Smyrna times. [volume] (Smyrna, Del.) 1854-1987, 1883-10-17
The Future Of the Housewife.

This seems to be time for big con-
ceptions whatever may be the practical
results, and there are still greater |
laurels to be won by those who believe
everything possible. Our elderly citi- |
Zens remember the day when the log |
fire that burnt your face while your |
back was freezing was the only mode |
OF house warming, and the tallow dip
was the only illumination of the dwell
ing. Now FIRE in the cellar warns
the whole house and every dwelling in
town can be lighted from one recepta-
Gle. But it is not to stop here. One
of our citizens recently made the
prophecy that our children, and not
generation hence, would not only get
their light from the same depository
with II flash, but that our dwellings
would likewise be warmed from the
same wood pile" iiguratively, by heat
generated in some way and conveyed
in pipes. And now comes another
project growing out of the difficulty
caused by the scarcity of cooks and
house maids. Under the head of
Wholesale Cooking and Heating" the
Philadelphia Times thus states it:
That the civilized world will for
ever remain subject to Bridgets in the
kitchen and heaters in the cellar is
thing no hopeful man can believe.
Nor is it at all certain that Chinese
cooks and open CRATES are ever to meet
the demand for homes that are real
homes. Bridgets have been accepted
as a necessity because the custom has
been for every house to have a kitchen,
with range in it and sink and piles
of ashes and all the dust and smell and
smoke incidental to the business of
domestic cooking. But confessedly, all
the refnements and atmOspheres con-
sidered, a Bridget in the house is not a
wcll-spring of pleasure. And no man
would voluntarily stand up in front of
a great black thing called heater
while that monster blew its hot, dusty
and dry breath into his lungs and eyes.
: What is to be done?
. Organize wholesale cooking and
heating bureaus and get your homes
heated and your meals cooked in clean
l er, less expensive and less bothersOme
. ways. To give this suggestion definite
2 shape suppose, for instance. the owners
and residents of some block of house:
g should unite and erect neat little
|
. at the rear of their houses and set {
4 steam boiler in it of sufficient size t.
;, generate steam enough to heat ever,
8 room in the entire block of buildings o.
;, authorize some cooking refOrmer to dc
S so; and over the fire used to general,
s the steam let there be some arrange
IA ment of range for cooking enough
/, food for all the occupants of the house
+ to eat. Let there be chief cook o
s caterer and two or three other first
l. class cooks, as the exigencies might de
II mand. Let covered steam-pipes b
II run from the steam house to an,
70 through all the houses in the block
= connecting with neat registers in al
r the rooms in the ordinary way of heat
q ing by steam. And sell your heater
2. for old iron.
It But how about the meals and tn
If serving of them? Any one of o hal
y dozen business arrangements might b
lie made between the housekeepers O
s house Occupiers and the caterer. An
70 if nothing more convenient suggeste
N itself closed and heated car might b
ID run on tracks from the steam house [
Of each dining room, 50 that meals migl
Us be served piping hot as from ones oW
IN kitchen, or hotter. That in the cours
ie of years this, or something like i
" would be a much more economic,
ne arrangement than those of the dome
S tic Bridget and heater is most reasons
er BILE to suppose. And the infinite bot
lis Grafton and dirt it would save and pr
as vent are beyond all calculation. The
ey would be no shoveling or shooting
en- coal over our pavements or into OF
IS, houses, no piles of ashes accumulatir
IL in the cellar or in ash barrels. II
es OdOrs of the frying-pan and the atmo
m phere of the Bridgets would go up
he smoke from the steam house and
as man the madden or wiser. In wor
mt one end of the millennium would ha,
no come. But any persons that still war
&c ed open CRATES as relics of the pa
Ter might have their reverence INDUCED
all Could anything be more captivatil
ia than the picture here drawn? Let o
On housekeepers who are discouraged
nae the scarcity of "help' look up and fc
ward to the realization of these glittt
co. ing projects.