The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-07-20 00:00:00

A HINT TO HOUSEHOLDERS.

The Tts.ex, is a leader, makes the following suggestive
remai ha in connection with the Increasing price of coal ;anS
as the subject Is becomin; one of monetary Importance to
every household, the loot threwn out may possibly lead t,i
greater economy—and tu radar comfort
The currents of supp.y are changing, and, so long as • .
it is Coal at all, COIL. ',ere are becoming lees fastidious.
Moreover, what used to be reserved for domestic
now goes to the furn..ce. Now, then, is the warning
that was to come, and the time to economize. It
may be doubted whether really will be found MO -
patriotic or such lovers of the human raoe as to do
with lets warmth or lees cookery thetneelvea in
order that there may he more for their descend,
ants in the year A.D. 2000. Tne reason for economy
is one that recpcirea no argument or appeal to the higher
feelings. We can most of us afford to spend just so
much in fuel, and no more. Whether it was five pounds,
or ten, or thirty, or a hundred, that we spent in Coal
last year, it was as much as we could then afford, and,
in meat instances, expenses increase in a quicker ratio
than incomes. What, then, are we to do? If Coal is 345.
a ton now, it may easily be 40s. next Chrixtrnaa. In
this climate, and under our present circumstances,
Coal is as necessary as bread, and the rise of 100 per
cent. in Coal ix at least as great a calamity an that rise
in bread. But t a matter will not Come before the
great majority of us in any social, or political, or specu-
lative light. Moat people will simply have to warm
themselves and cook their food with half the quantity
of coals, paying as much for that reduced quantity
as they did last year for twice as much.

But it is. the British householder--the most stupid,
improvident, and unenterprising of beings—that is the
great offender, aod will now have to mend his ways.
He allows himself to he the victim, first of his conk,
then of the ironmonger, and, it must be added, of his
architect nod his builder. All are in a conspiracy to •
make his kitchen the torrid zone of his house, his
bedroom floors the arctlo circle, and the eitting-
rooms sometimes one, sometimes the other, as may be.
There is no such apparatue in the whole world for
the rapid consumption of fuel as that which comes, ci
a matter of course, from a respectable, well-recom-
mended ironmonger into the kitchen of an establish-
ment where, after all, a tam of Coal is a ton of Coal,
and a perceptible item in the household expenses. tot
into your kitchen at ten o'clock in the forenoon, go in
at three in the afternoon, go in at ten at night, and
there is a furnace which you can hardly approach.
Before this dreadful apparatus, which cost £3O or
tiff, has been op a twelvemonth, you are informed
that the plate is cracked, or the front bars affable
burnt away, or the boiler buret, or the feed-pip-
broken, or some other damage done, necesaitating
a general stoppage and an invasion of blacksmiths
sometimes, too, of masons. You cannot wonder, for
the wonder is how metal or fire-brick can stand what
you have seen and felt to be white heat, and that main-
tained fifteen or sixteen hours a day. Yet, perhaps, 11
single joint is the largest feat of cookery you really re-
(vire, and you are well awate this can be accomplished
with a fire no larger than that in your own %Italy. When
the tire will roast, or bake, it will Ides ljil, and it
cannot be necessary to be always ready Ti roast an
ox because you may sometimes want a of tea or
a jug of hot water. Our forefathers- certain- -•
got on very comfortably and kept good houses witho•d•
burning mountains of Coal, and the kitchen "range "
itself into the bargain every ten years. The cook, f
course, herself has a charmed existence, and may very
naturally wish to have the kitchen always to herae.f,
but with Coal at £1 a ton even the confiding, cook-no
den British householder may begin to dispute the mono-
poly, and ask that the kitchen may be kept at a more
temperate climate, and yet be available when wanted,
for roasting and boiling. It may be too much
to anticipate that the mental improvement of the re-
formed hritish householder will keep pace with the
great consumption of Coal so as to check it, but it
he wishes to save himself froin his full share of the
apprehended Coal famine, he had better put, at
leant, his kitchen in order. It is a plain matter of
calculation, for there is nothins scientlfic people talk
so exactly about as the production of heat. Of course,
architects ought to able to advise, though certainly the
professional and trading cuatoms of the day preeent a
few obstacles to simplicity and economy. Somehow,
hiesviariebif:d,
=ay
rfinfdftrisctzd_ihicliiihe,chuttitteetreobf,...,k..eree,phsuisp4chriaimnl
u4ibodu.i.nrmdks. into
t.
ion
is wanted. The pniblem hi—sufficient warmth for
cooking and for comfort, with the least pois.ilala (ka-
li-L=okm oi Coal.