Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-08
A BOON FOR WOMEN
Would a Dishwashing Machine be, if
it Could be Made to Work.
SOLUTION OF THE HELP PROBLEM.
How HOusekeepers Might Succeed in Secur-
ing Good Servants, and
KEEPING THEM WHEN THEY'RE FOUND
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH. !


housekeeper's hard lot than the newly in
vented dishwashing machine, if it should
prove to be a success. Mrs. Helen NJ.
Cougar, the noted temperance speaker,
states that she saw it in operation at large
hotel in Decatur, and testifies that il
washed and dried the dishes used for 100
guests, and that ali this was done in 20
minutes, without wetting the hands The
dishes come out perfectly cleaned and
polished better than can be done by the
deftest workers and incest tea towels. These
machines are to be adapted to the uses of
either large families or small ones, as the
sisters will be rejoiced to hear.
1t is hard to see how such a machine can
be made to work, but in these days it would
seem as if miracles were becoming the COM
mon order of things. The sewing machine
was marvel in its day, and would have
proved the greatest blessing to overworked
women if they could have been satisfied
with the plain sewing as of yore; but no,
they went to ruff1ing, and tucking, and
braiding, and embroidering, and shirring in
a way that leaves but little more leisure
than when only hand sewing was in vogue.
If it were not for all this supreme passion
for trimming, every woman might find much
more enjoyment in life and have time to
read the newspapers, and thus make herself
a more intelligent being.
NOT A DIFFICULT WAY.
It is told of Lucretia Mott-the famous
Quaker and leader among women-that
when wonder was expressed as to how she
found time for reading and writing and
rxr-ifh lar0 fa 1v
extension of hospitality, she replied that it
was easy enough-she simply made her
children's clothes without trimmings. This
is a practical hint to some of the poor
mothers who wear themselves out over the
sewing machine in order to have frills.
But this dishwashing machine, if it prove
practically success, will be blessed boon
in housekeeping, where dishes to wash three
times day is one of the most tiresome and
detestable of duties. The grandmothers,
with their few cooking utensils and scarcity
of Wedgewood, or Royal Worcester, or even
plain white ware, had an easier time than
their descendants of to-day. who use more
dishes to serve meal for two people than
can be washed and dried properly in an hour.
Every year more dishes are added to what
was formerly deemed necessary. In old
times people went to the table and ate their
and a knife and fork and perhaps dessert
plate. Now there are enough glasses, in
d1yiGual buffers, oatmeal bowls, bone
dishes, dessert saucers, relays of course dishes
and different sets of knives and forks and
spoons and dessert plates and after dinner
coffees to keep up the dishwashing racket
tor two or three mortal hours. Men often
say in the disparagement of the women of
to-day that they have nothing like the grit
and "get-up" in them that their grand
mothers had, but if the good old girls of
that elder day could have seen the piles of
dishes displayed now to be washed after
each meal, they would have shrunk back
appalled,.
ONE OF TINES CHANGES.
If we remember correctly. the first china
ware was brought to England in Queen
Elizabeth's day, and her few pieces brought
from China were treasured like Mrs. Nor
gan's peach-blow vase, or Millet's
"Angelus," or Mrs. Mackay's Sapphire"
A hundred years ago the first families of
Pittsburg had only few pewter plates and
Dishes with perhaps a few wooden bowls
and battered pewter spoons-helped out by
those made Of horn. In those primitive
days OF Arcadian simplicity, it is plain that
the grandmothers knew nothing of the
drudgery of washing dishes, as carried on
to-day. Moreover, they were absolutely
ignorant of the modern style of having seven
sets of glasses for the serving of wine-as
even ordinary families have to-day. They
took their liquid refreshment of whisky out
of bottle called "Black Betty" and had
no bother with either glasses or decanters or
punch bowls.
What would do most to simplify house
keeping would be for some inventive
genius like Edison to get up concentrated
food that could be taken without any dishes
at all. To do away with the cooking of
three meals day over hot stove, and like
wise the marketing and preparation for
them, would be much more of a labor
saving invention than even dish-washing
machine that will do up the dishes Of a
family in two minutes. Men in the armies
of the world can be kept in splendid condi-
tion with the sausages invented BY a Ger
man chemist; with hardtack and water or
coffee in canteen. So why should not some
genius succeed in concentrating food that
will answer every purpose of nourishment
with the least possible labor and trouble?
A horse gets all be needs for health and
strength out Of peck of oats and bundle
of hay: so why should we not hope that
some enthusiastic chemist may some day
discover what will
BEST SUSTAIN MANKIND
without the martyrdom of the kitchen
range. or the disagreeableness of dishwash-
ing, which of late years has grown to such
enormous and extravagant proportions, that
the average housekeeperis bothered and bur-
dened beyond words to tell.
However, let us be thankful that woman
has used her brains for the purpose of get
ting rid of this onerous business. Life will
be sweeter for every housekeeper for such
weakening of the tyranny of the
"domestics," who now think nothing of
chipping and nicking the finest china, who
seem to find delight in breaking the handles
from the cups, and fracturing the most
treasured and precious of glasses and dishes.
The trouble about this luxuriousness of
living, as to all this nicely and elegance of
table service, is that the housekeeper of
average means who can only keep one girl,
perhaps, struggles to have her table and
napery, and china and silver, as elegant,
and the food served with as much style as
one who has a cook in the kitchen, butler
in the pantry, and waiter in the dining
room, and thus makes her own life a regu-
lar grind, especially when the help goes on
a rampage and puts on her duds and
'flights out" No one but she who has
been there knows how the waves of trouble
roll in that kitchen where piles of dishes are
to be washed in the loveliest part of the
evening, when all of the neighbors are