Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-03-13
LIVING IN A BIG CITY.
LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING; WHAT 1T
MEANS AND HOW IT is DONE.

It Is Not Bad for Young Married Folks.
Would Be Good for Bachelors-Also for
Groups of Girls. if Only They Could Be
Persuaded to Try It.
Light housekeeping has become almost a
scandalous term, because of its abuse here
and elsewhere; but, nevertheless, there is a
great deal of such housekeeping in New
York that is eminently respectable. Some
times the partners are man and wife; some
times they are bachelors, and sometimes,
though more rarely perhaps, young women
engaged, as the census says, in "gainful oc-
equations" -dressmaking, shop tending,
literary work, or what not. Most families
of this sort breakfast at home and dine at
restaurants Nobody believes, of course,
that dining at restaurants is any cheaper
than dining at home.
In fact, it is vastly dearer, unless the res
taurants be of the fifteen cents a meal va
riety. But light housekeeping dispenses
with maid servant, hospitality and good
deal of rent 1t is peculiarly well adapted
to those families of two, in which both hus-
band and wife help to earn living AS
the wife is out all day, she cannot attend to
household duties of very eXacting char
acter, and as economy is the object the
family cannot employ maid servant.
CHEAP LIVING.
So two rooms, or at furthest three, are
rented instead of four, five or six; a gas
stove is used only for an hour in the morn
ing; the ''house" is heated by steam, shared
in common with other tenants, and thus
what is lost in the cost of restaurant din
uers is saved in rent, fuel and wages. I'm
furnished apartments of two or three rooms
l. e H.,
rented at from IS to $25 a month.
If ayoung couple chooses to occupy apart
ments in one of the great sanitary tene
ments put up for the respectable poor, the
rent will fall considerably below the smaller
of these figures. The cost of breakfast is
mere trife, and really poor folk, that are
willing to put up with such an apology for
a home, may live almost as cheaply in the
heart of New York as in the country. A
clever woman can make even such quarters
AS these cozy and attractive, and the posi-
bility of such mode of life has FASTENED
many a marriage.
Bachelors living in this fashion manage
very comfortably, though, of course, at
greater expense, because few men are con
tent to get their own breakfasts and attend
to their own apartments. The homeless
habit prevents most bachelor housekeeping
from going beyond the Eight" stage,
though when once maid servant becomes
necessity, it is cheaper to have all meals
prepared at home. Few young men, how
ever, are content to forego the glitter and
hum of the cheerful restaurant, with its
motley company and varied bills of fare.
Better and more wholesome dinners could
be prepared at home for less than half the
money, but the charm of contact with the
world is lost, and there is always the danger
that the absence of one partner may leave
the other to dine alone
WHY WOMEN DON'T CLUB.
Women seem to find it difficult to keep
house together. Perhaps they are less
adaptable than men, or perhaps the strain
of constant contact, from which men may
escape by going out into the world, makes
friction inevitable At any rate, there are
thousands of women living lonely lives in
boarding houses when call the comforts
of a home'' are within their reach if only
they choose to form housekeeping part
uership The dreariness of boarding house
life for women is thing that men would
not endure In some of the poorer but
still respectable boarding houses the par
ior is rented to physician, SO that there is
no common room where dodgers may re
| :eive visitors
All the uglness of human life shows it
self at such places, yet women of delicate
| ,ensibilities endure it, because they fancy
that they could not undertake the task of
| housekeeping with other women. 81 don't
| know any girl with whom I'd dare try such
| IN experiment." said an art student, when
| this idea was suggested to her. Another
| woman. who had established a little home
If her own, confessed that she was very
veil pleased that friend living in like
manner as herself had not taken apart
! nents in the same house. For the s., Sc
n IS week that each of four women pays
for the discomforts of a boarding house all
ould have cozy little home in common
| But in this whole city there are probably
,nly few score such homes
| Some charitable women in Brooklyn dis
| covered that nearly a. dozen shop girls were
odging in one moderate sized room, where
hey prepared their breakfasts in the morn
ng and sat at night unless the streets
proved more attractive. Such women earn
rom s. to IL a week.
PROTECTED WORK.
They must present decent outward ap-
,earance; but it has been discovered that
n the case of the poorest the one visible
garment is almost the only scrap OF cloth
ng they possess For the most part, these
iris have almost no skill as needlewomen
md little knowledge of the housekeeping
,rt They simply manage to exist, and
that by constant hard work and rigid, if
not always intelligent, economy. 1t is a
cherished plan of the Young Women S
Christian Association of Brooklyn to build
/ large lodging house, where these women
may live and carry on species OF hight
housekeeping The price of lodging will
De placed within the reach Of the poorest
girls, but each will pay something for the
comforts she receives. AT the same time
the associations classes in needlework and
general domestic economy will give the
girls an opportunity to learn the arts neces-
,;lry to the maintaining of home. 1t is
said that already the instruction impaired
IN the classes of this association has pro
noted many marriages. Light housekeep
ing for single women ought also to be pro
motive of matrimony.
Light housekeeping in New York as
sumes many curious forms. The city is Sc
large that there is room for al indulgence
of all sorts of tastes. There are families
that never meet except at dinner. There
are others that are together only at break
fast. There are probably very few, rich o.
poor, that take three meals per day to
getner One anxious woman is the en-
thusastic advocate of cooking in common
or, more broadly, cooperative housekeep
ing. All sorts of ingenious devices hav'
been invented for promoting this idea.-
New York Star.
:, A "Punk:n Head"
:. toll 70. !,