Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-02-10
LIVING IN A BIG CITY.
LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING; WHAT 1T
MEANS AND HOW 1T Is DONE.

1t Is Not Bad for Young Married Folks
Would BE Good for Baehelors-Also for
Persuaded to Try It
Light housekeeping has become almost
scandalous term, because of its abuse here
and elsewhere; but, nevertheless, there is
great deal of such housekeeping in New
York that is eminently respectable, Some
times the partne are man and wife; some
times they are bachelors, and sometimes,
though more rarely perhaps, young women
engaged, as the census says, in ''gainful &C.
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 he of the fifteen cents 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 a 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; 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
ners is saved in rent, fuel and wages. Tn
furnished apartments of two or three rooms
in respectable parts of the city may be
rented at from S to SIS 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 trifle, and really poor folk, that are
willing 10 put up with such an apology for
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 coy and attractive, and the posi-
bility of such a 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 light stage,
though when once a maid servant becomes
necessity, II Is cheaper TO have al meals
prepared at bone. Few Young men. how
ever, are content to forego the glitter and
hum Ct the cheerful restaurant, with It's
motley company and varied bills of fare.
Better and more wholesome dinners could
be prepared at home for less than half the
money, bat the charm of contact with the
world il 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 10 find it difficult TO keep
house together Perhaps they are less
adaptable than men, or perhaps the strain
of constant contact, from which men nav
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 "all the comforts
of home" are within their reach if onlv
they choose to form housekeeping part
nership. The Greariness 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
Tor is rented to a physician, so that there is
ceive visitors.
All the ugliness of human life shows it
self at such places, yet women of delicate
sensibilities endure it, because they fancy
that they could not undertake the task of
housekeeping with other women. Il don't
know any girl with whom I'd dare try such
an experiment." said an art student, when
this idea was suggested to her Another
woman, who had established little home
of her own, confessed that she was very
well pleased that friend living in like
manner as herself had not taken apart
merts in the same house For the 81. Sc
or S. week that each of four women paws
for the discomforts of boarding house all
could have q coy little home in common.
But in this whole city there are probably
only a few score such homes
Some charitable women in BROOKLYN dis
covered that nearly a dozen shop girls were
lodging in one moderate sized room, where
they prepared their break lasts in the morn
ing and sat at night unless the streets
proved more attractive. Such women earn
from y To s. a week
PROTECTED WORK.
They must present IL decent outward ar,-
pearance: but it has been discovered that
in the case of the poorest the one visible
garment IS almost the only scrap OF cloth
ing they possess. For the most nart. these
girls have almost go skill a. needIewomen
and little knowledge OF the housekeeping
art. They simply manage TO exist, and
that by constant hard work and rigid, if