or gas are at your disposal. If you feel lonely when sitting in a room warmed by a radiator, you may have a small wood fire, and this, I admit, labour-saving faddist that I am, I should desire in one or two sitting-rooms.

When by turning a tap or a switch, water, gas, and electricity become our servants, we shall have done much to solve the Servant Problem.

PLATE VIII

A WELL-KNOWN LONDON DRAWING-ROOM SHOWING A GAS-HEATED "LOG FIRE"

II

But in the ideal labour-saving house (ideal, mark you, from a labour-saving point of view), there are no fires, no chimneys, no grates, no coal-devouring, dirt-making range, always requiring coal and yet more coal and returning you evil for good in the shape of soot and dirt.

Have you ever watched a sweep at work? Have you ever cleaned the flues of a coal range?

In our dream-house we have no such horrors. We save the cost of chimneys, sweeps, grates, fenders, fireirons, coal-boxes. We need not provide coal cellars, in which a cold, cross, sleepy girl must grovel in the early morn before the house can be warmed and the breakfast cooked.

Make a mental picture of all the heavy coal-boxes which are dragged up steep stairs in this country of ours.

Ann was right when she said, "It's 'ouses like this wears girls out."

PLATE IX

A GAS FIRE IN THE ENTRANCE HALL OF A SMALL TOWN HOUSE

Save a Third of the Work in the House.

Eliminate coal and you save quite a third of the work in your home. Think this out and you will see that it is so. Coal must be delivered. In a town it is shot through a hole into the basement cellar or cellars. This causes a cloud of black dirt, and the front of your house suffers. Then coal must be shovelled up into scuttles; often it is necessary to break up the large lumps. The scuttles are then carried about the house, coals up, ashes down; grates are cleaned and the room is powdered with dust in the process. Grates, fenders, fireirons, and coal-boxes must be cleaned, and fashion ordains that they are generally made, wholly or partly, of polished metal. The weather is cold and a servant is rung for and more coal is demanded. One day the wind blows and the fire will not light. It takes some fifteen minutes of bellows-blowing and two bundles of wood to set it going, and then the wind blows harder and it smokes! Alas for the poor housemaid! The kitchen fire won't draw and the water is not hot. The sweep must be sent for, and all the while the air is being fouled from the smoke from our own chimneys, and when we open our windows the coal we burn returns to us in the shape of smuts and grime.

Oh, the washing bill, the cleaner's bill! The bill for labour which might be saved!

So in our ideal home we do away with all this pother, and wash and warm ourselves by means of hot water which comes from the main and the supply of which we regulate by turning taps. We light our house and cook our food by means of electricity or gas, which we also regulate by turning switches or taps. Thus we obtain heat and artificial light.

When Labour was cheap and plentiful, the Labour-Making House caused but little inconvenience except to those who had to do the work, and their point of view was seldom considered.

Now that Labour is scarce and dear, the matter assumes a different complexion.

III

But our house must be well supplied with natural light, for without light and air we cannot live.

Away, then, with basements. There must be ample space between the rows of houses so that every room may be light, that the sun may penetrate into it, and therefore the windows must be large.

Kitchens and Offices.

These, too, must be light and airy. The kitchen should not be used as a sitting-room; it is the place in which food is prepared, and should be a place which can be kept exquisitely clean. It should have tiled walls and ceiling, a cemented floor on a slight slant with a gutter, so that it may be washed down with a hose. The larder and pantry should be arranged in a like fashion. The larder must be cool, well ventilated, and the food stored in it protected from dust and dirt. In our ideal home, both cook and mistress know something of the work of dust and flies as disease carriers.

In this kitchen the cooker is placed in a good light and is mounted at a convenient height. Only the cook knows the fatigue occasioned by stooping to lift heavy weights out of low-set ovens, the worry of cooking in a bad light.

The sink, too, shall be set at a reasonable height. There shall not be a scullery—why should there be a scullery? It is merely one more place to clean.

Then we will not condemn any girl or woman to stand for hours washing up. The electrically worked washing-up machine does such work well and quickly, and our pots and pans when electricity or even gas is used do not become black and sooty on the outside.

In the ideal kitchen we will have as few utensils as possible, and these shall have their proper keeping places.

A Service-room.

In addition to kitchen and larder we will have a "service-room," fitted with cupboards for linen, blankets, pillows, etc., for boxes, for china and glass. Here flowers may be done, clothes brushed, and half a hundred domestic jobs performed. Here there may be a hot-airing cupboard, a place in which to wash and iron.

Tiled walls and ceiling, varnished wood, linoleum-covered floor, tables covered with American cloth nailed tight or faced with zinc are quickly and easily cleaned.

In addition there must be a maids' sitting-room, light, bright, sparsely but comfortably furnished, with linoleum-covered floor and small, light rugs which may be shaken easily.

And in a convenient place, so that it may be fed from kitchen and pantry, there must be the service lift.

Here we have such domestic premises as are suitable in a house where three or more servants will be employed.

The large household will need a housekeeper's room, a sitting-room for the housemaids, a dining-hall, but in this book such households cannot be considered. On the other hand, the one or two-servant house or flat may be differently planned. Here pantry, sitting-room, and service-room might be combined, and this suggestion is dealt with in another chapter; while in the no-servant home, or that in which some of the work is done by the visiting domestic worker, a sitting-room is not needed, and kitchen and pantry may be combined. A small service-room, however, I would not omit in a house where there are spare bedding, china, linen, boxes, and so forth to be stowed away; and a house in which there is no place to do odd jobs cannot be an ideal home.

PLATE X

A CHARMING TWO-LIGHT GAS CANDLE BRACKET IN WROUGHT IRON (EVERED)

Furniture and Decoration.

The furnishing and decoration of a house must be left to individual taste: one person revels in colouring which would make another ill, but when we consider the matter from a labour-saving point of view, we should forbid painted woodwork. Natural wood should be used and mouldings forbidden. Who does not know the lines of dirt which form on the mouldings in which the builder delights? The wainscots, the window-frames, the doors, all are trimmed with mouldings. Fitted carpets, or, indeed, any heavy carpets, should be taboo. Parquet floors are delightful, but in most places linoleum must be the floor covering because it keeps out draughts, is easily kept clean, and is comparatively cheap.

Furniture which cannot be moved without difficulty or swept under is objectionable: double beds are tiring for one person to make, and washhandstands can be omitted if there are a suitable number of washing-rooms. These are preferable, I think, to fitted washstands in the bedrooms. In the average house three washing-rooms would be required, one for husband and wife, one for the children, and one for the servants. When spare rooms are required each bedroom and dressing-room should have its washing-room.

You may say that so many bathrooms absorb much space and cost so much more.

PLATE XI

A MODERN INDIRECT GAS LIGHTING "BOWL" PENDANT. (EVERED)

A Clever Idea for a Bedroom and Dressing-room Bath.

This idea has been carried out in a small country house known to me.

Here the spare bedroom and dressing-room are 16 feet wide. Where the dividing wall would come a fitted washstand has been arranged in either room, back to back. The washstands jut out 1 foot 8 inches into either room, and are 3 feet long, leaving, if you draw a straight line to either side wall, and allowing for a partition wall, a space 3 feet 8 inches wide and 10 feet long. This space is enclosed on either side by sliding doors, fitted with bolts, and inside it a porcelain enamel bath is fitted. There is a ventilating window at the outer wall, and that piece of wall is tiled as is the floor.

A large-sized bath measures some 30 inches across the widest end, and is 6 feet long. A small bath measures some 28 inches by 5 feet, so if the rooms were small and a small bath chosen a lesser space would be necessary for the bathroom, and part of the length might be used for wardrobe cupboards.

In this house the water and the radiators are heated by a coke furnace, the house is lighted by acetylene gas, and the cooking is done by coal, and the cooker is so arranged that it heats servants' hall as well as kitchen.

In a labour-saving house all rooms should be under rather than over furnished, and free of heavy, stuffy draperies. There should be a gas ring or electric heater in each room or on each floor, so that in the case of illness food can be prepared. Hot water there will always be, day and night.

What are the domestic tasks which women most dislike?

Getting coals out of the coal cellar.

Cleaning grates and flues.

Carrying heavy trays, cans, and coal-boxes up and down stairs.

Cleaning doorsteps.

Doing washstand work.

Then why continue to perform them?

PLATE XII

A THREE-LIGHT GAS FITTING, WITH INVERTED BURNERS AND SHADES SUCH AS ENSURE A PLEASING LIGHT

The switch systems, now readily adaptable to gas lighting, enable the burners to be lighted and extinguished by the mere pressing of a button. (Evered)

IV

Of polished metal there should be a minimum, and glass rather than silver should be chosen for table use. Stainless steel knives take the place of those which need cleaning. The meals should be simplified as much as possible. Earthenware casseroles in which the food is cooked and served save washing up. Rotary brushes by which boot and other cleaning may be carried out are worked by electricity. Linoleum with rubber treads is substituted for stair carpets whenever possible, in order to save carpet beating and the cost of stair-rods. The use of a suction cleaner, Bissel carpet sweeper, long-handled scrubbing brushes and mops, telephone bells, an electric "not at home" indicator on the front door, a polished dining-table, glass tops to sideboard, side, and dressing-tables will all reduce the labour bill. It is also important that each person in the house should refrain from making unnecessary work for the others, for to tidy up after an untidy person absorbs far more time than is often realised.

But, alas! such a home as I have described is not within the reach of many people. Like the Kipps, we are looking for Dreamland or 1975, and it has not come. Still, there are people who build houses and there are more people who rebuild houses, and large numbers who do up houses, and if one cannot do all one would like, it is generally possible to achieve some of one's ambitions.

It is not the work but the spirit in which it is done that degrades.

PLATE XIII

COMPOSITE GAS COOKER (3 INDEPENDENT OVENS AND HOT PLATE). SUITABLE FOR A LARGE HOUSEHOLD WHERE THE AMOUNT OF COOKING VARIES VERY MUCH

CHAPTER IV

What this Chapter is About

The Basement House—Good Neighbourhoods and Dying Neighbourhoods—A Typical Labour-Making House—A Labour-Making House Converted—Another Suggestion for a Labour-Saving House—Fitting and Furnishing.

CHAPTER IV

The Labour-Saving House as it can be

I

It was an Irishman who advised, "If ye can't be aisy, be as aisy as ye can," and his advice was good.

Thus, if you cannot have an ideal house, have a home which is as nearly ideal as possible, so let us consider the house as we generally find it, and see what can be done to improve it.

Most houses built prior to the last ten years seem to have been planned with the express desire of providing an unnecessary amount of hard work for the unfortunate persons who inhabit them. Fifty years ago labour was cheap and plentiful, and ideas as to hygiene stranger even than many which still obtain. Now, however, we do know that fresh air and light are as necessary to our well-being as sound food. This fact is shown in an interesting fashion in Mrs. Pember Reeves' admirable book, "Round About a Pound a Week," in which she speaks eloquently of the way in which "basement families" deteriorate in health, although the children may have more food than those who live in higher, airier quarters.

Basement Houses.

Ignorance of the value of light and air, cheap labour and dear land were no doubt the causes of basement houses, and to this day, although labour is dear and the cost of feeding and keeping each servant has increased, it is no uncommon thing for a housekeeper to remark, "I have to keep an extra servant because of the basement," and perhaps another maid is employed because of the coals and stairs.

Where the income is ample, the extra labour bill is of little importance (speaking from the employer's point of view), but householders of moderate and small means are rapidly discovering that labour-making houses are not for them; that it is an economy to pay, if needs be, a rather higher rent and to live in a healthy, light, airy house, so planned that all unnecessary toil is abolished, and with it the cost of much cleaning material, chimney-sweeping, whitewashing, etc.

In many cases, landlords have found it impossible to let their gloomy, inconvenient dwellings to tenants of the desired kind, and what was a "good neighbourhood" has sunk by degrees until the houses are inhabited by members of that unfortunate class who are forced to take any rooms they can obtain, and only too often pay a high price for bad accommodation. I am not in a position to advise on the management of house property, but I cannot but think that in many cases it would pay the owners to modernise the houses they have to let rather than let them deteriorate.