Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-12-13
COOPERATIVE LIVING.
HOUSEKEEPING ON THE coMeINA-
TON PRINCIPLE.

Plan Work with Kitchens Com parison.
OF Retail aud Wholesale Prices.
The first suggestion OF cooperative house
keeping rs a solution for many domestic difh.
culties was made nearly twenty years ago by
New England woman, Mrs Melusina Fay
Pierce, who published a series Of articles under
that title In The Atlantic Monthly, IN 1853,
and afterward collected them into a volume
Mrs Pierce has, in her little book, some
sharp things TO say 90 women. The wrongs
and oppression OF women. of which 80
much Is heard In these later days, are, in
large measure, due TO the very fact OF her
having failed 10 keep step with the tendency
OF modern civilization. She has learned no
lessons OF organization as 20 her labor or
methods OF spending the money which the
man earns Tor the support Of the family.
BUYING IN LARGE LOTS.
Here Is an illustrative case: A family OF
three grown women and four children In
Brooklyn earned s16 a week. Their food
cost them 81 a week, or ~ cents day, and
consisted OF three daily meals, OF which two
were composed entirely Of tea, without milk
or sugar, and bread without butter. The
third was OF potatoes, meat and pie At one
Of the cheap restaurants, the owner under
took 20 feed five longshoremen for $l.62 a
day, and gave them for breakfast two cups
OF coffee with milk aud sugar apiece, bread
and butter, potatoes and two eggs each.
Dinner consisted OF roast beef, soup with
vegetables and barley, potatoes, bread and
pudding. Supper was OF steak, potatoes,
onions, bread and butter and tea. This was
using the most expensive kinds of meat,
roast and steak being far more costly than
meats for boiling and stewing, providing for
the appetites of laboring men, and taking
into calculation the restaurateur's profit on
his business, the cost of rent, coal, service
and general plant; yet it is not-all this
double what it costs TO feed in the meanest
way three women and four children. The
difference is, 10 n great extent, in the advan-
tage TO be had by the purchase Of food in
quantity, for the tenement house poor, hav-
ing no place TO store their purchases, buy in
infinitesimal quantities What this differ
ence Is In the mere matter Of purchase Of the
food the following figures, collected from the
retail shops in the tenement districts, will
show when compared with Wholesale price
lists:
Tea-which is quoted at fair and medium
qualities, the same grade that the retail deal
ers sell at fifteen and eighteen cents a pound
In quantities-sells to the tenement house
purchasers at three cents an ounce, the guam
tity in which they usually buy it, making it
forty-eight cents a pound. Butter for which
they pay two and a half cents an ounce can
be bought by the quantity at prices varying
from ten 10 eighteen cents pound. Sugar
for which they pay ten and eleven cents is To
be had at wholesale for seven and eight. Soap
retailing at five cents a bar can be had by the
box at about three. Starch by the box is
four cents pound, and at retail eight cents
Oil is thirteen cents the gallon at retail, and
from eight TO nine by the barrel Molasses
is sixty cents gallon wholesale, and eighty
20 ninety retail Flour by the barrel is from
three TO three and a half cents pound, and
at retail is five. Lard is, in bulk, nine cents;
at retail, thirteen. Rice is nine cents when
bought by the pound, six when purchased by
the barrel. Coffee Is thirty cents a pound
when bought by the ounce, and from seven
teen 10 twenty-ona for the same grade in
sacks. Turuips are 81 barrel and IS cents
bushel.
WHAT MIGHT BE DONE
The question OF price Is, however, but one
half OF the extravaganza Of individual house.
keeping. A knowledge OF the best food to
buy, and the most nutritious and economical
method OF preparing it, is far more impor-
tant than the money originally spent For
example. IL is most uncommon 10 find among
the poorer classes in this city any conception
Of the values Of soups as a cheap and pal
atable food-any idea Of the superior saving
IN boiled meat over roast OF fried meat Dat
and corn meal will almost entirely take the
place OF meat, are cheap and easy 10 cook
agreeable, wholesome and the most sustaining
VI all cereal food The Scotch and the me-,
groes do tue hardest OF manual labor upon
very little else than these two varieties OF
meal, and are for the most part stalwart and
healthy people. Rice Is another one OF the
cereals upon which hard working life can be
sustained at the lowest cost, and is also scarce
ly known among the poor Of this city. al
though the Chinese. whom the bitter con,ue-
tition OF over population has taught the last
possible food economies have known its alma
for centuries.
As has bsen shown, washing can he done
comparatively 10 the best advantage; and
while cooking and marketing would be mora
al flcult IN arrnt,,,, -. ,.factC-;I,. - -.
go. ,r,,,tI 80. -, -, - - 20
- ~ ~ ''"o.o "4'u 'uo nat
-, = ~ ~ 'ie" uii'4ei
,'i,t.l' " ~ |" might NOT
ac,i T., -. one eA peri
~ -. ,et,-L.e.,-- u .uo io"es' possi'
o'o vs. ni'sut niaAo the estimates, and the