New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-02-08
TINE UOTSEEEFPING PROBLEM.

TIE HOUSEKEEPING PROBLEM.
The word-as mankind is occasionally if
not oiener, rcmindcd-has advanced far and
in numbcrcSS directions during the last half
century. Evidently and nevertheless in some
respects il has been comparatively stationary
Tako ono OF the most necessary and important
of vocatiCns the useful and fine art OF house
keeping for example. There is 10 reason to
believe that our foremohcrs did not manage
their respective households with as little ex-
pcnditure OF nervous energy and as smoothly
and successfully as their descendants Of to-day
manage theirs. Life was indeed a less com
plex thing fifty years ago than it is to-day
Society was not so highly organized; the de-
mands Of fashion were fewer and less elaborate ;
the craze for blic-a- biac and household dccora-
ton had hardly begun. il follows, therefore,
that il must be more difficult to keep house now
than it was then. Still il must not be forgotten
that the houSckeepcr Of the present has at her
disposal sundry labor saving contrivances. such
rs electric bells and telephones of which the
forcmoihcrS were destitute. But when all
proyer allowances are made to both generations
the fact doubtless remains that the burden Of
housekeeping has grown with the years. Did
our foremothcrs have to wreste with the ser
yant-girl problem? Hardly. lIired help came
cheaper in the old days, and, what is of more
account, so far as the peace of mind of the
mistress of the house is concerned. they came
with less decided ideas of what should and
should rot he required of them. Very like
" most of them engaged 70 do what i known
rs general hou<cworl'; or, at all events OK
pccted 70 perform whatever domestic duties
y H..
a typical cook, for example, clearly apprehendS
the limitation OF her function, and docs NOT
hesitate 10 demonstrate if she receives an order
from her mistress which, according 10 her the
DRY of the propricties as applied to these that
live out, ought to have been given 10 the
waitress We wonder what one Of the fore
mothers would have thought if she had been
frankly. If not oycr-rcspcctfully. informed by
her cook, alt isn't my place nam, to make
the salad dressing you must ask the other girl.
And yet a Boston bride was the recipient of
such an adm0niton NOT long ago from her girl
below stairs.
What is the solution of the household prob
lem? Wha; notifications Of existing arrange
ments for living must be made III order that
thr machinery OF home, sweet home, may be
run with less cost and with less expenditure of
thc nervous tissues to the miStrcss-not to speak
Of the man of the house? The only specific
answer which is ever made to such questions
i, cooperation. \ year ago the author oi
Looking Backwards wrote a paper in which
he claimed that corporation was IN adequate
remedy for the existing ills of the housckeepcr
Il is clear that number of cooperative export
mcntS have justified the best expectations In
an article recently contributed to "Thc House
wifc's Guide" Mary \. Livcrmorc grouped to-
ycthcr some encouraging facts. The cooper
ative laundry which was started in Chicago
thirty years ago by some fifty women was .
success. "Thc work was well done, both the
expense and labor being reduced One-haIf.'
Another sGch laundry, established in more Ie-
cent years, which handled the washing Of
twcnty-Sevcn families also gave great salts
faction. " 1t reduced the expenses Of washing
and ironing ono-third to the families inter
eStcd and took out Of their houses all the labor
care and confusion incidental to the disagree
able work" The cooperative dining clubs
which Miss Livcunorc mentioned accomplished
similar substantial reforms One of them in
Ohio furnished a good meal for 0 cents another
in Iowa for cents; while a cooperative
dining club Of families at Ann ArbOr Mich,
who had ample means, but wished to rid then
houses of cooks, waste and disorder, were fed
mxurOusly at an expense to each member OF
from 80 80 to 80 - a week." Within a month
two of these cooperative housekeeping aSso-
Citations. one in this State and another some
where in the Northwest have been heard from
and both were fIouiShing.
Nevertheless, so far as we are aware, none OF
these experimentS-Savc on a very limited scale
have ever been tried in Newlork although
il is generally admitted that housekeeping here
is a more wcarsome, pcrpleXing and costly
thing than il is anywhere else on the continent.
What is the explanation? 1t is found, we
should say. in the fact that the typical New
Yorker is 50 little acquainted with those about
him that such conception aS cooperation
never enters his head. In no city in the world
is there less of what might be called neighbour
hood feeling than in this metropolis Not ono
man in a hundred it is safe to say. knows even
by sight all his fellows residing on the block
where he has his home. So long rs this state
.of things exists cooperative housekeeping Is
practically impossible hereabouts since if the
scheme is 10 succeed those who cooperate must
he neiChborS. people who know and have some
confidence in one another. The conditions are