The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-22
COOPERATIVE HOUSEKEEPING.
From the Chicago Tribune.

COOPERATIVE HOUSEKEEPING.
Fror, the Chicago Tribune.
One of our most experienced Chicago
builders, who is already in receipt of a con-
siderable rent-roll from the erection Of good
class of residences for rental, is considering
the expediency of erecting a block adapted
especially to joint system of providing aud
cooking the meals for all the tenants of the
block, though without any of the risks or en-
barrassments of the communists, joint-stock,
or even cooperative plans. Each residence
or tenement will contain only those apart
ments i'll which the families actually live
their parlors, sitting, dining, and sleep
ing rocms--without kitchen, Laundry,
kitchen closets, or store-rooms. Each family
will dispense with cook and laundress,
avoiding the board and wages of SER
wants altogether. or of all but such M
may be needed for the care of children. The
kitchen and laundry business of the entire
block will be done at one commodiouS kitchen
and laundry, located in the centre of t1e
block. and with which all the dwellings com
municate by bells and signals. While such a
mode of constructing the buildings would
facilitate the joint stock or cooperative plan
of running the kitchen and laundry yet it is
not believed that in many cases this would be
desirable. 1t is expected that the kitchen
and laundry will be rented, separately from
the dwellings, 10 one or two persons, who
would find profitable business of furnishing
all the tenants with theiz meals, washing, aud
ironing, at rates lower than they could pro-
vide them themselves Each tenant would
buy in advance one or two hundred tickets or
checks, representing the prices of the various
articles or services to be furnished He
would be at full liberty, though
at somewhat greater Inconvenience,
TO get them elsewhere if they we're not fur
r,isl Jnt T,ir and Of, ,,nol cnaIitu nd
style at the common cuisine. Each tenant
would be as independent Of the others as the
guests at a hotel, while all would enjoy the
advantages of proficient cooking and expert
laundry work at a diminutlon in expenses
somewhat as follows: Suppose there are fifty
dwellings in the proposed block, the rent of
which, by dispensing with kitchen, laundry,
and servants rooms, is reduced from $1,000 to
$3.50 each. Here is a total saving in rent of
$500. Suppose the fifty families to average
q reduction of three servants to every two
families, or thirty three servants for the en-
tire block
Wages OF 80 servants at 90 90 per week, for one
year. S60O6
Board OF the same at 50 per week. $3.50
Waste OF 30 kucbens, y.................... 2O00
Saving in rent as above. 1890
TOTAL .6zl,OSO
If, therefore, it would cost $24, 900 for the
leT6 Ttut ldtOiJ dul WdBoS VI tu6 C6uIrhl
cuisine and laundry, in doing the work of
fifty families the families would save no.
thing, except by getting rid of the care of
servants and the trouble of housekeeping.
But it is believed that one competent mana
ger, whose services could be procured for
$4,000 year, would make the labor of ten
servants in the cuisine accomplish more than
that of the thirty three in private famllles,
and that $1,000 would be q large rent for the
lounIru itsa1f II en- ha Of
the cuisine and laundry would be somewhat
as follows
Wages OF master OF cuiSine Observation-Disclosures. 5000
Wages OF ten servants, cuisine. ............ 1920
Board OF ten servants, cuisine 26OO
Total tal...............,.-... ..... gS420
This would leave saving of actual cost in
the single items of rent and labor of S15, 666,
or, in named terms, two-thirds of the present
cost of obtaining the same service This
cost should naturally divide itself equitably
between the md5tre de cuisine and his fifty
| customers in the form of reduced prices and
| better fare. But a more important means of
| economy would be in the purchase of food
| and provisions at wholesale prices and by fair
weight and measure, instead of at the high
profits charged, and false weights and mea-
| sures given to those who keep house by buy
! ing in small quantities and of the retailers.
! Indeed, it is doubtful whether an establish
ment sllilfully run would not save as much in
the cost of food and provisions as in that of
rent and labor Should any such results be
obtained, the plan would seem to combine
the advantages of hotel life with those OF
private residence. Freedom from at least
one half the cares of housekeeping would give
the women of such families greater leisure
for society and the culture of their children
and other duties, while the general reduction
of expenses, if practicable, would be wei
come boon to men of business.
LAW OF MARRIAGE IN PENNSYLVANIA
From the Pittsbt,yg Commercial
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